Travel
[BURTON, Richard Francis]; BURTON, Isabel
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F Burton.
Chapman and Hall, London 1893. First edition. 2 volumes, 8vo., PRESENTATION COPY TO BERNARD QUARITCH, illustrated with numerous plates (some coloured), portraits and maps, original black cloth gilt, recased with original endpapers, spines re-laid.
An important association and presentation copy, with a note to "our mutual old friend Bernard Quaritch" 1893 mounted on front paste-down and a typed letter mounted on endpaper from the author to Quaritch, from Mortlake, July 1893. Quaritch had published "The Kasidah" in 1880 and Burton's works on Camoens 1881-1884. Burton was impressed with Quaritch's care with his work: "It is rather a triumph for an author to be read by his publishers." In 1882 when Burton was looking for a publisher for his "Arabian Nights" he immediately approached Quaritch who expressed interest in it. When Isabel intervened, however, and suggested she would sell the manuscript and rights to him for lb10,000, he scribbled back "Mrs. Burton's gone mad!" He wrote in the Bookman years later that not buying it was the biggest mistake he ever made. Penzer 308-11.
Price: £ 2250
US Dollar Price: $ 4470
Stock Number: 58085