Heckmair Vorg Kasparek Harre UM DIE EIGER NORDWANDAlberto

Um die Eiger Nordwand
By
Anderl Heckmair & Ludwig Vörg
& Fritz Kasparek & Heinrich Harrer
1938 TRUE FIRST PRINTING

SIGNED by Heckmair & Harrer

This is the first printing of the first edition. It was published in München by Zentralverlag der NSDAP-Franze Eher Nachf in 1938. It measures 25cm tall x 17cm and has 96 pages of text followed by 61 pages of b/w photos, plus a 62cm x 21cm folding b/w panorama of the Eigerwand in rear pocket. The first printing has 3 pages of clear cellophane overlays with routes printed on them. These go over a photo of the Eigerwand. Later printings don't have these overlays. Text is in german. There was/is no english edition of this book. This is the account of the first ascent by the team members, heavily edited and modified by Nazi propagandists. Each member wrote a chapter. Kasparek gives history of attempts. Vörg writes about his 1937 attempt. Heckmair describes the first ascent. Harrer writes about the descent and the following congratulations & media frenzy.

This book has many photos that have not appeared in the other Eiger books, including photos of the team members posing with Hitler and other prominent Nazis. This was the first book written about the famous ascent. It is well illustrated. The book was reprinted in germany many times, 35 or 40 thousand copies total. However, the first printing was only 5000 copies. First printings in decent dust jackets are uncommon. First printings signed by the authors are rare, considerably less common than double-signed copies of the the first printing of The White Spider. This copy is signed by Anderl Heckmair and by Heinrich Harrer on the frontis photo of the Eigerwand. Finding copies signed by Vörg or Kasparek is almost impossible. Both were killed years ago. Vörg was killed 22 June 1941 in action on the front during the the first day of the german advance against Russia. Kasparek & his ropemate, Toni Matzenauer, were killed in 1954 during an attempt to climb the NE Ridge of Salcantay in Peru. A cornice collapsed under them and they fell down the 1500m SE Face.

CONDITION: Original blue cloth, white lettering cover & spine. SIGNED by Anderl Heckmair and by Heinrich Harrer on the frontispiece photo of the Eigerwand. Book is in nice, clean condition with fading at the very top of spine (where DJ is chipped). Very tip of lower outside corner is rubbed through cloth (2mm). Binding is tight and solid. There is minor fore-edge foxing but no foxing inside on pages or plates. Pages are clean and bright. No writing or marks on any pages other than previous owner's name and date (1938) on lower part of title page. The original dust jacket has rubbing around edges, two 1cm tears on rear panel, a 1cm deep chip around top of spine, tiny chipping at bottom of spine. Price: $1800.

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE.

signatures & title	DJ front	book covers	back panel DJ
bivouac	bivy	climbing	dedication & copyright
early climbers	Heckmair & Vörg	Kasparek & Harrer	high traverse
icefield	with Hitler	with Nazis	folding route photo
overlays	overlays 2	overlays 3	foldout in pocket
on the Spider	traverse 1	traverse 2	team success
spine of DJ