Letters of Fletcher Christian

Description

Author: Fletcher Christian
Format: Craft Bound
Imprint: Genesis Publications
ISBN: 9780904351293

This fascinating book was first published in 1796 under the title: Letters from Mr Fletcher Christian Containing a Narrative of the Transactions on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty Before and After Mutiny, With His Subsequent Voyages and Travels in South America. The Letters of Fletcher Christian is a fine facsimile of an original 1796 copy.

Who was the author of this exceedingly rare and curious volume? Could it have been Fletcher Christian himself? Might James Morrison, boatswain’s mate on the Bounty or William Wordsworth, poet and boyhood acquaintance of Christian, have been involved with the book’s publication? Could Fletcher have escaped death on Pitcairn and travelled to South America?

All these and other possibilities are discussed, and a summary of Christian’s life is recorded, in Stephen Walter’s comprehensive Introduction to this fine facsimile. Also included are portraits of Christian’s parents never published before, a colour frontispiece and nine black-and-white illustrations.

Genesis Publications Ltd., Guildford, 1st.ed., 1984, Limited to 350 Numbered Copies Only, of which this is # 152. Xxxi + 190 pp., cold. guarded frontis., + 2 cold. oval portraits & several woodcuts. In addition every page has a pictorial border. Half black calf; raised bands; maroon calf title-piece to spine; gilt with gilt centre-panel decorations; front mustard-coloured board with pict. wood block; rear board with facsimile signature; all edges gilt; plain mustard slip-case with pictorial paper title-piece. 25 x 18cm