The Light Side of Egypt

THACKERAY, Lance

Verlag: Adam and Charles Black, London, 1912

Wide 8vo. Tan cloth with front board yellow lettering and yellow/blue/red/brown pictorial stamping. (Ca. 150pp). 36 full-color heavy stock plates. Very good. Binding faintly worn, mainly at spine head and foot; inner hinges with brown cloth tape reinforcement. Handsome reprint edition of this delightful 1908 travel humor text, which pokes gentle fun at Egyptian tourism at a time when press coverage on Egyptian travel and unearthed Egyptian antiquities ruled. Delightful front board graphic shows the back side of three camel-riding figures in foreground heading towards pyramids on the horizon against a blazing blue sky. Issued in same wide format as the original, while a 1920s reprint reduced and resized it. Title page notes, "Containing Thirty-Six Full-Page Illustrations in Colour" -- all are pristine and each faces a wickedly funny text. Thackeray (1867-1916) was an English artist and is remembered for his many humorous illustrations of sporting events. Hoosier humorist George Ade provides a brief but memorable preface that closes with: "prop up the dusty antique in the background, put bewildered tourist into foreground, then flood with sunlight. This is what Mr. Thackeray has done. I will steal a word from our beloved president and say that the pictures are 'bully!'" Ade (1866-1944) was the wildly popular Hoosier humorist and playwright, long a fixture on the Chicago literary scene, whose many titles include "Fables in Slang" (1899). Tipped in facing the title page is a unique frontispiece: A Typed Letter Signed from Ade, 1p, 8½" X 11", Miami Beach, FL 21 February 1939. Addressed to Arnold F. Gates (1914-93, noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar). Near fine. On imprinted letterhead, Ade tells an admirer who had sent him 73rd birthday wishes: "Many thanks for your pleasant birthday greeting. I am happy to be remembered. Also, glad to report that the weather is perfect, the Miami area is jammed with visitors and I am feeling fairly well." Boldly signed in blue ink. By the way, one of those bewildered tourists Ade mentions in his preface places her ownership signature on the front pastedown, adding "January -- February 1921. / Egypt." A most unusual copy of a fairly scarce title. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 52122

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Light Side of Egypt
Verlag: Adam and Charles Black, London
Erscheinungsdatum: 1912
Einband: Hardcover