Winner of the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountaineering Literature
This copy of Touching The Void 1st UK edition is SIGNED by Joe Simpson with a message to ''Keep climbing and don't worry about falling, worry about hitting the grave.''
London, Jonathan Cape, 1988, 1st UK ed. 172 pp, 21 b/w and color photos, map, end paper sketch maps. Foreword by Chris Bonington. Original black cloth Hardcover with gilt lettering on spine. The Dust Jacket and book are both in Fine condition. No flaws that I can see, it was Signed as a New book.
We believe there are only about 2000 copies of the 1st UK edition of Touching The Void. That is a minuscule number for a new hardcover book. So it has become a rare collector's item.
This superbly written book contains drama and tension often lacking in expedition reports of this type. Destined to become a classic of Andean literature. Simpson, a skillful climber, and partner Simon Yates achieved a new route on the west face of 21,000' Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. On the descent, disaster struck and Simon was forced to cut the rope, leaving Joe to die in a crevasse. Incredibly, he managed to extricate himself and survive the ordeal. A remarkably written story of friendship and survival.
Secret about TOUCHING THE VOID revealed!
There was a mistake on the copyright page of the UK 1st printing only. The ISBN is wrong, it is correct on the rear of the Dust Jacket, and that number should agree with the ISBN in the book. It does not. Now that we have a 1st printing and 2nd printing in stock I checked the numbers, and it was corrected right away. The 2nd printing book number is correct.
Mistakes like that do not hurt the value of a book. Fifty years ago before books were written on a computer all sorts of mistakes would appear. They are corrected in later editions. It was useful for collecting, if the 1st and later printings differ in small ways, that is used to verify that a book called a 1st edition really is, not a later printing in disguise. Book people call those changes ''points.''
Of course books make changes for other reasons. Like taking out somethings that somebody would be offended by.
