MORRIS, James. Coronation Everest. London: Faber and Faber. 1958.
8vo. Original cloth in pictorial dust-wrapper (not price-clipped); pp. 146; 8 illustrations from photographs, 3 sketch maps; dust-wrapper with light wear to edges, light spotting to top and fore-edge; else a very good copy of a beautifully typeset and designed book, printed on high-quality eggshell paper.
First edition, a far reaching association copy. James - later Jan - Morris joined the Everest 1953 expedition as Special Correspondent of The Times. He reported on the ascent which coincided with the eve of Queen Elizabeth's Coronation. - The unclipped wrapper has the inked out and incorrect statement that the book contains colour plates.
Provenenance: A typed and signed letter by Audrey Salkeld to the author ('Dear Jan') requsting signatures in John Boyle's collection of James/Jan Morris books. Jan Morris returned this letter with the signed note 'Voila! Jan'. John M. Boyle (1935-2014) was an American traveller, explorer and eminent collector of mountaineering books, especially Himalaya material. 'This collection grew over the years to 2,500 books in 28 languages, 400 expedition reports, and 100 videos and films, with about half of the books autographed by expedition participants. In 1997 he donated the collection to the AAC, which is now the home of the John M. Boyle Himalayan Library' (American Alpine Club, online). Ownership inscription W. R. Neate, later Jill Neate (after gender re-alignment in the 1970s; 1934-1993) on front fly-leaf. 'Jill Neate had been born William Neate in London and qualified as a chartered accountant, working in management consultancy and company secretarial services for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. On the deaths of her parents, she moved in 1970 to the Lake District and embarked on a career of mountain scholarship. Soon afterwards began the long, lonely process towards a change in sexual identity … Her Mountaineering Literature, 1986, an enlarged version of an earlier work, is the internationally regarded authority on books about mountains and climbing in the English language. Booksellers the world over identify items in their catalogues by their 'Neate' numbers, and take immoderate delight when they are able to advertise some obscure piece of ephemera as Not in Neate (Audrey Salkeld, Alpine Journal, Vol. 99, 1994, pp. 327-328). Audrey Salkeld (1936-2023), mounaineer and mountaineering historian focussing onther earlier attempts to conquer Everst inherited Jill Neate's library. - A compelling provenance leading deep into the inner workings of the world of Himalayan climbing.
Neate M147; Yakushi (3rd ed.) M514.
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