Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2006 Issue
Travel Books from Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books
The Great Pyramid photographed by Emile Bechard in Andre Palmieri's work.
Anna Leonowens was an English teacher in the Court of Siam, who retold her tale in The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being the Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok. While popular at the time, this story probably would have faded into obscurity but for its later rebirth as a play and movie. It is the basis for the films Anna and the King, and the even better known The King and I. However, the movies have also brought added scrutiny to her tale, and much of it is now in dispute. Perhaps the inability to reconcile Mrs. Leonowens' description of her own upbringing with historical records has made her description of the Siamese Court suspicious. Certainly, she was brought to Bangkok to teach English to the King's children and spent several years in his employ, but she may also have exaggerated her own role, and colorized some of the things she witnessed to create a better story. The King and I has long been banned in Thailand (formerly Siam) because it is considered to be fictional and disrespectful. Fact or fiction, Mrs. Leonowens' story is one that remains well known long after her book was published in 1870. Item 247 includes both this work and her 1873 book, The Romance of the Harem. £3,500 (US $6,424).
American author Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known for his novels, but here is a travel book for which he served as editor: Journal of an African Cruiser: Sketches of the Canaries, Cape de Verds, Liberia, Sierra Leone, &c. This is one of 500 copies published in London (contemporaneous with 1,500 from New York) in 1845. The book is an account of a cruise by an American squadron, written by Hawthorne's college friend Horatio Bridge. Item 17. £1,000 (US $1,835).
For those with an interest in Egypt of over a century past, item 352 is L'Egypte et la Nubie, by Andre Palmieri. This large folio book published in 1887 contains 150 photographs by Emile Bechard. £4,000 (US $7,339).
Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books may be found online at www.shapero.com, telephone +44 (0)20 7493 0876.
