KINGDON-WARD, Francis.

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On the Road to Tibet. First edition of the great explorer-naturalist's first book, the copy of William Purdom, one of his closest rival plant-hunters. Both men began their adventures in China in 1909, Kingdon-Ward undertaking numerous expeditions over the next four decades and Purdom later serving as a forestry advisor to the Chinese government. This rarity was later in the celebrated travel library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching and has his pencilled initials at the head of the first page.In 1909-10, Kingdon-Ward (1885-1958) joined the zoological Bedford expedition, which was tasked with gathering mammal specimens for the British Museum. Under the leadership of Malcolm Playfair Anderson, the expedition set out from Wuhan on 5 October 1909 and journeyed as far as the Tibetan kingdom of Jone. The expedition marked the beginning of Kingdon-Ward's stellar career, which saw him travel across Asia, often in uncharted regions, and which earned him the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1930) and numerous botanical honours. On the Road to Tibet describes the course of the 1909-10 expedition in 14 articles.This copy is inscribed on the first blank, "William Purdom, from Colonel J. H. Abbott-Anderson, Peking." Purdom (1880-1921) was born into a gardening family and joined the Veitch nursery at the age of 18. After a period spent at Kew Gardens, he led the 1909-12 Veitch-Arnold Arboretum plant-hunting expedition to China. In 1909, shortly after his arrival in China, h

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