The Whispering Land
( Ralph THOMPSON, illus. ) DURRELL, Gerald
With Illustrations by Ralph Thompson.
NEAR FINE COPY IN UNCLIPPED DUSTWRAPPER
Published: Hart-Davis, 1961
Stock code: 47073
Price: £70.00
8vo., First Edition, with frontispiece, title-vignette and numerous illustrations (a number full-page) in the text, tiny signature on front free endpaper; terracotta cloth, backstrip lettered in silver, a near fine copy in unclipped dustwrapper, the latter chafed (not affecting lettering) at head of backstrip.
Bright, crisp copy of Durrell's account of his animal-collecting expedition to the Argentine during the late 1950s, travelling from Buenos Aires to Patagonia and up to Jujuy. It is another of his collaborations with his finest illustrator Ralph Thompson; the two were brought together in 1954 by Rupert Hart-Davis, who had lured Durrell away from Faber after the success of his first book 'The Overloaded Ark' three years before. The partnership was an extraordinarily fruitful one, lasting a full decade and resulting in Durrell's most attractive books, including, of course, 'My Family and other Animals'.