Rare books from JP MOUNTAIN BOOKS

New York: Lyons & Burford, 1990. First Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. FIRST PRINTING of First Edition. SIGNED by author on the short title page. The book measures 234mm tall x 155mm, and has 180 pages. CONDITION: The book is in fine condition. Previous owner name penned to corner of first blank page, otherwise no previous owner marks or writing on any pages, no foxing, tight binding, clean. The dust jacket has some of the usual sunning to the spine, no chips, no tears, clean, complete with unclipped flap corners.

New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1908. First Edition . Hardcover. Near Fine/No Jacket. FIRST PRINTING of FIRST USA EDITION. Original virtically ribbed dark green cloth, white-grey decoration front cover, TEG, gilt lettering spine. Clean and bright. Solid binding. Much better condition than what is usual for this book. Two previous owner names and dates (1908 and 1976) penned to blank free front endpage, Vernon Howard (renowned mountaineering bookseller) bookplate on same page, old newspaper clipping about Cook being sentenced for fraud tipped to front pastedown, verso of front endpage has old newspaper clippings of Cook's arrival in Copenhagen pasted to it and the next blank page has the end of the same article pasted to it. The title page has owner name penned to the top (same as the 1908 owner on the FFEP), no other marks or writing on any pages, no foxing, tight binding, exceptionally bright and clean covers, overall near Fine. Book measures 236mm tall x 154mm, and has 321 pages, 71… Read More

London: John Murray, 1899. Fourth Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket Issued. 1899 Fourth Edition. Inscribed by Whymper "Presented by the author" along the top edge of the front wrapper. Whymper usually inscribed these guidebooks in this manner. The handwriting is an exact match to other examples by Whymper. Bound in new grey cloth harcover with black lettering spine. Original front and rear covers of the book have been bound inside at the front and end of the new binding (after new fly leafs). Complete with all pages, illustrations, and maps. New covers are in fine condition. The original paper covers have some corner wear, but a generally clean and not rubbed. No previous owner marks or writing on any pages. Solid binding. A little foxing in margins of pages where folded maps or folded illustrations are present. Minor foxing on three other pages. All other pages are free of foxing. The book measures 195mm tall x 127mm, 205 pages (+ 44 pages of advertisements), 60 engravings, 2 city… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST PRINTING of FIRST USA EDITION. SIGNED by Ernst Reiss on the photo opposite page 145 that shows Reiss, Luchsinger and von Gunten on the Lhotse face below the couloir that leads to the summit. Reiss along with Luchsinger made the first ascent of Lhotse described in this book. Original blue boards, silver lettering spine. Generally nice condition, clean covers, tight binding, complete with all pages & photo plates, no previous owner marks or writing on any page other than the signature of Reiss, no foxing. The dust jacket has edge wear, some soiling rear panel, 1cm chip upper rear corner. This book has 222 pages, 31 b/w photos, color frontispiece, 2 maps, 1 route diagram, index. The leader's account of the Swiss expedition that in 1956 made the 1st ascent of Lhotse (8511m by Ernst Reiss & Fritz Luchsinger via Geneva Spur & the Reiss Rinne) & made 2nd & 3rd ascents of Everest (2nd by… Read More

London: William Kimber, 1956. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. FIRST PRINTING of First UK Edition. The book is in near fine condition with clean covers, no fading, very minor rubbing tips corners, no previous owner marks or writing on any pages, no foxing, tight binding. The uncommon dust jacket is much better than average for this book where nearly all have faded spine. This jacket has light to medium spine fading, surface flecking at spine ends, clean and complete. Very collectible condition. The book measures 222mm tall x 139mm, and has 199 pages + 8 pages ads, EP maps, 9 b/w photos. PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL BOOK BEING OFFERED.

london: Heinemann, 1971. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST PRINTING of First UK Edition. Loosely inserted is a postcard from the 1972 European Mt Everest Expedition where Whillans was one of the lead climbers. The card was mailed from Everest Base Camp and is signed by Whillans and 12 other climbers including Hamish MacInnes (renowned Scottish mountaineer & author & ropemate of Whillans), Felix Kuen (hard winter climbs in Alps, 2nd ascent Rupal Face Nanga Parbat), & the expedition leader Karl Herrligkoffer. The book is in nice condition with clean covers that are not spotted (many copies have spotting to covers), no previous owner marks or writing on pages, solid binding, foxing and browning to edges of text-block, faint foxing on a few pages but nearly all pages without foxing. The original dust jacket has minor edge and corner flecking, no chunks missing, no tears, price-clipped flap corner. The Everest expedition postcard has a bump at one corner with a… Read More

London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1957. First Edition . Cloth. Fine/Very Good. Original tan cloth with red lettering spine. Book is in fine condition with some fore-edge foxing and a little foxing in margins of a few pages, mainly near the front. The binding is tight and solid. There are no creased or torn pages. There are no previous owner marks, no writing, no stamps, no underlining on any pages. Handsigned & dated autograph of Herbert Tichy is tipped-in on the pre-title page (like an errata slip, not fully pasted down, only pasted at hinge). The original dust jacket is in nice condition with no tears and no chips. The DJ has darkening of the spine and the inside front flap corner is clipped. The very ends of the spine of the DJ are lightly rubbed. PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM BEING OFFERED (NOT GENERIC STOCK PHOTOS).

London: David Bogue, 1853. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. FIRST PRINTING of the First UK Edition. PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL BOOK BEING OFFERED. Rebound in light brown cloth with leather corners & spine, gilt lettering and rules spine. Note on EP states it was rebound in 1909. Some rubbing corners, clean, blank side of frontis has foxing and heavy soiling but the image side is relatively clean (a few tiny black spots) and with quite bright coloring compared to most, light foxing on title page and some old prices penned on the title page, minor foxing on some other pages, brown smudge marks on two facing pages (see photo), solid binding. The book measures 188mm tall x 121mm, and has 219 pages + 8 pages of ads, coloured frontispiece, b/w title vignette, 22 b/w in-text engravings, 1 smaller in-text vignette of a locket, 5 chapter heading vignettes. PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM BEING OFFERED.

London: Hodder And Stoughton Limited, 1940. First Edition . Cloth. Very Good/Good. FIRST EDITION. 226mm tall x 143mm, 330pp, 24 b/w plates, engravings by Whymper, 2 fldg maps, index. Biographical portrait of Whymper who made the first ascents of Chimborazo, Cayambe, Antisana, Carihuairazo, Sara Urco, Cotocachi, Sincholagua. He was perhaps best known for his first ascent of the Matterhorn and the ensuing accident on the descent that killed half the party. At the end of his climbing career he travelled to the Canadian Rockies (1901 & 1903) to explore & climb in a publicity capacity for the C.P.R. (one chapter on this in the book). Most of the book is on climbs in the Alps, and very much is directly quoted from Whymper's letters & communications. original red cloth, gilt lettering spine. uncommon DJ is present but has chipping at corners and loss at top of spine (see photo), book has fading on spine where DJ is chipped (nearly all copies of this book that don't have DJs have faded… Read More

Chiari: Nordpress, 2003. First Edition . Original Wraps. As New/No Jacket Issued. First Nordpress edition with publisher's sticker noting that fact on the pre-title page. The book was originally published in 1958 by Tamari. This edition is reformatted into smaller size. SIGNED by Lino Lacedelli on the pre-title page. Lacedelli said that he signed only 3 copies of this Nordpress edition which my sister obtained during a ski vacation at Cortina D'Ampezzo where Lacedelli lived. Completely new condition, never read. Original glossy 8vo PB (not issued in hardcover), measure 21cm tall x 15cm, 95 pages of text, 272 pages of plates with descriptive captions (including 246 b/w photos, 2 route sketches, 5 maps, 12 campsite locator sketches, 8 pages of daily height chart, 1 color photo of front of DJ of 1958 edition), plus two b/w sketch maps of general area, and 4 b/w portrait photos in text. Text in italian, no english edition. This is reformatted from the original 4to edition, but contains same text… Read More

London: W. M. Thompson, 1882. Fifth Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. Walton, Elijah. The illustrations are particularly attractive to alpine enthusiasts since they include mountain backgrounds by the famous alpine artist. Very scarce. 5th edition (same contents & size as first edition but different colored binding), 335mm tall x 241mm, viii + 12 chromolithograph plates each mounted on thick stock paper (blank verso), each followed by a page of descriptive text (blank versos), each chromolithograph page is preceded by a thin blank protective page. Complete with all pages and plates. NOT ex-library, previous owner name penned to the first blank protective page (blank page before first illustrated plate). AEG, original blue cloth covers, rebacked with new navy cloth spine with gilt lettering (Walton's books almost always fall apart and need rebacking), new EPs, highly gilt decorated patterns front cover, matching patterns in blind on rear cover,… Read More

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, And Co., 1886. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. FIRST EDITION. The book measures 23cm tall x 14cm, and has pages xv + [1] blank + 572 + 36 (publisher's catalog), photogravure frontis portrait of the author & 14 other full page plates, 64 in-text illustrations, 6 maps (3 in color, 2 are fldg), 14 engraved plates, index. Account of early expedition attempt to climb Kilimanjaro in 1884. Johnston claims to have reached approximately 4973m. rebound in red cloth in style similar to original binding with original illustrated front cover retained as front cover of new binding, black & white illustration of Kilimanjaro on front cover, black lettering front cover, black coated EPs. previous owner name faintly penned on blank side of frontis, scotch tape (tape itself is long gone) yellowish stain at gutter of frontispiece & title page (frontis was obviously once held in place by scotch tape), minor foxing on plates only, binding tight, covers &… Read More

London: Hopkinson, 1936. First Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. FIRST PRINTING of First Edition. Original blue cloth with gilt lettering spine. The book is in nice condition with slight darkening to spine, no previous owner marks or writing on pages, minor foxing on title page and two preliminary pages (other pages have no foxing), solid & tight binding, folding map at rear has two small brown spots (see photo) & map pocket has a tissue repaired tear. The uncommon original dust jacket has tiny loss at spine ends and corner tips, 2cm tear upper front, 4cm tear lower front flap crease with some browning along the tear, 3cm tear upper rear, 15mm & 10mm tear lower rear. The book measures 222mm tall x 14mm, and has 244 pages, 24 b/w photos, glossary of place-names, large folding color map in rear pocket, index, errata slip on page 236. PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL BOOK BEING OFFERED.

Tokyo: Hakusuisha Publishing, 1984. 2nd Edition . Hardcover. As New/As New. 1984 second edition. New condition in publisher's original box and plastic dust jacket. No marks, no writing, no foxing, clean, never used. Purchased directly from the publisher and held in climate controlled storage for years. Original dark green cloth with gilt lettering spine. The publisher's printed slipcase box has the original wrap-around band with blurbs in Japanese printed on it. The book measures 264mm tall x 190mm and has 759 pages.

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953. First Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. TRUE COLLECTOR'S ITEM. --- FIRST PRINTING of First UK Edition -- NOT a later printing. TENZING signature present. SIGNED by "Ed Hillary" and Inscribed and SIGNED by John Hunt "In happy recollection of earlier associations. John Hunt" on the short-title page. Also SIGNED by "George Lowe" and by "George Band" on the short-title page. All of the latter were members of the first ascent team. Also SIGNED by Reinhold Messner (achieved first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen and made first true solo ascent of Everest...still not repeated), Krzysztof Wielicki (achieved first winter ascent of Everest in the heart of winter), Junko Tabei (first woman to reach the top of Everest and a really good climber with ascents worldwide), Babu Chiri Sherpa (first and only person to spend almost one day, 21 hours, atop Everest and the ONLY to live to tell the story --… Read More