[Rarebooks] FS: Book of "Letters from a Globetrotter, " WorldCat locates one copy

[Bob Petrilla]

Raymond, Elmer D. LETTERS FROM A GLOBETROTTER -- Written for Members of the
Round-the-World Society: A collection of stencilled letters, mailed by the
author, with original postage stamps. NY: Round-the-World Society, 1925.
First Edition. Approx 170pp; frontispiece and one other sketch by the
author, foldout map, 11 b&w plates from photographs; 68 original
foreign-postage stamps affixed to letters with integral address panels.
Contains 43 letters from the Arctic, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, etc.
Raymond's letters are rich in anecdotes, conversation dialog, and local
color. The first 12 letters are all datelined in the Arctic, and were saved
for mailing from Belgium later. Next are eight letters from Germany,
France, and Monaco. Then, 20 letters mailed from North Africa; and finally,
three from Spain. Each of the 43 letters comprises three stenciled pages
and the address panel. All of the letters are addressed to Andrew P.
Howarth, Oxford, Mass., USA. Each had been folded for mailing, then opened
by the subscriber and put into this post-bound book of black leatherette
over flexible boards. A picture and title on the cover are either stamped
in blind or worn-away gilt; covers are dusted inside and out, text is
mostly clean. 9" x 6.25" Very Good condition.
Raymond created the Round-the-World Society and attracted subscribers to
whom he would send his globetrotting letters. Beginning with the 12 Arctic
letters, EDR records his travels by ship to Spitzbergen, with descriptions
of the North Cape, Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, Bear Island, VanPost
glacier, Amundsen Memorial at King's Bay, through Virgo Bay, and his
finding the "remains of [Swedish aviator] Andree's Balloon Expedition,"
including gas tanks, ropes, personal belongings, etc., all of which he
"leaves...undisturbed as I found them" on the shore of Virgo Bay. One
letter, titled "A Great Experiment in the Arctic," describes attempts by
Westerners to exploit the mineral wealth of Spitzbergen, even though
"Eskimos in Greenland and Lapps in Finland...are inefficient
laborers...[so] a new race of white men able to inhabit this polar
archipelago" is needed to work the mines. He describes coal mining at
Longyear City, where "nearly all the miners are single" and only 20 women
are there, one of whom gives birth to "the first member of a possible new
race: the White Arctics." ~~ The 20 letters from North Africa begin with
EDR's arrival in Tunis after a stormy voyage; the ruins of Carthage;
vignettes of local Muslim life in the Old Quarter; a 26-hour train trip to
Algiers; visits to the Kasbah and feasts with a sheik; "Monkey Land"
(Ruisseau de Signes); falcon-hunting on horseback with a sheik; &c. Leaving
Algiers, Raymond travels the 2,000 miles to Morocco in a "large touring
car" ; visits Oudjda, Fez, and the domain of Abd-el-Krim; the Riffs demand
a ransom from the Christian who has defiled a saint's tomb by getting near
to it; dinner at a campfire ends in a hail of bullets as a "band of
Riffians" swarms uphill; &c. The letters from Belgium, Germany, France and
Spain have interesting content as well. ~~ [WorldCat locates only the
SUNY-Buffalo holding of this title.]    $600.00


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