One of the XX rarest Pyrenean books - Tyndall copy - Lot 333

One of the XX rarest Pyrenean books - Tyndall copy RUSSELL-KILLOUGH (Henry Patrice Marie) count Souvenirs of a Montagnard. N.B. - The sale of this work is forbidden. Pau, Vignancour (Lalheugue imprimeur), 1878. Small in-8 : 416pp. Author's autograph letter to Professor Tyndall (dated 1880). ½ burgundy chagrin with corners, gilt title and fillets on smooth spine, red speckled edges. Hard slipcase with protective cover. An undisputed masterpiece of Pyrenean climbing, in the very rare original "du Gave" edition. The climbs are listed in chronological order. The first 22 pages are devoted to the philosophy behind the climbs. Curiously, it was far from the Pyrenees, in Penzance, Cornwall, that Russell put the finishing touches to this "autobiography". Most of the texts had already appeared in various magazines, from the C.A.F. yearbook to the Gazette de Cauterets. One of the twenty rarest (19th century). Legend has it that Russell, dissatisfied with his work, threw them into the Gave de Pau after distributing rare specimens to a few friends. This is inaccurate; he continued to distribute a few of them for 10 years! Dedications by the author bear witness to this. The book Russell had thrown into the Gave was in fact "Histoire d'un coeur", an autobiographical work. It wasn't until 1888 that Russell destroyed the remaining copies of this famous edition. Provenance: Copy of John Tyndall (1820-1893), Irish scientist and mountaineer who was one of the first to identify mechanisms leading to the greenhouse effect (he concluded that water vapor plays an important role in climatology, and that changes in the proportion of gases in the atmosphere can play an important role in climate variations). Tyndall was an influential promoter of science and published several books. In particular, he made a major contribution to the understanding of glacier flow. His research took him to Switzerland on several occasions. He became an accomplished mountaineer, the first to reach the summit of the Weisshorn (4,505 m), and only just failed to climb the Matterhorn in 1862: his guide advised him to turn back shortly before reaching the summit. On several occasions, he visited Henry Russell in his Vignemale caves.