Catalogue

Catalogue
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1416
Release: 1922
Genre: Catalogs, Booksellers'
ISBN:

Sale

Sale
Author: Anderson Galleries, Inc
Publisher:
Total Pages: 890
Release: 1905
Genre: Art
ISBN:

The Cockney Who Sold the Alps

The Cockney Who Sold the Alps
Author: Alan McNee
Publisher: Victorian Secrets
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2015-05-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1906469679

Albert Smith is one of the most famous Victorians of whom you've probably never heard. During his lifetime, he was a household name, thrilling audiences with his Ascent of Mont Blanc show at London's Egyptian Hall. An inveterate showman, Smith was also a doctor, journalist, raconteur, novelist, travel writer, and playwright. His many talents were outstripped only by his boundless self-belief and huge personality. Even Queen Victoria described him in her journal as "inimitable", an epithet Smith's contemporary Charles Dickens liked to reserve for himself. Although Smith died aged only 43, he managed to pack much incident into his short life. He was robbed by highwaymen in Italy, narrowly escaped death in a hot air ballooning accident, and dodged arrest in Paris during the June Days Uprising of 1848. He also got caught up in the row over Dickens's affair with Ellen Ternan. While his bumptiousness made Smith a divisive figure, many saw in him the Victorian ideal of the self-made man: energetic, imaginative, and ready to seize any new opportunity. As Alan McNee explains in this lively biography, it was his intrepid ascent of Mont Blanc in 1851 that propelled Smith to stardom. His subsequent show inspired 'Mont Blanc mania', encouraging participation in mountaineering as a popular pursuit. The Cockney Who Sold the Alps is a story of ambition, spectacle, and the fleeting nature of celebrity.

Book Auction Records

Book Auction Records
Author: Frand Karslake
Publisher:
Total Pages: 840
Release: 1928
Genre: Autographs
ISBN:

A priced and annotated annual record of international book auctions.