Baedeker's & Murray's Feedback

Thanks for the emails regarding posts on vintage travel guide resources. Please note that any valuations on your Baedekers, Murrays, Meyers, Muirheads, etc. are only estimates.

Baedeker's & Murray's References

A collector recently asked for some good reference sources on Baedeker's travel guides and Murray's Hand-Books. The best resource on English Language editions of Baedekers is Baedeker's Guidebooks : A Checklist of English Language Editions 1861 - 1939 by John R. Gretton ( Dereham Books ). The best overall reference book on Baedekers is Baedekers Reisehandbucher 1832 - 1944 by Alex Hinrichsen. A terrific book for Murray's collectors is A Bibliography of Murray's Handbooks For Travellers by William B. C. Lister ( Dereham Books UK ). A great website for collectors is http://bdkr.com .

A personal note to the buyer who returned the Baedeker's sans maps : Shame on you. bb

Old Travel Guides ( Really Old Travel Guides )

A book buyer recently asked us to identify the first published travel guide. Well, the earliest travel guidebook that we could name was Descriptions of Greece by the Roman author Pausanias. Written in 160 AD for rich Roman tourists, Descriptions of Greece was a multi-volume guidebook that explored towns, temples and cultural sites in extraordinary detail. Amazingly, the archeologist Heinrich Schliemann reportedly used Pausanias' old guide to uncover ruins in Mycenae.

Murray's Hand-Book & other travel guide query

Thanks to "travelbug" for the comment on my recent posts regarding the history of the Baedeker's travel guide series. I do hope to follow up with future posts on other travel book series, especially Murray's & Cook's. As to your question on the value of your Murray's Switzerland and the Guide Treves, it depends on the year of publication, scarcity and of course condition. Please feel free to email me with the details on your guide books and scans or photos, and I'll try and give you an estimate of value.( ceruleanday@hotmail.com )

Baedeker's Handbook(s) : Part 2

By the late 1850's, the Baedeker's catalog included more than a dozen German language titles, as well as five French language travel guides. The publication of French titles was a surprising move for Karl Baedeker, who famously complained to John Murray ( of the renowned British travel series ) that he disliked France and that he had never been to Paris.Still, handbooks from the French language series proved to be very popular with educated Americans, British and European travellers during the mid-19th century. Baedeker also filled the gaps in his own catalog by acting as a distributor for Murray's Handbooks in Germany.
When Karl died unexpectedly in 1859, his eldest son, Ernst, became the head of the family publishing house. After clashing with John Murray over the possibility of English language Baedeker editions, Ernst introduced their first original English language guides in 1861, with the publication of "The Rhine". He also began the wildly popular Italy series, with both French and Germany language editions.
With the tragic death of Ernst at age 28 in l861, Karl Baedeker II took over the business. During the 1860's, Baedeker produced dozens of new titles in German, French and English. By 1872, when the firm moved to Leipzig, Baedekers had become the preeminent travel guide publisher in Europe. In order to compete with Murray's, Baedeker expanded his publications to include the Middle East, with guides to Palestine, Syria and Egypt in the late '70s.
Due to deteriorating mental health, Karl retired and the third son, Fritz became the head of the firm. Under Fritz's leadership, Baedeker opened the "Baedeker's European & Oriental Handbooks English Editorial Office" in London, under the management of James Findlay Muirhead, who went on to start his own travel series, The Blue Guides, during World War I.
Between 1881 and 1914, Baedekers published nearly 900 editions covering Europe, North America, the Middle East, Russia, and even India. However, the devastating impact of WW I on the German economy resulted in tremendous problems for Baedeker's. Few new editions were produced and revision periods became longer. While new French language versions were rare. During the early 1920's, many editions were issued with advertising supplements in order to reduce publishing costs.
When Fritz died in 1925, his sons took over the company and revived the business by focusing on german regional travel guides. The rise of the Nazi regime resulted in government controls on Baedeker's guides for the first time. The government of the Third Reich required Baedeker's to submit all new editions for review and even dictated the production of the "Generalgouvernement" handbook to Occupied Poland.
With the outbreak of war, Baedeker's all but ceased to function, with the exception of new editions for Wien and Elsass in 1943. And then on December 4, 1943, the British reduced most of Leipzig, and Baedeker's, to rubble in an overnight bombing raid.
In 1948, Karl F. Baedeker, the great-grandson of the company founder, briefly revived the publishing house. But, it was eventually bought-out, and although Baedeker's travel guides are still produced, they will never again be quintessential travel handbooks.

Baedeker's Handbook(s) for Travellers : History & Legend

The history of the legendary Baedeker's Handbook for Travellers guide book series is inextricably tied to the history of the Family Baedeker. The story began in the late 17th century with Dietrich Baedeker, who established a printing shop in Bielefeld, Germany. In 1827, 24 year-old Karl Baedeker openned his own publishing house in Koblenz. By 1832, the ambitious Baedeker bought-out the publishing company of Friedrich Roehling, which specialized in tourist guide books, and immediately re-issued their popular handbook, "Rheinreise von Mainz bis Koln", and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, the name Baedeker has become both a synonym for a comprehensive travel guide book and a euphemism for any book that offers a thorough exploration of a subject.

The early Baedeker firm published a wide range of books and periodicals, but the success of their regional travel series, and subsequent translation of "Rheinreise" into French,resulted in the specialization in travel guides. By the early 1850's, Baedeker had launched national guides, with handbooks on Belgium, Holland, Switzerland,Austria and of course Germany. In retrospect, it appears that Baedeker "borrowed" extensively from the structure and content of the contemporary Murray's Handbook for Travellers series for his "country" guide series.
( to be continued )
PS : If you find a copy of Rheinreise von Mainz 1838 it's now worth $3000 !

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