Persian Pictures by Bell Gertrude, First Edition (7 results)

Hardcover. No copyright date or edition presented. Octavo; G-; dark beige 1/4 bound spine with black text; first U.S. edition; no jacket; cloth shows some sun aging to exterior, mostly to head and fore edges; slight fraying to spine edges; chip to front fore edge; otherwise modest edge wear; sturdy boards; text block edges slightly age toned; deckled fore edge; previous owner's bookplate to front pastedown; small white sticker to front pastedown; missing page before preface; small, circular stain toward tail edge to pp 2-22; otherwise interior unmarked; good binding; pp 198. 1344006. FP New Rockville Stock.

First US edition with the Denison Ross introduction. Printed in Great Britain. Cloth spine and rose-colored boards. Front board decorated with the small figure stamped in gilt of an archer on horseback. Tips of boards slightly worn, a very good copy. Search our listings for other books on Persia (Iran) and Persian history and culture.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. First American Edition. This is a near fine hardcover first American edition, linen spine, rose colored boards, no DJ. This is a reissue of her first book, 1896, on British sheets done after her death in 1926. To see what happened after this, watch the 2015 film Queen of the Desert by Werner Herzog, Bell is portrayed by Nicole Kidman. The film chronicles much of Bell's life.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First US Edition. Superficial front hinge crack; spine browned; owner name stamp on endpaper; jacket chipped, browned, coffie stain on rear ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First American edition, from British sheets. Preface by E. Denison Ross. Top corners bumped else near fine in an attractive near very good dustwrapper with several older internal repairs. Scarce in jacket.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. First US edition. 8vo. 198, (2) pp. Recent quarter morocco in a light brown color, gilt spine titles. Board of vintage paste paper in a design of lions rampant and in colors of yellow, brown and green. Yellow handmade endpapers. A fine copy. Persian Pictures was Bell's first published book printed anonymously in 1894 in London, now making its first US appearance. A history of her long stay in Persia, it shows her deep understanding of the culture and no doubt was instrumental in her appointment to the Arab Bureau in Baghdad where she, along with T. E. Lawrence, advocated for independent Arab States in the Middle East. .

First US edition, bound from sheets printed in Britain, of Gertrude Bell's first expedition to the East as a young girl which "not only fills the one gap in her life of which no letters are extant but sets out the reasons for the fascination which that romantic part of the world always had for her" (Dust Jacket Front Panel). Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) dedicated much of her life to the Middle East. She mapped much of the region, participated in the 1921 Cairo conference, and later advocated for independent Arab states following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This first US edition was from sheets printed for the second British edition, which followed an anonymously published edition of 1894. She was originally sceptical about publishing her work but was luckily convinced otherwise by her parents, if only in part, hence the original anonymous publication. "Bell's adult life divided into three phases. In the first, during the 1890s, contemporaries saw her as 'an accomplished young lady of good family and brilliant intellectual gifts.' But dissatisfied with the conventional role of domesticity and philanthropy assigned to well-to-do, unmarried women, she turned to independent travel, first in the Alps, then in the Middle East, with the intellectual dimensions of archaeological discovery and political observation. The latter enabled her to assume a public role as the First World War and the end of Ottoman rule in Arab lands created an official outlet for her expertise. At her death she was commemorated as a brilliant public servant, who helped to shape the post-war settlement in the Middle East and in particular the creation of the kingdom of Iraq"(ODNB). Provenance: Larry McMurtry's (1936-2021) bookplate to front pastedown. McMurty was a prominent American novelist and screenwriter. Octavo. Original tan quarter buckram, spine and front cover lettered in black and decorated in gilt, red paper covers, top edge trimmed, others untrimmed. With dust jacket. Spine toned, minor soiling to covers, light wear to lower edge of boards, webbing slightly exposed at front inner hinge; jacket unclipped, spine sunned with central tear, professionally repaired, rear fold significantly split: a very good copy in good jacket.