Great Britain: Handbook for Travellers: With 28 Maps, 65 Plans, and a Panorama

Karl Baedeker

Karl Baedeker, 1910

Near fine. Bound in publisher's red cloth. Hardcover.  Good binding and cover. Clean, unmarked pages. lxviii, 624 pages : illustrations ; 15 cm + 10 folded maps.  Founded in 1827, Baedeker guides gained popularity during the second half of the 19th century (so much so that Baedekering became part of everyday language). They were an invaluable and essential part of "civilized travel" in the fin-de-siecle. Baedeker was known for both its accuracy and attention to detail. Included in each are intricate colored fold-out maps and floor plans. Baedeker's comments and recommendations open a fascinating window into the mores of a world now past. An interesting side note: Literary references to Baedeker's abound, from E. M. Forester's A Room with a View to Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad. T.E. Lawrence is reputed to have used Baedeker's guide to Palestine during his Doctoral work in the Levant and prompted his Allied superiors to make facsimile copies during WWI. During the Luftwaffe's Vergeltungsangriffe the guides were important enough to be reportedly cited by Gustav Braun von Stumm, that "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide."[3] In the so-called "Baedeker Blitz" of 1942 the English cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York, and Canterbury were bombed.