Soochow : the garden city

Shanghai : Kelly & Walsh Limited, 1936. First edition. Octavo (185 x 125 mm), publisher’s pictorial boards (lightly foxed); endpaper maps, pp. [8], 76., with 24 b/w plates of photographs by C. H. Wong, 5 folding maps; binding firm, very clean throughout, an excellent copy.

First edition of this guidebook to Soochow (Suzhou), written by an American teacher of mathematics and chemistry at the McTyeire School for Young Ladies in Shanghai, Florence Nance, who was the first to use the sobriquet “garden city” in relation to Soochow.  The book contains numerous photographic illustrations of the features for which the city was renowned: its classical gardens, canals, bridges, and pagodas, many of which would be destroyed by the invading Japanese forces in 1937. The gardens are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.