The Playground of Europe

Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 - 1904). Educated at Eton and Cambridge graduating in 1854. He stayed on at Cambridge and became a tutor. In 1865 he moved to London and worked as a journalist and editor of the literary Cornhill Magazine. He was an author literary critic philosopher and mountaineer. He married twice his first wife was the daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray; Harriet Marian with whom he had one daughter. After Harriets death in 1875 he married Julia Prisep Jackson with whom he had four children. One of his daughters became famous as an author herself - Virginia Woolf.Leslie Stephen was a prominent figure in what came to be termed the Golden Age ofMountaineering - when British mountaineers usually in company with their Swiss or French guides pioneered the sport of alpinism. The period is said to have begun with Alfred Wills ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854 and ended with Edward Whympers ill-fated ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Stephen was a founder member of the Alpine Club which was formed in 1857 and he was President between 1865 - 1868.. The Book.The Playground of Europe was first published by Longman Green and Co. in 1871. The book is a collection of Sir Leslie Stephens essays on Alpine mountaineering which had previously appeared in literary magazines and in Alpine Club publications. Sir Leslie Stephen achieved nine first ascents of Alpine peaks seven of which were in Switzerland one in Italy and one in France. He was usually accompanied by one or two friends a guide and occasionally porters. His favourite guide being Melchior Anderegg of Switzerland.Three of his first ascents are described here - the Bietschhorn the Shreckhorn and the Rothorn (now called the Zinalrothorn to distinguish it from the Brienzer Rothorn). They also made several first crossings of Alpine passes - notably the Jungfraujoch the Eigerjoch and the Fiescherjoch accounts of which are also in his book. He had a keen eye for nature and there are beautiful descriptions throughout. The chapters on the Alps in winter and of observing a sunset from the summit of Mont Blanc being especially notable.The book also gives an entertaining insight into the life and customs of the Alpine regions he visited. It is considered to be a classic of mountaineering literature ranked alongside important works such as Edward Whympers Scrambles amongst the Alps also published in 1871. This e-book is based on the 1936 Blackwells edition which is a reprint of the revised 1894 Longmans edition but with the addition of some historical mountain photographs. (Cover photograph -The Mer de Glace from Montenvers by Ian Johnson Johnson Publishing)