Snowdon Biography, by Geoffrey Winthrop Young, Geoffrey Sutton, and Wilfrid Noyce. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1957, 194 pages; 24 ills. ; end-paper map. Price $3.64.

To the American who has climbed in the Welsh mountains, or who has read extensively in the literature of that lovely region, these three essays will provide unusual enjoyment. But most of us who do not fit into either of these two classes will find this little book rather dull. The reader needs an intimate knowledge of the cliffs and crags or, in lieu of that, a deep interest in the men and women climbers whose names parade through the pages.

The first two essays are a chronicle of rock climbing in Wales. This gives little scope for the fine writing for which the authors are so well known. Place names unpronounceable to us abound and the famous climbing figures file past too speedily for the reader here to gain any interest in them. Prior familiarity with the area or the mountaineers is needed.

The third essay, The Writer in Snowdonia, traces the literature of the region from the Welsh poets to Wordsworth and on to the rock-climbing guide books. A student of Carr and Lister’s “The Mountains of Snowdonia,” 1925, will find this a readable supplement, bringing up to date the second edition (1948) of that major work.

Bradley B. Gilman