Holmby House Book Owned by Titanic Survivor Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice

Description: Book Owned by Titanic Survivor Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice Holmby House: A Tale of Old Northamptonshire by G.J. Whyte-Melville. Published in 1901 by W. Thacker & Co., London. Hardcover, 428 pages. This volume is one of a LIMITED EDITION of 1050 copies. It was volume 20 of the 24-volume "Edition De Luxe" of Whyte-Melville's works, bound in three-quarter leather with top edge gilt. This volume contains the bookplate of Alexander Hamilton Rice and Eleanor Elkins Rice (see photo). Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice (c. 1862–1937) was an American heiress, socialite, philanthropist, and adventuress. In 1912, Eleanor and her then-husband George Dunton Widener traveled to Paris with their elder son Harry, in search of a chef for their new hotel, Philadelphia's Ritz Carlton. On April 10, they embarked at Cherbourg on the RMS Titanic for their return to the United States. The Wideners occupied cabins C-80/82. On the night the ship sank they hosted the ship's captain, Edward Smith, at dinner in its À la Carte Restaurant. George and Harry helped Eleanor into Lifeboat #4 and then stepped back to await their fate. George, Harry, and their valet Edwin Keeping all perished in the sinking, but Eleanor and her maid Amalie Gieger survived -- rescued by the RMS Carpathia. Soon after the Titanic disaster, Eleanor donated the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library to Harvard University, at a cost of $3.5 million (equivalent to $70 million in 2021). (Harry Widener, who was "intensely interested in the collection of rare and valuable books", had graduated from Harvard College in 1907.) At the library's June 1915 dedication, Widener met Harvard professor Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr., a surgeon and noted South American explorer and "Boston Brahmin." On October 6, 1915, she married Rice while wearing the $750,000 string of pearls she had saved from the Titanic. (Another string, worth $250,000, had been lost.) Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr. (1875 – 1956) was an American physician, geographer, geologist and explorer especially noted for his expeditions to the Amazon Basin. He was professor of geography at Harvard University from 1929 to 1952, and was the founder and director of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration. As a geographer and explorer Rice specialized in rivers. On seven expeditions, beginning in 1907, he explored 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2) of the Amazon Basin, mapping a number of previously unmapped rivers in the northwestern area of the Amazon Basin reaching into Colombia and Venezuela. George John Whyte-Melville (1821 – 1878) was a Scottish novelist much concerned with field sports, and also a poet. He took a break in the mid-1850s to serve as an officer of Turkish irregular cavalry in the Crimean War. The book is in nice condition, as shown. There is some wear to the seams and corners of the cover and the knobs of the spine. Other portions of the cover show light scuffing. The ribbon marker has detached from the book and is in two pieces, but we have retained it for the purchaser. The interior of the book is clean. While the volume on its own would be a handsome addition to anyone's bookshelf, its former ownership by a noted survivor of the Titanic sinking adds a rare luster. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our father was a bibliophile who collected rare books, letters, and ephemera for more than 60 years. For now and into the foreseeable future, we will be listing rare paper items from his estate. Take a look at all our items for sale. We combine shipping upon request. Please LET US KNOW if you’ve purchased multiple items so we can combine.

Price: 597 USD

Location: Slingerlands, New York

End Time: 2024-02-06T23:14:03.000Z

Shipping Cost: 20 USD