Zermatt im Winter und Sommer, by Walter Schmidt, vest-pocket size, 120 pages, 84 illustrations, and index, published in Bern, Switzerland, 1958 (in German).

This little jewel of a guide book to the Zermatt area, adapted primarily for an individual with some mountain experience, but unacquainted with the facilities, paths, huts or peaks in the area, will also delight anyone who knows the area well.

Detailed enough to enable anyone to get up to any of the huts without asking directions anywhere, it has a fund of local information and just enough outline maps showing both the footpaths and the ski routes to enable anyone to plan his vacation. I don’t believe I have ever seen so much meaty information condensed in readable form in so few pages, and there are 84 views of the area, almost every one of which I have retained in my mind over the years but missed photographing at the time; there is not a single hackneyed view in the book. I can recommend this book even to a man who does not read German fluently as a most useful little thing to read on winter evenings or to carry to the Alps with him.

Joel E. Fisher