The Rev. James Gilmour - Among the Mongols - 1888

Excellent copy, with 33 wood-engraved plates

Gilmour's account of his Missionary work in Mongolia which occupied almost 15 years of his life. James Gilmour [1843 - 1891] was Scottish missionary & preacher who first went into the Mongolian desert in 1870 & was on his way back there when he died of Typhus in Tanjin in 1891. Gilmour first entered Mongolia from China via Kalgan. He travelled throughout the country with a box of medicines, living with the Mongol tribes of the Eastern Gobi for several years. He writes on their home life, manners and customs, diseases, cures and superstitions, beggars, the "Supreme Lama" and the role of Buddhism, music and festivals.

The book was extremely popular when first published in 1882, the missionary loneliness of his travels being likened to the trials of Robinson Crusoe by one critic. The book contains much on the nomadic lives of the Mongols & of their Chinese & Russian neighbours.

Item Description
Handsome copy, and fascinating book of Victorian travel and exploration. Illustrated with frontispiece, full-page wood-engraved plates, and drawings in text (Engravings are believed to be from a Chinese artist in Kalgan). Published by The Religious Tract Society, London, 1888. Publishers’ original decorative blue boards, with dark blue lettering on upper cover and spine. Brilliant all page edges gilt.

Book Dimensions: 19 x 13 cm and Number of Pages: 383

Condition
The book is beautifully bound, designed and illustrated. Firm and well bound copy. External covers in nice shape, and very clean, with light wear to corners. Internally the book in very good condition indeed. The first and last blank free endpaper pages are removed. No names or inscriptions. Pages are clean, with occasional foxing marks on the margin of few pages. Inner hinges is very good, and pages are tightly held at gutters. The text is fresh. The illustrations make this a truly beautiful title (Please see pictures).