A Thousand Miles Up The Nile (Two Volumes bound in one)
London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1877.
First Edition. Hardcover.
With upwards of 70 illustrations engraved on wood by G. Pearson, after finished drawings executed on the spot by the author.
Author Amelia Edwards (1831-1892) began her professional life as a British novelist, journalist, and travel writer. In the years 1873-1874 at the age of 42, Edwards journeyed to Egypt with traveling companion Lucy Renshaw. After a brief stay in Cairo where they acquainted themselves with contemporary Egyptian culture and visited the Great Pyramids, they traveled up the Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel and back in a wooden dahabeeyah, a shallow flat-bottomed houseboat that can be powered by sail or oars. On their Nile excursion, they visited numerous excavation sites, including the temple of Rameses II, and were present at the opening of a tomb in Thebes, witnessing the opening of a sarcophagus and examination of a mummy. Edwards’s book is not only a captivating travelogue, it is a detailed record of the monuments and excavations she visited at the time, some of which have since been looted or defaced. Her sketches provide an invaluable record of the places and relics she encountered along the way.
As a result of her Egyptian tour, Edwards became an avid Egyptologist and an advocate for the proper management of Egyptian archaeological sites and the handling of Egyptian antiquities. She founded the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1882 and donated an extensive library of Egyptology and her collection of Egyptian antiquities to the University College in London upon her death from influenza in 1892. The Edwards Chair of Egyptology was also established in her name at that time.
The indomitable Amelia Edwards shares many characteristics with Amelia Peabody, the irascible amateur sleuth and fledgling Egyptian archaeologist created by Elizabeth Peters. Both traveled to exotic climes without male escort or apology – and both championed their academic and professional passions with zeal and consequence. Peabody’s first adventure in Crocodile on the Sandbank would appear to be greatly inspired by Edwards’ own.
Item #9011817-1/2 x 10-1/4”, half morocco, marbled paper over boards, raised bands, gilt titles and spine decoration, marbled endpapers, marbling to all edges, author’s preface, appendix in four sections, 2 folding color maps, 17 full-page copperplate engravings (“The French House, Luxor” has been placed as frontis. illus. facing title page of Volume II rather than facing page 659 as notated in “List of Illustrations”), 62 vignettes.
Edge-wear to boards and spine bands, rubbing to paper over boards, tiny bookseller sticker first paste-down endpaper, foxing to preliminary and final leaves, tearing and small chips to fore-edges pp15-18, internally clean, no owner’s marks, tight, maps in excellent condition, a very good and pleasing copy of this historic work.
Price: $750.00