Ansel Adams, one of the world's most respected mountain photographers, wrote after Vittorio Sella's death: 'In Sella's photographs there is no faked grandeur; rather is there understatement, caution, and truthful purpose. Sella has brought to is not only the facts and forms of the far-off splendors of the world, but the essence of experience which finds a spiritual response in the inner recesses of our mind and heart.' Another connoisseur of mountain photography, a member of the American Alpine Club, wrote shortly afterwards: 'I really do think that Signor Sella was the greatest mountain photographer of all time.' Ronald Clark was a writer, biographer and student of Alpine literature. He was a war correspondent attached to the First Canadian Army, landed in Normandy on D-Day, and subsequently served as war correspondent in twelve countries, and covered the surrender in Germany, Denmark, and Normandy. He spent the winter of 1946-7 selecting plates from Sella's photographic library in