Very rare railway guide
PARFIT, Joseph T. Romance of the Baghdad Railway and The Gates of the Orient. London: J. B. Shears & Son. 1933.
8vo. Original orange printed and ornamented card wrappers with uncut edges pp. 67, [3, advertisements], folding map and 18 illustrations after photographs in the text; wrappers minimally spotted, otherwise a near-fine copy of a great rarity.
First edition, published to accompany a pictorial lecture with lantern slides.
All we were able to find out about the author is that he was born in 1870 in Bethnal Green and died in 1953. He travelled widely, was Canon of St. George's, Jerusalem, an admirer of Joseph Conrad, and wrote a couple of travel books on the Middle East, all of which are rather uncommon. Parfit covers Gallipoli, as well as other aspects of the entire Middle East and the communication of Iraq with the West.
Library Hub locates only four copies (National Railway Museum, Oxford, British Library, and National Library of Scotland).
#2120083