DOUGHTY (CHARLES M.) Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2 vol., WITH CUT SIGNATURE OF THE AUTHOR, second edition, limited to 500 copies, half-titles, plates (some folding), and illustrations in the text, folding lithographed map dissected and laid on linen in pocket at end of volume one as issued, Charles M. Doughty autograph subscription signed mounted on card and loosely inserted, two order forms loosely inserted, publisher's dark green pictorial cloth gilt, damp-stain on upper cover of volume 1, spines slightly faded, spine ends bumped, small chip to spine end of volume 1, 8vo, Lee Warner & Jonathan Cape, 1921 "Travels in Arabia deserta ... is an unrivalled encyclopaedia of knowledge about all aspects of nineteenth-century and earlier Arabia ... so reliable was the book's anthropology of the Bedouin peoples and its topography, that British intelligence mined it for information during the First and Second World wars ... in its authenticity, originality, and power, Doughty's English-Arabic style rivals the work of other Victorian prose masters such as Carlyle, Ruskin, and Pater. Poet Robert Bridges quickly recognized Arabia deserta's uniqueness, and it was one of William Morris's favourite books toward the end of his life" (ODNB).