David Brass Rare Books, Inc

BYRD, Richard Evelyn Skyward 1928

One of Five Hundred Copies Signed by Richard E. "Dick" ByrdBYRD, Richard Evelyn. Skyward. With a foreword by William A. Moffett. New York G.P. Putnam's Sons 1928. Author's Autograph Edition. Limited to 500 numbered copies (this being no. 110), signed by the author and the publisher. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 1/4 in; 242 x 158 mm). [2], xv, [1, blank], 348 pp. Ten photogravure plates, with descriptive tissue guards, and forty-six photographic plates on twenty-three leaves. Headpieces. Folding map at end. Original half blue cloth gilt over blue paper boards with spine stamped in gilt. Edges untrimmed. Housed in the original tan paper covered box with matching limitation number. A very fine copy.Mounted on the front pastedown endpaper is a portion of the fabric (showing both sides) which covered the plane Josephine Ford on her historic flight over the North Pole on May 9th, 1926.Richard Evelyn Byrd wrote several books about his adventures. This, his first book, contains descriptions of his 1928 30 expedition to Antarctica, his flight to the North Pole, and his flight across the Atlantic. "Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888-1957) [was a] U.S. naval officer, aviator, and polar explorer. After serving in World War I, he worked developing navigational aids for aircraft. In 1926 he and Floyd Bennett claimed to have reached the North Pole by airplane, becoming the first to do so. In 1928 Byrd began his explorations of Antarctica with the first expedition to his "Little America" base, which was followed in 1929 by a flight with three companions over the South Pole, again the first such flight. He led subsequent expeditions that discovered and mapped large areas of Antarctica" (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online). In 1926, with pilot Floyd Bennett, Byrd made a flight from Spitsbergen to the North Pole and back again, for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Medal. Byrd was promoted to rear admiral in 1930.

$US950

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