↓ Skip to main content
D The Drew Archive One house, many rooms
← Drew's Home Library
Book in the collection

The Boy Travellers in South America

by Thomas W. Knox

The Work

First published
1886
Original publisher
Harper & Brothers
Originally published in
New York

Drew's Copy

Edition
1886 Harper & Brothers edition
Publisher
Harper & Brothers
Published in
New York
Copy published
1886
Binding
Elaborately decorated red-brown cloth hardcover with gilt and black pictorial stamping
Collection status
On the shelves
Reading status
Owned
Condition
Good; moderate rubbing and edge wear, bumped corners, wear at the spine ends, light foxing, and age-toned pages; the elaborate binding, route map, color plate, and text block remain intact
Travel LiteratureAdventure FictionSouth AmericaEcuadorPeruBoliviaBrazilParaguayArgentinaChilePatagoniaAmazon RiverNineteenth Century

Acquisition & Provenance

Acquisition type
Purchased
Source
ThriftBooks
Price paid
Less than $20 total
Provenance
Purchased from an image-free listing; the exact edition, binding, and physical condition were unknown until delivery.

How This Copy Came to the Library

This was a risky purchase that paid off. I found the book through ThriftBooks for less than $20 delivered, but the listing included no photographs. I had no way to confirm which edition or binding they would send, or what the copy would actually look like when it arrived.

The gamble worked. Instead of receiving a nondescript or badly damaged reading copy, I opened the package to find this extraordinary 1886 Harper & Brothers edition. Its elaborate pictorial binding survived, along with the folding route map and color plate. For the price, and given how little information the listing provided, it was one of those rare secondhand-book purchases where the uncertainty became part of the pleasure of discovery.

Why This Book Is in My Library

Drew kept this volume because a blind, inexpensive ThriftBooks purchase unexpectedly produced one of the most attractive decorated copies on his Knox shelf.

Place in My Physical Library

This volume stands at the end of Drew’s photographed shelf of Thomas W. Knox travel and adventure books.

About This Copy

The title page identifies this as the 1886 Harper & Brothers edition of The Boy Travellers in South America: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Chili, with Descriptions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and Voyages upon the Amazon and La Plata Rivers. The copyright notice is dated 1885.

The binding is among the most visually ambitious on Drew’s Knox shelf. Its red-brown cloth carries gilt and black imagery drawn from the book’s subject matter, including figures, weapons, featherwork, sculptural forms, and a band of Mesoamerican-style figures across the top. Inside, the copy retains a folding map with the travellers’ routes marked in red and a color Andean scene signed by C. Graham.

An image-free ThriftBooks gamble produced one of the most visually striking nineteenth-century bindings on Drew’s Knox shelf.

Part of a CollectionThe Boy Travellers

Nine Boy Travellers volumes by Thomas W. Knox, collected as artifacts of American travel writing, childhood reading, and the rapidly changing world of the 1880s and 1890s.

Explore the collection
Drew's Copy
Front cover of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
The unusually elaborate red-brown, gilt, and black pictorial binding of Drew's copy.
Shelf and spine of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
The South America volume at the end of Drew's photographed Thomas W. Knox shelf.
Title page of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
The title page records the 1886 Harper & Brothers publication.
Copyright page of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
The 1885 copyright notice beneath an early Harper catalogue of Knox's travel books.
Illustration of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
A surviving color plate of travellers and pack animals in an Andean landscape.
Physical detail of Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in South America
Physical detail
In the Same Series
Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in the Levant The Levant Drew's 1895 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in Northern Europe Northern Europe Drew's 1892 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in Great Britain and Ireland Great Britain and Ireland Drew's 1891 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in Mexico Mexico Drew's 1890 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers on the Congo The Congo Drew's 1888 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire Russian Empire Drew's 1887 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part First: Japan and China Japan and China Drew's Undated; in circulation by Christmas 1892 copy Drew's copy of The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Egypt and the Holy Land Egypt and the Holy Land Drew's Undated copy
More by This Author
Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World The Young Nimrods Around the World Drew's 1882 copy