Under the editor ship of H. Adams Carter, David Robertson, Christian Beckwith, John Harlin, Dougald MacDonald, and others for the last ninety-five years this has become the Journal of Record for important climbs in the Himalaya, Karakoram, Andes, Patagonia, Alaska, Canada, Antarctica, Baffin Island, plus of course the USA and South America.
A complete mountaineering library needs these journals as most climbs are never mentioned in books, and the only reference to even major peaks is often only in Journals. For many years, and even today, expeditions to remote regions that had no guidebooks start their planning with the AAJ. Of course unsuccessful climbs rarely have a book done, it does happen like some of Bonington's Everest and Annapurna climbs. And of course all the pre-WW2 Mount Everest and K2 attempts, and the Germans on Nanga Parbat.
The original owner of this set of AAJs was a gentleman climber in the 1920s and 1930s. He collected AAJs until 1970. At some point he decided it would be a nice idea to have the journals bound in cloth covered boards, like fine books. So he ordered a set of covers that were custom made, with gold titles on the spine titles. However, he never had the journals bound in. He merely placed the journals in the covers on his bookshelves.
This has helped preserve the early issues in Near Fine condition. We will include the covers, which are still in bright new condition, if the buyer wants them. Modern collecting conventions seem to lean more toward leaving the journals as they were issued. Also, it would probably be expensive to have the journals bound. (Of course if you can afford to buy a set of AAJs you can afford to have it bound.)
A full set of the premier Mountaineering Journal in the world! The most recent approx 100 issues, 1929-2024.
These 100 volumes are a tremendous resource complete with expedition accounts from around the world, club activities, book reviews, and much more! This set will take up six feet of shelf space and weighs over 150 pounds.
If we ship this set to you, we will charge postage for 100 heavy books, both domestic or international, on this set, as it weighs 150 pounds. As of 2024 it costs about $250 USA Domestic Media Rate to anyplace with an American Zip Code.
Although we do not normally use UPS, we will, if requested, ship these Journals to you by UPS ground. It will be expensive, compared to UPS Media Rate, which is by design cheaper than any other method of surface shipping of books in the USA.
This is an image for the most recent 40+ issues:
