Round The World – Andrew Carnegie

Red cloth with black-stamped elephant within a gilt compass ring. Signed by Carnegie on flyleaf and dated New York, May 22, 1914. Very Good; slight fading to spine. Association copy. Ex libris bookplate of Robert Augustus Franks on pastedown. Robert Franks was Andrew Carnegie’s close friend and financial agent since 1883, was in charge of distributing Carnegie money for pensions and philanthropic activities, also served as president and director of the Carnegie Home Trust Company, and later served as a trustee.

For some time, Andrew Carnegie dreamed of a second career as a writer. To become a published author required a topic to write about and the free time to do it. A trip around the world provided both. Carnegie’s trip around the world was the fulfillment of a long cherished ambition. With not a cloud upon his financial horizon, he and his friend, John Vandevort, set out in October, 1878. The leisurely journey consumed eight months. The wayfarers traveled westward. Margaret Carnegie’s parting gift was Shakespeare’s complete works in thirteen small, handy volumes. On the trip Carnegie memorized literally thousands of passages. He had with him also volumes of Spencer and of Darwin. He became a more positive evolutionist. In China this astonishing little knowledge seeker, who could battle like a fish monger over a dollar, read Confucius. In India he studied Buddha and the sacred books of the Hindus. Among the Parsees, in Bombay, he pored over translations of Zoroaster. He came to the conclusion that there is equal good and equal evil in all religions. Thereafter he accepted no formal religious code.

Carnegie set down the happenings of this trip and later expanded his notes into a book, Round the World. Notes on a Trip Round the World was published in the fall of 1879 (the later Charles Scribner’s edition was revised and published under the title Round the World). It was Carnegie’s first attempt as an author. Round the World was dedicated: “To my brother and trusty associates, who toiled at home that I might spend abroad.” It is filled with sprightly humor, outspoken opinion and copybook maxims extolling the primary virtues. (Nasaw, p.189; Winkler, p.150.)