Everest: The Unfinished Adventure First Edition - Hugh Ruttledge - Bauman Rare Books

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Everest: The Unfinished Adventure

Hugh RUTTLEDGE

Item#: 112779 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Everest: The Unfinished Adventure

Everest: The Unfinished Adventure

"THE PECULIARLY BRITISH PASTIME OF ENDURING A NUMBER OF REVERSES PREPARATORY TO ACHIEVEMENT": RUTTLEDGE'S 1936 EVEREST EXPEDITION

RUTTLEDGE, Hugh. Everest: The Unfinished Adventure. [London]: Hodder and Stoughton, (1937). Large octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Ruttledge’s account of the 1936 Mt. Everest expedition, with two large folding maps, frontispiece portraits of the expedition members, and over 60 black-and-white photographs.

The 1936 expedition, carried out by the Royal Geographical Society, was the fifth to Everest and the second under Ruttledge's leadership. Plagued by an early monsoon and other weather problems, the expedition nevertheless reached 28,100 feet, only 1000 feet from the peak. Ruttledge describes the trek, making precise observations of the weather, geography, and fauna as well as reflections on equipment, food, and the prospects for successfully ascending Everest. Neate 677. Ink gift inscription from the year of publication.

Book fine, dust jacket with a touch of soiling and creasing along edges, tiny hole near foot of spine, exceptionally good. A very nice copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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