Snow Crystals by Bentley 1931 Original First Edition
SNB1 $3500
We searched for this very rare book for many years, inspired by the story Wilson Alwyn Bentley. Snowflake Bentley, as he became known, was a farmer from Jericho Vermont and on January 15, 1885 became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal, by a process still used today. He discovered that no two snowflakes were the same and spent his life studying them outside in all weathers, capturing more than more than 5,000 images of crystals. In 1931 Bentley worked with William J. Humphreys of the U.S. Weather Bureau to publish Snow Crystals, with 2,500 photographs. It was the culmination of this life’s work. Sadly, Bentley of pneumonia in December of the same year.
This volume is a first edition, first printing with 227 pages in very good condition. It lacks the original dust jacket, but has been protected by an acrylic cover, keeping the blue buckram binding in very good condition. The Gilt Snowflake is very bright! The corners are lightly scuffed at the very edge as shown, with slight tanning to spine. There is some light foxing to the front and back endpapers, but the image pages are very clean and bright with just a little light foxing on the top margins of a few. It is a tribute to the dedication and perseverance of Snowflake Bentley and now exceedingly rare in this first edition, though late editions published by Dover and others have remained in print since the initial publication.
