SHACKLETON, Ernest H. (1874-1922). South: The Story of Shac...

Royal 8vo. Half-title, color-printed frontispiece, numerous photographic plates, folding map, errata slip tipped on p. 1 (marginal tear at gutter to map, not affecting illustration). (Text slightly browned as usual due to the poor quality paper used, two closed marginal tears on pp. 91-2, repaired with partial British halfpenny stamps). Original dark blue silver-decorated cloth, top edge stained blue (hinges cracked as usual, extremities a bit rubbed); DUST JACKET with Frank Hurley’s photographic image of the Endurance (extensive restoration, spine completely restored in facsimile, large tear with loss to some text on rear panel).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, IN THE RARE DUST JACKET, of Shackleton’s account of his ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The jacket is possibly from an early printing or is an unseen variant as the original jacket seen in Taurus which is tinted in light blue and the text and image of the ice-trapped Endurance is printed in black. The jacket seen here is cream colored with the lettering and image printed in blue and the ads listed on the rear panel date prior to this publication. This is the only dust jacket we have seen in this variant, and with a very limited sample size, this may be the only known example. “The first issue contained cheap paper prone to severe browning, a poorly crafted binding likely to split at the joints with normal usage and silver printing on the binding subject to oxidizing. Only its dustwrapper, sporting Hurley’s superb photograph of the icy Endurance, saved it from complete ignominy” (Taurus). Conrad p.224; Renard 1460; Rosove 308 A1 (dust jacket: “rare”); Spence 1107; Taurus 105.