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ERNST PEKAR : 1929 - 1936 EXTREMELY DETAILED HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF A BUSY AUSTRIAN ALPINE MOUNTAIN CLIMBER - HUNDREDS OF CANCELLATION STAMPS

12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. On offer is a most remarkable handwritten journal of an Austrian mountain climber spanning the years 1929 - 1936. This busy mountain climber signed on the first page of the book - Ernst Pekar, Wien (Vienna), member no. 10704 Gruppe Wien der Sektion Oesterr. Touristenklub des D.v. Oes.A. V. The diary of many, many dozens of climbs in dozens of locales is written in German language, in pencil. Initially our author writes in regular cursive script and then switches to the German fraktur in 1936. Perhaps this reflects the changes in the political scene. There are all together 240 cancellations from various Alpine lodgings and mountain tops giving the elevations and mountain, some beautifully decorated with Edelweiss. Most of the stamps are in the 5 x 7" hardcover booklet as integral part of his meticulous entries, some are on loose small sheets. The diary is rich in names of pathes, meadows, huts, roads, stations along the way, mountain tops. The writer even kept times of how long every step of the way took. Some of the mountains he climbed - Grossvenediger 3660 m ("allein am Gipfel, Aussicht!! - Alone at the top, View!!"), Grossglockner 3792 m, Schladminger Tauern, Radstaetter Tauern, Rax, Hochkoenig, Wechsel, Hohe Wand, Muntanitz, Dolomites (Italy) etc. etc. etc. In 1934 he went to a mountainclimbing school. Ski trips. In between his entries are also signatures of fellow mountainclimbers. The entries abruplty end on June 7, 1936 with a trip to the Hohe Veitsch. Mysteriously the very last cancellation in the book from the Oetscherhhaus 1418 m is dated in a different, modern hand and dated 20.8.1963. All told there are 115 written pages, 228 cancellation stamps of mountain lodgings in book, some by groups like Oesterreichischer Touristenklub, Oesterreichischer Gebirgsverein, Deutscher Alpen-Verein, Alpenvereinszweig Austria, and more, 4 small b&w photographs, 2 pressed flowers (Buschwindroeschen), 3 printed pamphlets (Ringwarte, Sparbacherhuette, Austria Nachrichten), 12 cancellations on loose pieces of paper. Wealth of information and references from the Alpine mountainclimbing and hiking world of the 1930's. Inner hinge is cracked but the inner pages are G+.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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