THE ASCENT OF EVEREST

First edition, first printing. Signed by Sir Edmund Hillary. Publisher's original blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in the W. Heaton Cooper illustrated dustwrapper. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece, seven colour plates, 48 black & white plates and numerous text vignettes. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with a Christmas 1953 gift inscription to the half title and a previous owner's name to the front endpaper, are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that has a couple of tiny chips at the head of the spine. Not price-clipped (25/- net to the lower front flap).

Signed by Edmund Hillary in blue ink on the front endpaper, underneath which the previous owner has inscribed "Autographed 1954 / 3-9-54". An account of the ninth British expedition to Everest, on which Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. The bulk of the book is written by the expedition leader Brigadier Sir John Hunt; Edmund Hillary contributes chapter 16 'The Summit'. Loosely laid in are cut autographs of expedition party members Charles Evans (deputy leader) and Michael Westmacott.