Venice by James Morris first edition 1960

London: Faber and Faber, 1960
 
8vo., red cloth with gilt device to upper board, and lettered in gilt to spine; blue printed dust jacket (price clipped); pp. [viii], 9-337, [iii]; frontis drawings of various boats by Gerry Facey, proliferated throughout with black and white photographs of the city, as well as two maps; a fine copy, lightly compressed at spine ends; in very good dust jacket, creased and rubbed along the spine and folds, with very slight loss of colour in places. 
 
First edition. The rare first issue, in the correct first issue jacket, without the later publisher’s reviews. 
 
Described by the publisher as ‘A Love Letter to Italy’s most iconic city’, and arguably Morris’ most famous work, Venice is part historical guide, part memoir, and part essay. Morris first visited Venice during the second world war with the British Army, and for two months was responsible for running all of the requisitioned motor boats out of the city before continuing on with the regiment to Egypt and Palestine. Later, in 1959, Morris returned to the city with her family, and she proceeded to write a further three books on the same subject, as well as countless articles. 
 
Increasingly scarce in this condition, the work is sometimes hailed as one of the best ever written on the subject of this Italian city.