London: Fielding and Walker. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Undated, c. 1776. 4" x 6.25", pp. xvi,163, with engraved title page. Contemporary calf boards with new spine in six compartments. Boards scuffed, internally clean and sound. Part travelogue, part response to Samuel Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), this anonymous work is structured as a series of letters never intended for publication—a common trope that allowed the author to use a more personal and colloquial style than convention dictated for a travel narrative. A pose of amateurism also made it more acceptable for a woman writer to venture into print with what was actually a work of skilled observation (indeed, she admits to having traveled with "pencil in hand" and "noticed several things worthy of being made public, which more laborious travelers ... had neglected, or overlooked") as well as a pointed critique of Johnson, whom she found to be pedantic and judgmental. The book was long credited to novelist Mary Ann Hanway, but recent scholarship has cast doubt on the attribution. ESTC T80850. (Item #14675)

New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1898. First American Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 480 pp, with illustrations from photographs by the author, index, folding map of Korea and neighboring countries. One small stain to front board, else a fine copy in original cloth. One of the most celebrated and wide-ranging of all women travel writers, Isabella Bird Bishop (1831-1904) was the first woman to address a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society and one of the first 15 women elected to fellowship in that august institution. "In January 1894 she left England for Korea. She explored the Han River and crossed the Diamond mountains to the east coast of the peninsula. After a visit to Chinese Manchuria she went up the Yangtze, through Szechwan, to the Tibetan border, spending fifteen months and travelling 8000 miles in China alone" (DNB). This book recounts first part of this remarkable journey and includes much detail on Koran culture and customs and the role of women in Korean society. (Item #14667)

London: Cecil Palmer, 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 179 pp + publisher's ads, illustrations from photographs, glossary of Pidgin-English terms as used in New Guinea. Original red cloth boards lightly soiled, internals clean and sound. No dust jacket. Doris Regina Booth (1895-1970) traveled with her husband from Australia to Papua New Guinea to mine gold. After they obtained a lease in Bulolo, her husband went off prospecting, leaving her alone to manage their claim. While there, she also organized and managed a racially segregated bush hospital to control a dysentery epidemic, treating over 32 patients at one time and more than 130 all told, for which she was much loved by the local people. This book recounts her experiences, with many interesting details about both mining and nursing. (Item #14672)

New York: R. Worthington, 1881. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. pp xiii, 281 + publisher's ads, with illustrations from sketches by Beerbohm. Cloth frayed at corners and spine ends, minor pen markings on 4 preliminary pages; else clean and sound. By her own account, Dixie (1857-1905) had tired of "the shallow artificiality of modern existence" and traveled to Patagonia "precisely because it was an outlandish place and so far away" from her home in England. Much of the trip was spent hunting wild game, and Robinson (p. 65) comments that "one needs a strong stomach" to read this book, as well as another Lady Florence wrote about her adventures hunting in South Africa. Later in life, however, she regretted all the killing and wrote two pamphlets, The Horrors of Sport (1891) and The Mercilessness of Sport (1901), in which she denounced hunting as inhumane and advocated for the adoption of amusements that did not lead to bloodshed. Czech p. 33-40. (Item #14662)

London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1877. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. pp. xxv, 732, copiously illustrated with full-page plates and illustrations in the text from Edwards' own drawings, two colored folding maps (Egypt, Lower Nubia). In the publisher's original red cloth decorated with Egyptian motifs in red and black; all edges gilt. Recently rebacked (original spine retained); binding sound, contents clean and bright. Edwards (1831-1892) already had a successful career as a novelist when she traveled to Egypt for the first time in 1873 and discovered her lifelong passion. She and her traveling companion, Lucy Renshawe, hired a boat in Cairo and "sailed to Wadi Halfa, accompanying friends met on the crossing from Italy. While at Abu Simbel the party discovered, excavated, and described in detail a previously unknown small temple with a painted chamber. [The two women] also visited Syria, crossed the Lebanese ranges to Damascus and Baalbek, and traveled on to Constantinople" (DNB). On her return to England, Edwards read extensively about ancient Egypt and studied hieroglyphics before writing this book, based on her experiences and the detailed notes and measurements she made on the journey. It was the first general archaeological survey of Egypt's ruins and earned Edwards the admiration of the leading archaeologists of the day, as well as praise from the popular press for "its ‘brilliant descriptions of scenery and the exactness of its information' and as 'a delightful, gossiping book'" (DNB). A recognized classic of travel literature, it has been reprinted many times, but is quite scarce in the first edition. This volume is accompanied by handwritten note dated Dec. 31, 1878 from Edwards to "My dear Miss [May] Crommelin" (1850-1930), at the time a young and aspiring author who would eventually publish more than 40 travel narratives and novels. "Pray be quite sure that I have never forgotten you, & that I always take a very sincere interest in you & your literary progress. You greatly overrate the very small use I was so fortunate as to be of in the matter--& that you should still remember it, is to me the most astonishing experience of my life. Ever most sincerely yours, Amelia B. Edwards." The "most astonishing experience of my life," may refer to her role in the discovery and excavation of the ruins at Abu Simbel. (Item #15150)

London: Methuen, 1907. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. xvi, 424 pp, with 64 illustrations from photographs and 2 folding maps. Recently rebound in quarter leather and marbled boards, with new endpapers. Light foxing, a few smudges in the margins, else fine. Hall was the first woman to cross Africa from south to north, which she did by foot, rail, steamer, and rickshaw in the company of her terrier and the native guides she hired along the way.Robinson (p. 15) describes it as "an astonishing journey, which Miss Hall took entirely in her diminutive stride...Her bands of porters became little communities of which she, with her small, rounded figure and thoroughly British bearing, became a local Queen Victoria...Where possible, she would stay at mission stations en route, but never regretted having to camp in a native village if need be; the chief might meet her with suspicious bewilderment, but they would always part with gales of laughter and 'the best of friends.'" In the Preface, Hall herself expresses hope that her book may find an receptive readership notwithstanding the fact that it is "written from a woman's point of view, minus big game romances, and the usual exaggerations incidental to all things African." (Item #14841)

New York: McClure Company, 1908. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 305 pp, with 51 halftone illustrations and a map. Original red cloth, rubbed at the extremities, spine slightly toned. Wallace was the first white woman to cross Labrador, as well as the first person to chart the Naskaupee and George River systems and to describe the region's flora and fauna. She undertook the 576-mile journey to complete the journey started by her husband, who had died of starvation in the attempt. The first part of the book offers a short account of her husband's life and trip; the rest describes her own journey, with notes on the topography, geology, and native populations. Mrs. Leonidas was hailed as a national heroine in Canada upon her return from the wilderness, where she had felt, she declared, "less homeless than I ever felt anywhere." Robinson p. 16-17; Arctic Bib. 4559. (Item #14648)

Philadelphia: Macrae Smith Company, 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 227 pp, beautifully illustrated with block prints by Vogt. Publisher's cloth, spine toned; internals fine. With the original printed slipcase (chipped and rubbed); no dust jacket. Signed by Hulme on the half-title page and additionally inscribed on the front flyleaf: "To Harold Seeger, Godfather of my first strange-shaped brat--with best of wishes always, Kathryn March 3, 1931." Hulme and Vogt drove alone across North Africa, a three-thousand mile journey that took them through Tunisa, Algeria, and Morocco over a four-month period. Hulme warns the reader to expect no classic tales of feminine peril: "Much as we would relish recording an abduction in the desert, or an encounter with brigands in the Atlas Mountains, honesty compels us to forego the pleasure...Nothing happened to us that, by the law of averages, would not have happened to any Occidental touring in a Mohammedean country." But no misadventures are needed to enliven this narrative, for Hulme's rich prose, observant eye, and contagious enthusiasm are a thrill in themselves. (Item #14679)

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1923. First American Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 349 pp, with illustrations from photographs taken on the expedition. Original red cloth; no dust jacket. Mild bump to one corner, a few spots to the top edge, else fine. Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was a successful writer well before the publication of her mother's famous Little House series (on which she had substantial editorial input). "After several years working for the San Francisco Chronicle, in 1920 Lane accepted a Red Cross posting to Europe to report on postwar conditions. She would spend more than five years abroad, living for nearly two years in Albania and traveling to Baghdad, Cairo, and Constantinople with a series of traveling companions or sometimes by herself" (ANB). She fell in love with Albania, coming to consider it a second home. This volume describes an expedition into the northern Albanian mountains she made with two Red Cross workers who hoped to establish a school there. Her vivid descriptions of the customs and beliefs of the Shala tribe they encountered helped make this one of her most successful books. (Item #14663)

New York: From the Press of John Polhemus, Trade Supplied by The American News Company, 1890. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 12mo. viii, 358 pp. Original brown cloth. Moderate wear to boards; internally clean and sound. The daughter of two freethinkers, Lilian Leland was encouraged to read widely as a child, and this led to a deep curiosity and a desire to see the world. Setting out from New York in 1884 at age 25, she traveled alone for more than two years and 60,000 miles. She visited Chile, Hawaii, Japan, China, Java, Ceylon, India, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, and much of Europe.This account was compiled from her private letters, and the style is breezy and informal. A contemporary reviewer noted with approval that "Miss Leland cared nothing about dates, dimensions, or statistics; was not eager to immortalize her name by attempting to add one more to the long list of tedious guide books, but wrote in a delightfully free and off-hand fashion." (Item #14879)

New York: Dodd, Mead, 1911. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. pp xviii, 370, with a folding map and many illustrations from photographs. Original green cloth with decoration in gilt and white. Upper corners bumped, bookplate of noted climber William D. Hackett (1918-1999) on front free endpaper; else fine. Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935) was a founding member of the American Alpine Club and a pioneer on many fronts. An ardent advocate for the equal education of women, she earned a masters degree from the University of Michigan in 1881 and then went on to be the first woman to attend the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. She taught archaeology at Perdue University and Smith College before giving up teaching to pursue her passion for travel and mountaineering. After a successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1895 (during which she scandalized the world by wearing pants), she set her sights on South America. This book recounts periods of residence in La Paz and Lima as well as several notable climbing expeditions, including the first ascent of Huascaran, the highest mountain in Peru (though due to a miscalculation she achieved the north summit, rather than the higher summit). Neate P36; Robinson pp 24-25. (Item #14657)

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine in a good dust jacket. 315 pp, with illustrations from photographs. Fading to cloth at spine ends, else a fine copy in a good dust jacket with chipping to the corners and upper spine. Riddell (c.1885-1960) was a British author of romantic novels set in exotic locales. Here, however, she recounts the story or her own life, which included living in Kenya, Bombay, Calcutta, Bavaria, New York, and England and working as a governess, teacher, matron of a boarding house, and manager of a boarding school. The jacket notes that her life "has been filled with thrilling experiences," from encounters with cobras, panthers, and hostile natives to attacks of cholera and fever (which, in truth, sound less than thrilling). (Item #14677)