London, Smith Elder, 1912, 1st edition. 337 pp, ill. Half Bound in calf, with leather on the spine and corners. The boards and endpapers use a handsome marbled paper. The calf spine is highly decorated in gold, with gold letters. The top edge is gilt. The bottom edges have a small amount of wear, and the spine title patch for Mallory is missing. Otherwise the book is in Fine condition; the binding is tight, the marbled boards are not worn, as often occurs, there is no foxing, no stains, overall appearance is Near Fine.

This copy is SIGNED on the title page by two mountaineers who will forever be associated with Mallory. If Mallory actually climbed Everest, then Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, on May 29, 1953, were the next persons to reach the summit, 29 years after Mallory's attempt on June 8, 1924. As part of a most serious and well organized search for the remains of Mallory and Irvine, on May 1, 1999 Conrad Anker found the body of George Mallory where he had fallen and died descending from Everest. Whether he and Irvine had summited is unknown.  

Twelve years before he died on Everest, George Mallory published his only book, a piece of literary criticism in the form of a biography and analysis of James Boswell, the famous biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson.