Annapurna: The First 8,000 Metre Peak (26,493 Feet).

HERZOG, Maurice.

Item Number: 138173

London: Jonathan Cape, 1952.

First edition in English, preceding the American edition by one year. Octavo, original blue cloth, illustrated throughout. Lengthily signed by the author on the half-title page, “In souvenir of the conquest of the first 8000 high mountain, Best regards, Maurice Herzog.” Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Translated from the French by Nea Morin and Janet Adam Smith. With an introduction by Eric Shipton.

In 1950, when no mountain taller than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed, Maurice Herzog led an expedition of French climbers to the summit of an 8,075-meter (26,493-foot) Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, the routes up Annapurna had never been charted. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using crude maps, pick out a single untried route, and go for the summit. Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this heroic climb and of its harrowing aftermath, including a nightmare descent of frostbite, snow blindness, and near death. Herzog’s masterful narrative is one of the great mountain-adventure stories of all time. “Those who have never seen the Himalayas, those who never care to risk an assault, will know when they finish this book that they have been a companion of greatness" (New York Times Book Review). Named by National Geographic's as one of the 100 Greatest Adventure books of the 20th century.