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Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason.
A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. [Emily Shackleton’s copy].
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, London;
Date of Publication: 1919
Stock Code: 2743
Third edition. Octavo, pp., ix, [1], 307, [1], plus photographic frontispiece and 16 photographs on 11 plates, as called for. Publisher’s original dark red cloth; titled in gilt to spine; double fillets in blind to upper board. Pencilled signature of Emily Shackleton to front free end-paper and following leaf with address ‘Manor Heath, Eccles’, dated December 1921.
Light surface soiling to cloth; spine sunned; joints starting; shelf-wear to edges. Light foxing to first and final gatherings; one gathering cracked but holding well. A very good copy. Emily Shackleton (1868-1936) was the wife of celebrated explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922). This copy shows that in December 1921 she was at the Shackleton family home reading about the experience of one Polar explorer whilst awaiting the return of her husband. Poignantly, Emily inscribed the book whilst Ernest was on his final fatal expedition to the Antarctic; he died in January 1922 and was buried at South Georgia at the request of his wife. An otherwise unremarkable book made special by its association. £300.00