Author: Emerson, James
Year: 1829
Edition: First edition
Publisher: London; Henry Colburn
Modern calf, marbled endpapers; two volumes in one, lacking half title in both volumes. Collation:
Vol. I: Blank, frontis, title page, dedication page dated December 1828, pp. vii-xv, folding map, pp. 244. The folding map with a short closed tear.
Vol. II: title page, on reverse side: London: / printed by S. & R. Bentley. / Dorset Street, Fleet Street., pp. (iii)-viii, 266, advertisement leaf. There are three small woodcuts in the text of this volume.
The bookplate of Henry Blackmer on the front pastedown.
James Emerson visited Greece and the Aegean islands for the second time during the latter stages of the Greek War of Independence as a correspondent for The Times. The text is in the form of a series of letters detailing such things as the geography, local commerce and customs, as well as the political situation of the Cyclades and other Aegean islands during the conflict. It serves as an important primary source for 19th-century travel literature about Greece and the Levant. He was a Philhellene and a close friend of Lord Byron. 1
Atabey 397: First edition. A one-volume American edition appeared at New York in 1829. An account of Emerson’s experiences on his travels, omitted from A picture of Greece because of their non-political nature. This copy lacks the half title in volume two. The frontispiece depicts the windmills on Syros Island.
Sotheby’s entry: James Emerson Tennent, perhaps best known for his later books on Ceylon, arrived in Greece in 1823, but left disillusioned following the death of Byron. He returned in 1825 as war correspondent for The Times and fought in the naval action under Miaoulis, and at the battle at Lerna where Makrijannis defeated the Egyptian army.
Provenance: Henry Blackmer II, his sale Sotheby’s October 11th ~ 13th 1989, lot nr. 572, buyer: MacKenzie.
Biblio: Atabey 397, Weber I, 172.
Acquired from Forum Auctions, their sale 31st March 2022, lot nr. 50.
