First edition. Two volumes in publisher's primary binding of blue paper covered boards with hessian cloth spines and title labels. Author's presentation copy, inscribed on the front end paper of volume I, "Inscribed to Mrs Phillimore. Kendals April 1925 / From Apsley Cherry-Garrard". Coloured frontispiece to each volume, four further coloured plates, 43 black and white plates, ten fold-out panoramas and five maps (four of them folding). A very good set indeed, clean and crisp, the fragile spines and labels in an excellent state and the boards unusually clean with just minor browning. Light scattered foxing to the preliminary leaves, but generally exceptionaly clean.

Cherry-Garrard's classic account of Scott's final Antarctic voyage, often described as "The finest Polar book ever written" (Rosove), which has become noted for its frank but sensitive treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous consequences and the meaning of human suffering under extreme conditions.
Cherry-Garrard had always much admired his father and his achievements in India and China where he had fought for the British Defence Forces. His father's death in 1907 and Cherry-Garrard's chance visit to his cousin, where Scott and Bill Wilson were discussing the Antarctic expedition, gave him the means and motivation to volunteer.
"Cherry-Garrard seems an unlikely hero of Antarctic exploration, but he has achieved that status largely through this book. A young but wealthy patrician, near-sighted and frail, he paid his way onto the crew as an assistant zoologist, but performed splendidly in many harrowing situations" (Stam - Books on Ice)
George Bernard Shaw, one of Cherry Garrard's closest friends, acted as literary mentor, encouraging him to complete the work and editing it. He also advised him to effectively self publish the book, paying Constable directly to handle the printing and distribution, but allowing the author to retain editorial and design control over the production of the book.
The recipient is Lucy "Lion" Phillimore, travel writer and philanthropist who, following the death of her husband, lived at Kendals, his family estate, close to Cherry Garrard's own home, Lamer Park. As a fellow fabian, Phillimore was also a close friend of George Bernard Shaw and it is likely that it was he that introduced her to Cherry Garrard.

Stock ID: 47000