Map of the Siberian Railway: The Great Land Route to China and Korea. - Rare Book Insider
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RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR - STANFORD, Edward.

Map of the Siberian Railway: The Great Land Route to China and Korea.

London: Edward Stanford, 1917: 1917
  • $2,674
The 1917 edition of this long-running map, the working copy of Captain Noël Louis St Pierre Bunbury, a member of Major-General Alfred Knox's British Military Mission to Siberia. Bunbury travelled along the Trans-Siberian Railway between April and November 1919, training White Russian officers and soldiers. Important stops along the railway are marked in blue pencil. Appointed by Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, Knox was a logical choice, being fluent in Russian and having served in St Petersburg in diplomatic posts before the First World War. His mission, running parallel to the deployment of British troops, arrived in Omsk in October 1918. Knox was tasked with organizing Russian units to fight the Bolsheviks and strategically advising Admiral Kolchak, who was installed as Supreme Ruler of Russia at Omsk the following month. Bunbury (1890-1971) served in several campaigns in Waziristan, received the DSO in 1937, and earned promotion to brigadier in the Indian Army in 1941. Between 1943 and 1944, he was aide-de-camp to George VI. Colour lithographed map (750 x 1140 mm), laid down in sections on linen as issued, folding away into octavo cloth covers, front board with yellow label lettered in black. Map bright, a little soiling, more so on verso and to boards, spine sunned: a very good example.
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History of Western Philosophy and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day.

First UK edition, third impression, signed by the author on the front free endpaper "Bertrand Russell (Perth. 15/8/50)". Russell was in Australia from June to August 1950, giving a series of public lectures on international affairs. Russell's famously comprehensive philosophical survey, ranging from the Orphism of ancient Greece to the logical positivism of the author's present day, is a triumph of his populist craft and perhaps his most famous book. Russell states in his preface that "there are many histories of philosophy, but none of them, so far as I know, has quite the purpose that I have set myself" (p. 5). His claim to originality was his historical contextualization of the lives and ideas of those who lived decades, centuries, and thousands of years apart, arguing that the course of philosophy is intimately tied to that of wider human civilization. The History was developed from lectures delivered at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia during the Second World War: it was in part conceived to explain to Russell's audience the exact nature of the civilization for which they were fighting. The first impression of the UK edition was published in 1946, following the US edition published in 1945. Blackwell & Ruja A79.2c. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in yellow on brown ground. Cloth a little sunned and spotted, hinges with superficial splits. A very good copy.
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Churchill’s Visit to Norway. Speeches delivered by The Right Honourable Winston S. Churchill in Oslo, May 1948. Together with addresses by Otto Lous Mohr, Jacob S. Worm-Müller, Gunnar Jahn.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. First separate edition, first printing, of the speech Churchill made after his conferment of the degree of doctor of philosophy by the University of Oslo. Churchill's speech reflects on the value of education, comments on the irony of his numerous honorary degrees having never entered higher education, and the changes in the world since his youth. He notes the contribution of Norway to the Allied war effort, and his hope of continued friendship between Norway and Britain. Over 1,000 Norwegians were in attendance, including King Haakon. The hall in which the ceremony took place was used by the Germans as a prison for Norwegian officers. The speech was included in the 1948 collection Europe Unite, but with omissions; Richard Langworth identifies this edition as the definitive text ("Churchill in Oslo, 1948", accessible online on his website). The other addresses (the book is in English throughout) celebrate Churchill and his role in the war: "To us you were and always will remain, not only the spokesman, but the personification, the embodiment of your great nation, of its history and its noble traditions" (Mohr's address). Cohen A243.1. Octavo. Original pictorial wrappers. Slight rubbing and nicking at wrapper extremities, faint soiling to wrappers. A very good copy.
  • $100
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The Three-Body Problem; The Dark Forest; Death’s End.

LIU, Cixin. Signed limited editions of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, each volume number 198 of 250 copies signed by author and translator, also dated by them in the first work, as issued. The first and third instalments were translated by Liu Ken and the second by Joel Martinsen. These are the first British editions of the inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem (2024). Liu Cixin has sold more copies than all other modern Chinese authors of science fiction combined. The Three-Body Problem was the first work in translation to win the Hugo award, and Death's End received the Locus award. The trilogy "is a deeply inventive exercise in world-building, in which a secret Mao-era project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence makes disastrous first contact with a totalitarian government orbiting Alpha Centauri" (SFE). In his postscript written for the English translation, Liu notes he was inspired at the age of seven upon observing the 1970 launch of China's first satellite, known in the West as China 1. The series was published in Chinese in the years 2008 and 2010, following the serialization of The Three-Body Problem in Kehuan shijie (Science Fiction World) in 2006. These limited British editions are slightly preceded by the trade hardbacks published in America by Tor. Three works, octavo. Original blue, dark red, and red boards, spines lettered in silver, gilt, and white. With dust jackets. Decorative title and chapter pages. Negligible bump to spine ends of first work: a fine set in fine, unclipped jackets.
  • $3,343
  • $3,343
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Land of Elephants. Big-Game Hunting in Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda.

First edition in English, first impression, inscribed from one big-game hunter to another on the front free endpaper, "To Mrs H. Lerner, the slayer of Lions, from a Boer - Wm P. Steenkamp Jr. Capetown 14/4/37". A South African MP from 1929, Steenkamp was known as the "Lion of the North-West" for his fiery oratory. Together with her husband, Michael, Lerner (1902-1979) hunted across the globe in the 1930s and 1940s. Friends of Ernest Hemingway, they shared with him an interest not only in big-game but also fishing, and they founded the International Game Fish Association in 1939. According to the association's website, Helen, "this trailblazing angler and marine scientist, made history as the first woman to reel in a bluefin tuna off the European continent, the inaugural angler to catch nine tuna in a single year, and the pioneer in catching a broadbill in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans". Photographs of their 1936-37 Africa safari, including images of Lerner with her lion trophies, are held by the University of Calgary. By the time he died, Willem Petrus Steenkamp (1879-1956) "had been many things: a spell-binding preacher who was invited no less than 58 times to minister elsewhere surely still a record an equally spell-binding political orator; a respected naturalist; a best-selling author; an expert on Arabian horses; twice a political prisoner; a big-game hunter and world traveller; such a foe of Nazism that he was willing to sacrifice his political career to combat it, [and] a fighter for the Afrikaans language who nevertheless spoke, wrote and enjoyed fluent English" ("The Lion"). The author (1898-1967), a Hungarian nobleman, hunted elephant in Kenya in the Kitui Forest and along the course of the Tiva River. "He also hunted bongo near Mt. Kenya, kudu along the northern reaches of Lake Rudolf, leopard on the northern Guaso Nyiro and lion on the Serengeti Plain. Széchenyi wrote other African hunting books which still await translation" (Czech). This account was published in Hungarian in 1934. "The Lion of the North-West", Ancestors Research South Africa, available online. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Half-tone frontispiece after photograph of author, 94 half-tone plates, map in text. Extremities rubbed, spine ends beginning to split, edges foxed, plates clean: a very good copy.
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Effect of Air Power on Military Operations, Western Europe. By General Omar N. Bradley, Military Advisor, United States Strategic Bombing Survey and Air Effects Committee, 12th Army Group.

First edition, first impression, of this confidential analysis published following the German surrender but while the war with Japan was ongoing. "The most important overall conclusion of this report is the firm verification of the interdependence of our land, sea, and air forces. This interdependence is tactical as well as strategic" (p. 191). "At the end of World War II, the US Army brass in Europe sang the praises of airpower. For the first time, airpower influenced the design for major campaigns - and made a difference in the tactical outcomes of battles from Normandy to Remagen, Germany. Lost in dense volumes of after-action analyses was one of the most unusual and compelling reports ever written on airpower. The report, titled "Effect of Air Power on Military Operations: Western Europe," was authored by Army ground officers. No wild declarations about airpower were needed; the detailed results spoke for themselves. Through their careful analysis and attention to both tactical and operational implications, 12th Army Group's soldiers gave airpower a resounding cheer" (Grant). Based in London from October 1943, General Omar Nelson Bradley (1893-1981) co-ordinated the planning for Operation Overlord. On Eisenhower's appointment as head, Bradeley was put in charge of all American ground forces. "Bradley's idea of a night landing in the manner of the Sicily invasion was overruled, but at his insistence, a second American beach was added, and the role of airborne troops was greatly enlarged" (ANB). Rebecca Grant, "Omar Bradley's View of Airpower", Air & Space Forces Magazine, available online. Quarto. Original drab boards, drab cloth backstrip, front cover lettered in blue, front endpaper with colour ground operations maps. With 12 charts, graphs, and plans (1 folding), 8 folding appendix maps (7 colour). Binding toned, spine ends fraying, text and illustrations lightly toned, small area of skinning on one plate leaf: a very good copy indeed.
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The Principles of Fortification, Reduced into Questions and Answers for the Use of the Royal Military Academy, at Woolwich.

Fourth edition, including three plates conceptualizing the trace italienne in a 19th-century context. The author "was highly thought of and was a technical scholar who had great influence over the many young men he taught for a period of nearly thirty-eight years" (ODNB). All editions are uncommon in commerce: in the last two decades, one copy of the fourth and one copy of the second have appeared at auction. Landmann (1741-1826) lectured for many years at the École Royale Militaire in Paris, before his appointment in 1777 as Professor of Fortification and Artillery at the Royal Military Academy: "A letter from the Board of Ordnance to the lieutenant-governor of the academy introduced him as a gentleman who 'has seen a great deal of service, and acted as ADC to Marshal Broglie in the last war'" (ODNB). First published in 1796, Principles went through seven editions, the last (1853) revised by Landmann's son, George. This edition, like its predecessors, is advertised on the title page as containing "many additions", although this is in the main a marketing ploy. Octavo (205 x 123 mm), pp. [iv], 72, [12] (index and explanation of plates). Contemporary calf, recently rebacked with brown leatherette. With 3 folding engraved diagrammatic plates. Contemporary annotation "B71 Morris" on front pastedown. Boards rubbed, contents generally clean, occasional faint staining to plates: a very good copy.