The Third Route 1929 SASSOON, Philip

SASSOON, Philip

Introduction by Thornton Wilder

[279] pp.

Doubleday, Doran & Company

1929

9 1/4" x 6 1/2"

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Philip Sassoon's personal account of his celebrated 17,000 mile flying tour in 1928 of British overseas air stations in his capacity as Air Minister. He visited Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, India and Malta. The aim of the tour was two-fold - firstly, to inspect the Empire's network of air bases; secondly, to test the new air route to India with a view to opening it up to civilians. The title Third Route refers to this new passage to India which, in Sassoon's view, followed on from Vasco da Gama and the Suez Canal. Rex Whistler's map illustrates these three routes and is reproduced on the dust jacket. Unlike the British edition, the American edition does not reproduce the map on the endpapers as well. It also doesn't credit Whistler's illustrations to the jacket, assigning 'jacket design' to Frank Macintosh. The aerial photographs reproduced in the book offered readers a fresh vantage point to the world's archaeological sites and cities. All proceeds from the book were given to the Royal Air Force Memorial Fund. T.E. Lawrence wrote to Sassoon after reading his copy - 'Yesterday I re-read your Third Route (in my usual fashion, which is to toss through a new book in an hour, first time and if it seems to ask for more, to go through it again slowly, after a fortnight). Yours did definitely ask for it.' (letter dated 15 May 1929). Scarce with the Whistler dust jacket.

Philip Sassoon. Introduction by Thornton Wilder. Dust jacket and cover device by Rex Whistler. Doubleday, Doran & Company. New York. 1929. First edition. American edition. Hardback, octavo; red cloth-bound boards, gilt titles and device to front board and spine, dust jacket. xv, 279 pages. 25 hors texte illustrations and one folding map. English. 225 x 155mm. 0.75kg. . Very good, in good dust jacket, light wear to jacket with some chipping to spine ends and edges, neat tape repairs to verso, light browning, not price-clipped; light browning to pages, neat ownership inscription to front endpaper, small numbered label to rear endpaper. [Whistler, Laurence & Ronald Fuller, 'The Work of Rex Whistler', 1960, no. 422; Collins, Damian, 'Charmed Life. The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon', 2016, p.183, 195-6