COLLARD, John M. The Great Morning of Ski-ing. "Nansen Fever" in the Black Forest, Alps and Jura. Stories of the pioneer skiers: from the audacity of Wilhelm Paulcke to the genius of Arnold Lunn. 1883 to the First World War. London, [privately printed for the author], 2017.
4to. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, illustrated dust-wrapper; pp. 130; highly illustrated with colour plates.
First edition, one of 102 copies printed in this limited second print run (the first printing had been limited to 50 copies). The established ski and mountaineering historian John Collard has produced - again - an intriguing book, this time with rarely seen pictorial material illustrating the 'heroic' age of skiing.
'Through the adventures and ambitions of some twenty leading pioneers - German, Swiss, French, Austrian and British - the author brings the first three decades of ski-ing to vivid life. He draws on a sure foundation of detailed research undertaken for two earlier books [which we stock as well]. Sixty-seven illustrations in colour and black and white, many of them hardly known till now, add to the reader's enjoyment and understanding. We belive that this volume offers one of the finest possible introductions to a miraculous moment in sporting history' (inside front flap). 'An absorbing and beautifully illustrated history' (review by Arnie Wilson in Inside Edge).
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