New York: Hyperion, (2000) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first book, this is a compelling account of this disastrous expedition which sailed out of British Columbia in 1913 in search of an undiscovered Arctic continent. Niven "has completed the unfulfilled mission of survivor William McKinlay to produce a 'more honest and revealing account' of the wreck of the Karluk and its aftermath. The explorers became split into several dispersed groups living in the shadow of death. Their simultaneously grim and gruesome experiences are interwoven in this minutely detailed and atmospheric retelling, created by combining and comparing firsthand accounts and other sources. The characters are vividly re-created, from the expedition's self-interested leader, whom McKinlay called 'a consummate liar and cheat,' to the heroic ship's master, who struggled over 700 miles to organize a rescue. (Karen Tiley) Illustrated with photographs. Notes, maps. 402 pp. Map endpapers. ISBN: 0-786865296.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A modern classic of travel literature: "Ostensibly a quest for Mokele-mbembe, the Congo dinosaur , this story of travel through the jungles and swamp forests of the northern Congo is Tolstoyan in its depth, scope and range of characters, and as vivid as Nabokov in its image and detail. A portrait of a country, it is alive with natural history: eagles and parrots, hornbills and sunbirds, forest cobras and crocodiles, gorillas and elephants. A search for the meaning of sorcery, the purpose of religion (and a celebration of the comfort and mysteries of science), it is also an adventure told with great narrative force. Of course there is a darker side to the Congo, and that too is recorded here." Kazuo Ishiguro called this a "unique messy masterpiece." SIGNED on the title page. Maps, photographs, bibliography. 462 pp. ISBN: 0-678406557.

San Francisco & Tulsa: Council Oak Books, (1999). First edition - A classic travel adventure - "The original Peking to Paris rally took place in June of 1907, when Italian Prince Scipione Borghese, accompanied by journalist Luigi Barzini, set out in his forty-horsepower Itala on what would be a grueling sixty-day race to Paris. Ninety years later, the author, Genny Obert, and co-driver Linda Dodwell set out in a classic Hillman Hunter, departing from the Great Wall along with ninety-six other driving teams also racing for Paris, in a recreation of that historic rally. The 1997 Peking to Paris passed through China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Germany, and France, traversing some of the most rugged, remote, and magical landscape on the planet. The dangers are real: Genny and Linda drive at times entirely alone through vast deserts of fundamentalist Islamic countries in makeshift purdah; an accident in Pakistan claims the lives of a German father and son team... The book provides a crash course in the functions and failings of vintage autos, and offers haunting flashbacks from Luigi Barzini's celebrated account of the original rally interwoven with the day by day rigors and dangers of flogging fragile classic cars over narrow mountain roads, through streams, and across searing deserts." Maps, color photographs and an appendix with an entry list and final placement. 308 pp. ISBN: 1-571780858.

New York: Dix and Edwards, 1856. Hardcover first edition - Both a classic in the literature of slavery and abolition, and a book which was influential in the Free Soil movement. Commissioned by the New York Times to write an unbiased report on slavery and its economic effects, this is the first of three books which resulted from his travels. "[Olmsted] discovered that the slaves in the seaboard states were generally well treated. They received enough food to keep them in good physical condition. However, Olmsted believed that the slaves were not as well fed as American free laborers, and he devoted considerable space to one of his favorite theories, namely, that slavery was a destroyer of self-respect and initiative." Clark, Travels in the Old South, 482. Vignette engravings in the text. 715 pp plus two Appendices, 4 pp publisher's ads.

New York: Boni & Liveright, (1922). Hardcover first edition - A fascinating account of a trip by two suffragists (the author and her friend Charlotte Jordan) from Ohio to Death Valley - the heart of the Mohave - Although women had won the right to vote, their activism for women's rights had not ended, but they decided they needed a vacation: "Charlotte and I knew the outdoors a little. Though we were middle-aged, mothers of families and deeply involved in the historic struggle for the vote, we sometimes looked at the sky. . . I had some not altogether contemptible peaks to my credit and she had canoed in the Canadian wilds, so when we decided that a vacation was due us we chose the outdoors." As they passed through the Mojave on the train heading to Los Angeles where a car was awaiting them, they determined that that was where they wanted to visit, but it was actually when they returned the next year, that they took a trip in the spring in a wagon pulled by a mule and a horse, with the "Worrier", the sheriff of an almost deserted mining town, as a guide, that they actually reached Death Valley. While this does not ignore the hardships and dangers, Perkins is always aware of the ever-changing beauty of the desert. Illustrated with photographs. Hard to find. 227 pp.

Tallahassee: University Press of Florida, (2009) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which is both fun to read and which can serve as a reference guide on a long road trip. "History at the next exit - whatever interstate you're driving on. Designed as a defense and commercial network to link Washington, D.C., with state capitals, the interstate highway system carries more traffic than anyone could have imagined fifty years ago. Lost today in the rush to get from point A to point B - with restaurants, hotels, and gas stations along the way more or less interchangeable from exit to exit--is the fact that these roads were laid down along ancient routes. Route numbers have replaced colorful descriptors, so the Oregon Trail is now I-80, and travelers tracing portions of the Santa Fe Trail do so along I-25. A book which seeks to remind us of what we have lost and that this history is often as close as the next exit, with stories of Davey Crockett, Horace Greely, and Charles Dickens, of women in hoop skirts, the search for eighteenth-century fast food, and nineteenth-century 'truckers.' A book which restores the beauty and history of the American landscape we all too often ignore at 65 miles per hour." Illustrated throughout with vintage photographs and maps. Notes, bibliography, index. xiv, 418 pp. ISBN: 978-0813033983.

London: Faber & Faber, (1949) dj. Hardcover first edition - The first biography of this 16th century Portuguese adventurer and explorer who left Portugal in 1537 as a common soldier but whose travels were intended to help him establish himself as a merchant. Pinto traveled to the coast of India, Japan, China, and Malaya and more - was thrown into prison by the Chinese, introduced firearms to Japan, and succeeded in becoming wealthy but after meeting Saint Francis Xavier, he joined the newly formed Jesuit Society and headed a mission to Japan, only to recognize its futility. His autobiography - Peregrinacao or Pilgrimage - was published posthumously in 1614. While some of the claims in this work might have been inaccurate, Collis considers them compatible with historical events and Pinto's work as the most complete European account of 16th century Asian history. Includes 13 illustrations, bibliography, index. 313 pp

New York: Grand Central Publishing, (2017). SIGNED first edition - A book which surpasses his fiction in adventure and suspense. "In 2012, Preston joined a team of explorers searching for Ciudad Blanca ('The White City'), a legendary ruin hidden in the dense jungle of eastern Honduras. The city also known as 'the Lost City of the Monkey God' - was literally a legend; while various hucksters and hoaxers had claimed to have discovered the abandoned metropolis, no credible evidence had ever been presented. In addition to the objective hazards of tropical disease, wild boars, and the deadly fer-de-lance viper, locals stoked the mystique, describing various curses awaiting would-be discoverers. But this team had an advantage that previous searchers had lacked: LIDAR, an advanced laser-imaging technology able to penetrate the dense jungle canopy - just enough - and return detailed elevation profiles from which subtle, man-made anomalies could be identified. Almost immediately, two major sites emerged, their scale and architecture indicating a civilization to rival another local, more famous power, the Maya." But the dangers were real- and Preston and several other contracted a horrifying disease in the jungle. SIGNED on the title page. Sources and bibliography. viii, 316 pp. ISBN: 978-1455540006.

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, (1930). Hardcover - Fred Puleston ran away from home at 17 and went to Africa as an agent for Hattan & Cookson he stayed there off and on for 14 years: 1882 to 1896. This book - which describes those experiences - includes some surprising statements - For example "All white men (except missionaries) of his acquaintance in the Congo had black 'harems'."[one to three native girls - he approved the custom.] Cannibalism was common among the blacks; three of Agent Puleston's friends were eaten. Twice he met Explorer Stanley, "discoverer" of Livingstone. Other chapters deal with witch doctors, and in one he contrasts slavery in Africa as practiced by Africans versus that of white men, whom he accuses of turning two islands into "hell holes." Puleston is also known as one who exposed Alfred Aloysius ("Trader") Horn. Indignation at the gross ignorance of Congo Africa which he detected in the "Horn-books" caused Dr. Puleston (then a prosperous Miami, Florida physician) to exclaim to friends, "I can't believe this man was ever in the Congo!" Illustrated with fantastic art deco paintings and drawings by Andre Durenceau (as one commentator noted "his illustrations tended towards the provocative, and even at times the erotic and grotesque.") including a color frontispiece and endpapers, 5 black and white glossy full page plates and several small drawings at the tail of some of the chapters. 318 pp.

New York: Edward Burlingame / Harper Collins, (1990) dj. Hardcover first edition - Selected by WorldHum in 2006 as one of the top 30 literary travel books of all time: "Like a modern-day Alexis de Tocqueville, Jonathan Raban has traveled the length and breadth of the United States, observing Americans with the keen eye of a foreigner. [This] book traverses the pathways of American immigration from late 19th century Ellis Island to late 20th century Seattle. In the book, Raban fully inhabits each place he visits, even borrowing an old black labrador named Gypsy in Alabama to feel more at home among the locals. He investigates whether a foreigner can truly become an American. In the end Raban realizes that one can adopt American ways but can never become completely American." 373 pp. ISBN: 0-060182091.