The Wayfarer's Bookshop was established in 1996 and specializes in 1480-1920 important, rare and unusual autographs, books, documents, ephemera, globes, maps, photographs, prints and artefacts exclusively relating to the exploration, travel and voyages in Africa, America, Asia, the Pacific and the Polar regions. While the emphasis of our stock is on antiquarian books in English, we are also specialized in the first printing of materials in their original language of publication and thus also stock items in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish as well as other languages. We are a member or fellow of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada (ABAC), the International League of Antiquarian booksellers (ILAB), the Provincial Booksellers' Fairs Association (PBFA), the Ephemera Society, the International Map Collectors' Society (IMCOS), the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the Society for the History of Discoveries (SHD) and the Hakluyt Society. We strictly adhere to the ABAC and ILAB codes of ethics and thus customer satisfaction is guaranteed as we strive to offer superior history of exploration rarities at fair and reasonable prices.

Eric Peter Waschke, FRGS started collecting antiquarian travel guides and atlases as a boy of nine when he lived with his parents in London, England and then he found his start in the antiquarian book business as a freelance bookscout in Berlin at age seventeen. Eric has also lived in Montreal, Hawaii, the Phillipines and Munich, before finally settling in Vancouver to establish the Wayfarer's Bookshop in 1996. Eric has travelled extensively throughout what he calls the "Known Book World" and he has visited more than 4000 used and antiquarian book shops in over eighty countries, including ILAB colleagues in all twenty-two ILAB affiliated national associations. This extensive network of potential suppliers allows Eric to find many of his exploration rarities. However, Eric's travels have not been limited to the bookshops of the world alone, but instead to better understand the historical travel literature which he trades in, Eric has also visited many important sites in the history of world exploration including the sources of the Amazon and Nile, the Northwest Passage, Ushuaia (the world's southernmost town), the once forbidden cities of Harar, Thimphu and Timbuctoo, as well as the Seven Wonders of the World. Eric is also an avid amateur mountaineer and has travelled to Mount Everest, the base camp of Huascarán (Peru's highest mountain) and climbed Kilimanjaro. Future expeditions to Mount Everest Advanced Base Camp (Chinese side) and an Aconcagua climb are planned for 2011. Eric is also Past President of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada (ABAC) and the chairman of the 2010 ABAC Toronto International Antiquarian Book Fair.

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- New Catalogue of Important, Rare and Unusual Antiquarian Exploration, Travel and Voyage Books

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