Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$160.33 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Second edition, later impression. Small crown 8vo, pp. xii, 227, [1], 44 'A List of Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.'s Publications' + Walter Crane's b/w frontispiece with tissue guard; title page features publisher's device. Original decorative blue cloth, spine lettered and decorated in black, mountainous landscape vignette in black to upper board. Soiled and rubbed, spine gently sunned, extremities bumped and rubbed, feps foxed and tanned, some foxing and occasional grubby finger marks and soiling to text block, shaken, rear hinge starting, but binding holding firm. A good copy of a later printing of the second Kegan Paul edition. Unusual. One of Stevenson's earliest works, Travels recounts the author's 120 mile, 12-day hike through remote southern-central France. It is considered a foundational work of outdoor literature and one of the earliest accounts of hiking and camping for recreation (including the commissioning of a sleeping bag). The second edition "agrees" with the first in "every particular, save the words 'Second Edition'", while the front cover is "stamped with the landscape in black, and the head of Ass 'Modestine' is omitted on back". The 44-page catalogue to the rear of this copy, which lists Travels at 2s. 6d., alongside An Island Voyage and Virginibus Puerisque, dates this as an 1881 impression (or later). Prideaux, 3
Seller: Quair Books PBFA, Leeds, United Kingdom
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Travels with a Donket in the Cevennes. C. Kegan Paul & Co, London, 1879.
Price: US$256.53 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Green boards with bevelled edges and spine relaid. Gilt pictorial vignette to front cover and gilt image and titles to spine. Top edge uncut. 227pp. Black and white engraving to frontispiece protected by a tissue guard. Second edition 1879. Corners bumped and previous owner's signature croossed out to front endpaper. Hinges reinforced with bookcloth. A little foxing but otherwise a very good copy of this early edition. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Scrivener's Books and Bookbinding, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Stevenson, Robert Louis. TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY IN THE CEVENNES. , 1879.
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Description: Second Edition. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879. 1 page preliminary undated ads. Original green-blue cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, beveled. First Edition, second printing, of Stevenson's third book, following AN INLAND VOYAGE and EDINBURGH PICTURESQUE NOTES; like the former two, this is something of a travelogue, describing his 1878 walking tour in the Cevennes region of southern France. Stevenson took this trip just after the woman he loved (and eventually would marry) left the Continent with her two children to rejoin her husband in San Francisco. For this trip the forlorn Stevenson collaborated with another female, named Modestine -- a donkey. As with AN INLAND VOYAGE, included is a frontispiece by Walter Crane. This second printing reads "Second Edition" both at the foot of the spine and on the title page; otherwise it is essentially the same as the first (which consisted of only 750 copies). There was also a third printing, still reading "Second Edition" on its title page, in a modified binding. This is a bright, near-fine copy -- with very minor rubbing at the extremities, a little faint speckling of the cloth, and slight cracking of the rear endpaper; the volume remains tight even though it was part of the brief ill-fated experiment of binding with staples rather than with string. Beinecke 38; see Prideaux p. 8 (a different binding); not cited in Princeton 8.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY IN THE CEVENNES. [inscribed by RLS's mother]. , 1879.
Price: US$5750.00 + shipping
Description: [inscribed by Stevenson's mother] London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879. 1 page preliminary undated ads. Original green-blue cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, beveled. First Edition, first printing, which consisted of only 750 copies. This was Stevenson's third book, following AN INLAND VOYAGE and EDINBURGH PICTURESQUE NOTES; like the former two, this is something of a travelogue, describing his 1878 walking tour in the Cévennes region of southern France. Stevenson took this trip just after the woman he loved (and eventually would marry) left the Continent with her two children to rejoin her husband in San Francisco. For this trip the forlorn Stevenson found solace with another female -- Modestine the donkey. As with AN INLAND VOYAGE, included is a frontispiece by Walter Crane. This volume is in very good condition, with minor wear at the extremities, and (as usual) with some cracking of the original delicate brown-coated endpapers; the volume does remain tight, even though it was part of the brief ill-fated UK experiment of binding with staples rather than with string. Beinecke 36; Princeton 8. This is a presentation copy inscribed in the hand of the author's mother, Margaret Isabella (Balfour) Stevenson, the flyleaf bearing her inked inscription "With kindest regards | from | _The Author_". (Both the Sotheby's and Bonhams London auction houses have declared this inscription to be in RLS's hand, but it is not; without a doubt, this is the distinctly-bold hand of his mother.) Also, at the top of the title page is the inked signature "Maud Babington" (this signature as well may be in RLS's mother's hand, but could possibly be in the hand of Maud herself). And finally, on the flyleaf appears in pencil "Mrs Wilson | 56 Risbygate St | Bury St Edmunds". Matilda Whytt "Maud" Wilson (1844-1919) was the daughter of Margaret's older sister Marion (Balfour) Wilson -- "Mrs Wilson" of the penciled inscription. Thus Margaret Stevenson, on behalf of her son the fledgling author, inscribed this volume for the benefit of her niece, i.e. the author's first cousin. A decade earlier Maud had married the Cambridge professor Churchill Babington, who also served as the Rector of Cockfield, a few miles southeast of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk; they lived in the Cockfield Rectory. RLS is known to have had two extended stays with the Babingtons at the Rectory, the first of which was 30 Sept - 15 Oct 1870, during which time he attended the wedding of Maud's sister Jane. The second, 26 July - late August 1873, was far more important in RLS's life, for it was then that. He made two significant friendships - with Fanny Sitwell and Sidney Colvin. RLS's cousin Maud and Mrs Sitwell were friends and during this period Fanny was staying at the Rectory. RLS first met Fanny Sitwell on 26 July and fell in love: for a long time he would write passionate letters to her, making her his confidante. He also met her partner, Sidney Colvin, who would not only be a lifelong friend but an enormous help to his literary ambitions [RLS Website]. Six years later, in fact, Stevenson dedicated this very title to Sidney Colvin. Provenance: Sotheby's (London) sale of English Literature 11 Dec 2003, lot 101; also in the Bonhams sale of the renowned Jeremy & Penny Martin Collection. Housed in a (slightly scuffed) morocco-backed slipcase. We are indebted to friend and Stevenson scholar Roger Swearingen for his knowledge in attributing the inscriptions.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.