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Book in the collection

The Young Nimrods Around the World

by Thomas W. Knox

The Work

First published
1882
Original publisher
Harper & Brothers
Originally published in
New York

Drew's Copy

Edition
1882 edition
Publisher
Harper & Brothers
Published in
New York
Copy published
1882
Binding
Decorated blue cloth hardcover with gilt and black stamping
Collection status
On the shelves
Reading status
Owned
Condition
Very good for its age; binding tight, text unmarked, with fading and wear at the spine ends and cover edges
Travel LiteratureAdventure FictionNineteenth CenturyHuntingWorld History

Acquisition & Provenance

Acquisition type
Purchased
Source
Andre Strong Bookseller, Blue Hill, Maine
Price paid
$15.00
Previous owner
Peter Gibley Jr. (name appears in an early gift inscription; reading uncertain)
Inscription / bookplate
Early pencil gift inscription, apparently from the recipient’s Aunt Minnie and dated June 4, 1892; portions of the handwriting are difficult to read.
Provenance
The bookseller’s descriptive slip remains with the copy and records catalogue number 24445, the $15 price, and the condition at the time of sale.

Why This Book Is in My Library

I enjoy Knox’s books because the adventures are fictional, but the world behind them was informed by his own experience as an American journalist and traveler. They preserve a distinctly nineteenth-century encounter with distant places: a moment when steam travel, railroads, telegraphy, and industrialization were making more of the world accessible, but before the world wars, revolutions, and later globalization transformed societies on an even larger scale.

That does not make Knox a neutral observer. His books carry the assumptions and limitations of an American writer of his period, and they should be read with that in mind. But that perspective is itself part of their interest to me. Knox offers a glimpse of how an American from my own national heritage imagined the wider world in the 1880s, at a distinctive turning point in modern history.

Place in My Physical Library

The book stands with Drew’s growing shelf of Thomas W. Knox travel and adventure books, including volumes from the Boy Travellers series.

About This Copy

This is an 1882 Harper & Brothers copy in decorated blue cloth, retaining its gilt title band and globe design. The title page places it within Hunting Adventures on Land and Sea as Part II, following The Young Nimrods in North America (1881). These two Young Nimrods books are closely related to Knox’s better-known Boy Travellers books, though they overlapped with the early Far East volumes rather than strictly preceding the entire series.

The copy also preserves two modest pieces of provenance: an early pencil gift inscription and the descriptive slip from the Maine bookseller who offered it for $15. Together with the wear to the cloth and the surviving engraved illustrations, they make this particular volume more than a bibliographic example—they record a book that has passed through several hands for nearly a century and a half.

Knox’s fictional journey is valuable in the library both as an illustrated nineteenth-century adventure and as a period American view of a world in rapid transition.

Drew's Copy
Front cover of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The decorated blue cloth front cover of Drew's 1882 copy.
Shelf and spine of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The volume at the left of Drew's shelf of Thomas W. Knox books.
Half-title of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The damaged tissue-protected half-title, showing the book's place as Part II of Hunting Adventures on Land and Sea.
Title page of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The title page identifies the book as Part II of Hunting Adventures on Land and Sea and records the 1882 Harper & Brothers publication.
Copyright page of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The copyright notice records entry in 1882 by Harper & Brothers.
Illustration of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The engraved plate “A Tropical Bathing-Place.”
Provenance document of Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
The retained Andre Strong Bookseller description records the copy, its condition, catalogue number 24445, and a $15 price.
Inscription or bookplate in Drew's copy of The Young Nimrods Around the World
Inscription or bookplate
More by This Author
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