TRAVELLER.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/VG+.No owner inscrptn,and no price- clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,wrap-around artwork painting ('Summer',mural by Charles Hoffbauer) with red+b/w lettering,
with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to pages and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Head of spine/backstrip minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top edge lightly aged/toned and imperceptibly dust-soiled,fore-edges brighter and cleaner; contents bright,tight,solid and sound - with no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - possibly unread? Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered (apart from rear,lower corner minisculely bumped),publisher's original,
plain red cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/ backstrip,and immaculate,b/w map illustrated endpapers.UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,1-277pp [paginated] includes 21 chapters,plus [unpaginated],half-title+title pages,a preface by Lucy Rees (author of 'The Horse's Mind.',notes & acknowledgements,and 2pp poetry/writing extracts.
In comfortable stables at Lexington,Virginia,a sturdy,nine-year-old grey chats to his friend Tom the Nipper,one of the domestic cats.Soon we learn that he is no ordinary horse,but Traveller,General Robert E. Lee's mount in the American Civil War.The war now over,Traveller has become a loved and honoured member of Lee's family at Washington College,where the General (on sufferance of the victorious Federal North) is President.Lee still rides his horse every afternoon.The complete understanding between them,forged in the war years,has grown if anything deeper during these latter days of peace.
Through Traveller's memories,told to Tom,we learn how,on Sewell Mountain in 1861,he first met Lee,then a subordinate general,and how the two met again on the coast of Carolina,where Lee bought Traveller (and named him).At the beginning of June 1862,President Davis appoints Lee to command the army desperately defending Richmond against "the Blue men" - the Federals.In the glorious but apallingly bloody campaign which follows,known as the Seven Days,Traveller first experiences action with his master.Then the Army of Northern Virginia marches northward to Manassas,where they again win victory.
Traveller carries Lee to Antietam,to Fredericksburg in the snow,to Chancellorsville in the forest,and so to Gettysburg and to the dreadful engagements in The Wilderness.Finally we learn of the siege of Richmond and Petersburg,and hear Traveller's account of what happened at Appomattox.
Richard Adams first made his name with a novel about animals,and 'Watership Down' was followed by 'Shardik' and 'The Plague Dogs'; but 'Traveller' is the first novel with animals at its centre which he has written for eleven years.With the help of Lucy Rees,the well-known horsewoman and author of 'The Horse's Mind',he has given Traveller a character completely true to horse psychology,and fashioned a brilliant
story of Lee (considered by many military scholars to be the greatest general of the past 250 years) and the horse who was indispensable to his achievements.
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