BYRON Robert, THE ROAD TO OXIANA, Macmillan & Company Ltd, London, 1937. FIRST ORIGINAL EDITION of the authors masterpiece. In 8vo, pp. vii+[3]+341+[2]. With frontispiece, 15 B/W plates and scattered maps of Middle East. In 1933, the delightfully eccentric travel writer Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana, near the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Throughout, he kept a thoroughly captivating record of his encounters, discoveries, and frequent misadventures. His story would become the best-selling travel book in the entire English-speaking world, with numerous editions to this day, making it one of the greatest travel books of the 20th century! Original blue cloth bound, gilt title; dull spine, signs of use on boards. No dust jacket. Ex libris label on front endpaper, stamps on title and last page, clean inside, with few loose binding parts. Rare and precious copy.