Grand Tour : A Journey in the Tracks of the Age of Aristocracy
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1937. Item #1529 8vo. 220 x 155 mm., [8 ¾ x 6 inches]. 167 pp., with twenty-nine separate leaves containing thirty-seven b&w illustrations. Publishers’ dark red cloth over boards with black lettering on the spine; illustrated endpapers with a seventeenth-century map of Europe; fore-edges deckled; top and bottom edges cut smooth; illustrated unclipped dust jacket. Book is Fine: spine is very slightly skewed but otherwise the book itself is in excellent condition with the text block clean. Jacket is Good: chipping at the top and bottom edges; minor fading, soiling and shelf wear. Overall, a bright copy. First Edition. Richard S. Lambert (1894-1981) was an English biographer, historian and broadcaster who wrote on a wide range of subjects throughout his long career, from children’s novels to studies on propaganda. It was his suggestion to emulate the journeys taken by seventeenth and eighteenth century aristocrats in their grand tours through Europe, alongside a host of notable writers. Not least of which were the early female rights advocate Mona Wilson and celebrated war poet Edmund Blunden. Each writer was tasked with describing a section of the voyage beginning and ending in London with stops throughout France, Switzerland, Germany and the Low Countries. The result is not only a pleasurable travelogue but also a compelling narrative history of the concept of the grand tour itself.
Price: $35.00