Alexandria: A History and a Guide.

Alexandria: Whitehead Morris Limited,, 1922. First edition, first impression. Copies of this edition are scarce, for "a very large proportion" of the stock was destroyed by fire in the publisher's warehouse during the Blitz (Kirkpatrick, p. 39). As Forster wrote in a letter circa 1956, "I am afraid both editions of my Alexandrias are extinct". Lawrence Durrell, author of the Alexandria Quartet, wrote that in this work "the whole historical perspective of the city, in all its variety, has been captured and fixed in a series of short essays brightly starred with all the virtues of this fine artist. With a marvelous economy he brings the place to life - and gives life to the great personages who inhabited it: philosophers, poets, mathematicians, courtesans. Each portrait is a cameo. And the book despite its strictly utilitarian form and severely practical arrangement of matter is the work of a master essayist. It is in fact vintage Forster." Octavo. Original brown boards, spine and front board lettered in black. Housed in custom marbled card slipcase. Engraved frontispiece, 17 plates, 2 folding maps, and a colour-printed folding map housed in pocket of rear pastedown. Spine toned, a few marks on front cover, foxing to edges and offsetting to endpapers, faint splash marks at upper margins of second half of book block, text and illustrations clean. A very good copy of this rare publication, complete with the loosely inserted folding map. Kirkpatrick A8a. Lawrence Durrell, "A Traveler in Egypt", New York Times, 15 Jan. 1961; E. M. Forster, autograph letter signed, sold by Peter Harrington, stock no. 128013.