"The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen", early American edition, published by American Book Exchange, New York, 1879. Private inscription on the front endpaper is dated July 1879.

Hard boards; original green cloth with gold lettering on spine [some wear and 'bump' on the front board: see photos]; 4.3/4" x 7.1/8"; "Sow. R. Johnson, Oxford, Ohio / July 1879" is pen written on the front endpaper; two volumes in one; 283 pages, very good condition.

Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia is a 1785 novel about a fictional German nobleman written by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe. The lead character Baron Munchausen is loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Munchhausen.

Munchhausen, however, was launched as a 'type' of tall-story teller by Rudolf Erich Raspe, who used the earlier stories as basic material for a small volume published (anonymously) in London in 1785 under the title "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia". Later and much enlarged editions, none of them having much to do with the historical Baron Munchhausen, became widely known and popular in many languages. They are generally known in English as "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen".

Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736-1794) was a German librarian, writer, and scientist. He is best known for his collection of tall tales The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, also known as Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, originally a satirical work with political aims.

Raspe studied law and jurisprudence at Goettingen and Leipzig and worked as a librarian for the university of Gottingen. In 1762, he became a clerk in the university library at Hanover, and in 1764 secretary to the university library at Gottingen. He had become known as a versatile scholar and a student of natural history and antiquities, and he published some original poems and also translations of Ossian's poems. In 1765, he published the first collection of Leibniz's philosophical works. He also wrote a treatise on Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

In 1767, he was appointed professor in Cassel, and subsequently librarian. He contributed in 1769 a zoological paper to the 59th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, which led to his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and he wrote voluminously on all sorts of subjects. In 1774, he started a periodical called the Cassel Spectator.

US: Priority (c.2-5 days) -------- ---- $19.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ------- $32.50
World: Priority (c.2-10 weeks) ------- $45.50