WEALE, B.L. Putnam [pseudonym for Bertram Lennox SIMPSON]. Manchu and Muscovite … Being Letters from Manchuria Written during the Autumn of 1903. With an Historical Sketch entitled "Prologue to the Crisis" giving a complete Account of the Manchurian Frontiers from the Earliest Days and the Growth and Final Meeting of the Russian and Chinese Empires in the Amur Regions. Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1907.
8vo. Original blue cloth gilt; pp. xx, 564; plates after photographs, colour-printed folding map; spine a little faded; scattered foxing; largely unopened,Presentation Copy blind-stamped to title-page.
First editon of the first work by a slightly shady, but interesting resident in China, whose father had worked for the Chinese Maritime Customs service. He worked as a journalist in both Chinese and English, and was assassinated in 1930 after having been embroiled in Chinese politics. This book is probably one of the best accounts of the Russian-Chinese border and a history of Sino-Russian relations.
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