Oceanic Birds of South America (two vols., association copy)
NY: American Museum of Natural History, 1936. First edition. Hardcover. An association copy (copies) of the true first edition of this title, which won the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing in 1938, the year of this signing. On the front free end paper of volume one: "Inscribed with enthusiasm for my colleague Eleanor Elizabeth Herrick, Robert Cushman Murphy, Woodmere, June 19th, 1938." Volume two is also signed and dated (but not inscribed) by Murphy. Uncommon signed, and importantly both volumes are signed additionally by the illustrator Francis Lee Jacques, which is scarce. Eleanor Herrick Stickney was for thirty years the ornithologist and librarian at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Woodmere, Long Island, is where she grew up. She was a precocious birder who joined the American Ornithologist Union (AOU) at age 14, and she was mentored by Murphy (this book signed to her at the age of 19) and he remained a great friend. They corresponded extensively. Related to this book, she produced the offprint "Birds Collected During the Whitney South Sea Expedition," published in the American Museum [of Natural History] Noviates series in 1943. Murphy helped organize later stages of the Whitney expedition, it seems, and he suggested this study to Stickney and helped facilitate it (she thanks him and Ernst Mayr in the publication). Robert Cushman Murphy was a prominent ornithologist and the Lamont Curator of Birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He served as the president of the AOU and won its Brewster Medal. His papers are at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. This book is an authoritative study of South American ocean and shore birds, his expertise, based on a range of field work, but especially the Brewster-Stanford expedition and its resulting collection of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. Dedicated to his predecessor at the AMNH, Frank M. Chapman. Two small quartos, thick at more than 600 pages each. Blue-green cloth with gilt lettering. With sixteen colored plates (paintings) between them by Jacques and additional black and white photos, sketches, and figures throughout. An extra (duplicate) color plate is laid in at the front of each volume. No dust jackets as issued. 1200 copies of the first edition were printed, and this is copy 560 per the rear colophon in volume 2. The MacMillan edition also states a publication date of 1936, but it's the trade edition printed in 1943. Both volumes are very good with a minor bumping/rubbing to corners and toning to the text block faces, with faint foxing to their outer edges. A nice association, and scarce with Jacques's signatures. Note: Shipping to international destinations may require extra postage fees in light of the weight of these volumes. Very good. Item #1735
Price: $750.00 save 47% $397.50