David Spilman Fine Books

Around the World On a Bicycle; [from the Steve Fossett collection]

Birchmore, Fred A.

Montchanin, Delaware: Cumberland Island Storytellers, 1996. Near Fine in Very Good dust-jacket First Edition. [first published in 1939] Inscribed by Author, [9.25x6.5in]; xiv, 406 pp., numerous black and white images and illustrations; Red smooth cloth covers with gilt lettering on front and spine, border design on front, maps on front and back end papers, all edges trimmed; Cream dust jacket with black lettering on front and on pale yellow spine, collage of images on front over background of map and illustration of bicycle; Minimal shelf wear to book with minor rubbing to bottom edge, inscription by Birchmore "May good health & Happiness go with you for the rest of your journey through life on God's beautiful Spaceship Earth Sincerely, Fred A. Birchmore", bookplate of Steve Fossett, laid in one page sheet on Birchmore's introduction to the Gainesville Rotary Club; Some shelf wear to dust jacket with small chips and closed tears to top and bottom edges and repaired at top of front. Item #13646

Fred A. Birchmore (1912-2012) was an adventurer and know for his 1935 round the world bicycle journey. This is a reprint of the 1939 book that was issued in a small edition by the University of Georgia. In the 1920's & 30's there were great adventures by individuals and expeditions to for discovery, science and just the romance of new experiences. This book is written in the romanticism of the era with tales that seem a fantasy today. This is similar to the books of Richard Halliburton and others.

Steve Fossett (1944-2007) was a successful commodities trader and an adventurer that set world records in balloons, sailboats, gliders and unique powered aircraft. His 2,000 + book collection included significant and authoritative accounts of aeronautics, polar, Asia, Australasia, circumnavigation's, mountaineering and others. In 2007, Fossett disappeared on a solo flight in a light aircraft over the eastern Sierra Mountains along the California and Nevada border. The wreckage was found by hikers a year later along the rugged Mt. Ritter range in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in Madera County, about 10 miles east of Yosemite National Park.

Price: $50.00