Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle

Karl Kron

New York

:

Karl Kron

,

1887

.
First Edition. Signed by Author

20cm x 13.5cm. cviii, 800 pages, frontispiece. Original blue cloth, gilt lettering, top edge gilt.

“A book of American roads, for men who travel on bicycle. Its ideal is that of a gazetteer, dictionary, cyclopaedia, statistical guide, thesaurus of facts.” (from preface). A thorough history of 19th century cycling by one of its early adopters. Having never seen a cyclist riding a bicycle Kron ordered and received his first bicycle in 1879. Over the next 3 years he rode over 10,000 miles and contributed regularly to the cycling periodicals of the day. He then set about describing in great detail his touring experiences as well as all sorts of cycling minutiae, including reports from Australasian subscribers. Unable to find a publisher Kron pitched his book to his article readers and received over 3,500 $1 subscriptions. This being one of the subscriber’s autograph edition, signed by Kron on a bound in numbered subscriber’s leaf, of which this is one of Eugene M. Aaron of Philadelphia’s copies. Aaron was an entomologist and the first editor of Entomological News, also a keen cyclist he was Kron’s biggest supporter, with 15 subscriptions.

Minor bumping to board corners and edges. Small soil to spine. Very Good Condition.