#18 - Aviators

Signed book: The First World Flight. First edition, limited issue, numbered 531/575. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925. Hardcover, 6.5 x 9.75, 328 pages. Signed on the colophon in black ink by aviators Lowell Smith, Erik Nelson, Leigh Wade, Leslie Arnold, Henry Ogden, and John Harding, as well as the author, Lowell Thomas. Autographic condition: fine. Book condition: VG-/None. Tan cloth-covered boards and cream paper-covered spine with leather title; slight wear to corners and spine-ends; discoloration and some light foxing to exterior; few minor scuffs to title piece on spine; front hinge cracked but binding still strong. On April 6, 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers and eight crewmen set out from Seattle to attempt the first around-the-world airplane flight. Some 175 days later, on September 28, three of the bi-planes and the six men aboard—all of whom signed this book—became the first to circumnavigate the earth by air. RR Auction COA.