The Station. Athos: Treasures and Men.

The First UK Printing published by Duckworth in 1928. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. Original Blue cloth has a little rubbing at the corners. Gilt titling remains very bright. Light toning to the text block with a little spotting to the prelims. Pages remain clean. Free from erasures and inscriptions. The WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good++ or better condition. A little toned to the spine with mild edge wear with a little loss to the lower front edge and spine ends. A few professional Japanese tissue paper repairs to the verso. The coloured designs to the covers remain very bright. Mild vertical crease to the spine. The wrapper looks very striking in the removable Brodart archival cover. One of Byron's earliest titles with a frontispiece of Simopetra and 32 further B/W photographic illustrations, mainly by the author. In a 1984 reprint of The Station, John Julius Norwich, himself a life-long traveller, writes in a very erudite Introduction : 'No better portrait of the Holy Mountain exists than this, written as it was nearly sixty years ago; nor is it likely to be surpassed in the future. Here, in short, is a classic. And a classic it will remain. What higher praise than this can be gained by someone who was only twenty-two when he wrote the book. Robert Byron changed the English-speaking world's view of Byzantine art and culture through 'The Station' and 'The Byzantine Achievement', published the year after. This book is therefore more than a travel book and more than a study of the monastic society of Mount Athos. It is also a historical enquiry into the civilization of Byzantium seen in its only surviving manifestation. With typical Byzantine complexity the obscure title of the book is only explained in the last sentence : 'This is the Holy Mountain Athos, station of a faith where all the years have stopped'.' Byron was to go on to write his classic title 'The Road To Oxiana' in 1937 before being tragically killed aged 35 in 1941 after his ship, the 'SS Jonathan Holt', was torpedoed by U-97 a submarine in the North Atlantic. His body was never found. A very sharp title and scarce title to find with such attributes. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.