The Principle of Relativity, - 1922

Cambridge: At the University Press,, 1922. First edition, first impression, of the author's iconoclastic study of planetary physics. In The Principle of Relativity, Whitehead outlines an alternative theory of gravitation to that developed by Einstein, following several discussions with the great physicist himself. This copy includes a loosely inserted card "With the Author's Compliments" and, though unmarked as such, comes from the collection of Thomas Graeme Nelson Haldane (1897-1981), a Scottish engineer who received the James Hawkesley Gold Medal for developing the geo-thermal energy infrastructure of New Zealand. While Haldane was pursuing his undergraduate studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, Whitehead was invited to deliver the 1919 Tarner lectures. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered and with publisher's device in gilt, front cover panelled in blind. Diagrams in the text. Light bumping and rubbing, minor spotting to covers, endpapers slightly browned, foxing to edges, contents fresh: a very good copy. Victor Lowe & Robert C. Baldwin, "Bibliography of the Writings of Alfred North Whitehead", in Paul Arthur Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, 1951, pp. 761-762.