Smith, Albert

FIRST EDITION, 8vo (195 x 117mm.), hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece, wood-engraved illustrations, 8pp. adverts at end, red morocco gilt by Rivière, t.e.g., original orange cloth binding (one cover and spine) bound in at end

Simeon Warner, bookplate

Abbey, Travel 66

A good copy
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A HANDSOME COPY.

"On 12 August 1851 Smith climbed Mont Blanc with three Oxford students and sixteen guides. On 15 March 1852 ‘Mr. Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc’ opened at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, on a stage resembling a Swiss chalet. He interspersed descriptions of his journey to Chamonix with patter songs lampooning British tourists in Europe, and St Bernard dogs roamed the hall during the intermission. The show culminated in his dramatic account of the ascent. ‘Mont Blanc’ was a sensational success and ran for six years. He also published The Story of Mont Blanc (1853), describing his own and earlier ascents.

Smith's show also inspired many people to visit Chamonix and to climb Mont Blanc. Although the mountain had been climbed first in 1786, ascents were still infrequent events when he climbed the peak. John Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Switzerland noted that the ascent ‘of Albert Smith, in 1851, has effectually popularized the enterprise’. During Smith's entertainments in the 1850s the ascent of Mont Blanc became common, and mountaineering in the Alps became a popular sport. He was a founder member of the Alpine Club in 1857." (ODNB)

Loosely inserted in this copy is a printed slip regretting that one of his performances at the Egyptian Hall is over-subscribed and that no more tickets are available. To this the author has added in his own hand, "Dear ?Stockey, We are very much driven at present... wait a little longer..."