The Icelandic Discoverers of America

London: By the Author, 1887. First edition. 8vo. 213pp. Original maroon cloth titled and decorated in gilt, white and blue to spine and front board. Some cracking in places to the cloth of the spine, with a square flake of loss affecting the title at the head of the spine. Minor scuffing and shelfwear, light bumping to extremities, a strong and solid copy with some cosmetic problems. Internally clean, glazed brown endpapers, rather opulent altogether for a self published title. Inscribed by the author to James Lancaster Pollitt on the verso of the front flyleaf, at the American Exhibition in London in 1887 where Brown had her Norse Exhibit. The American Exhibition that year was notable for the appearance of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show. The book is also annotated throughout in pencil, although the vagaries of late 19th century handwriting mean that the notes could be those of Brown, Pollitt, or a later owner. James Pollitt was something of a roving freelance reporter, with a keen eye for detail, who amongst other exploits was sent as an investigator to European prisons to see what kind of products the prison labourers were being made to manufacture. One of the first works to attempt to establish a "Viking" theory of discovery of America over the Columbus theory, although in fairness the Viking hypothesis is rooted more in anti Catholic sentiment, than in a concrete archaeological body of work.