[ Presentation Copy to the Author's Daughter ] Travels in Mexico and California: comprising a Journal of a Tour from Brazos, Santiago, Through Central Mexico, by way of Monterey, Chihuahua, the Country of the Apaches, and the River Gila, to the Mining Districts of California.

Clarke

Edité par Clarke, 1852

A propos de cet article

Clarke / 1852 / [ Presentation Copy to the Author's Daughter ] Travels in Mexico and California: comprising a Journal of a Tour from Brazos, Santiago, Through Central Mexico, by way of Monterey, Chihuahua, the Country of the Apaches, and the River Gila, to the Mining Districts of California. (Safe 3, 69367) 12mo. Original publisher's binding of blue blindstamped cloth, gilt spine title and decoration (slightly dulled by age). Head and toe of spine bit frayed. Corners frayed as well. Some moderate scattered foxing. Withal, a very nice copy, in the very rare publisher's cloth binding (see below). 138, [8, blank] pages. Complete. Ownership inscription of author's daughter on front free endpaper: "Virginia M. Clarke, Independence Iowa, Dec. 25th 1861." Additional early ink ownership stamp of W. H. Kint, Iowa, probably William H. Kint (1841-1916), buried in Hazleton, Buchanan County, Iowa. Laid in mid-20th-century bookseller's description states: "This copy is evidently one of a few copies bound for the author s own use. That it was the author s own copy is almost beyond doubt.Mr. [Henry R.] Wagner says this is the only copy with cloth binding he has ever seen. Author's Own Copy - Presented to His Daughter California Gold Rush Overland Via Brazos Pass (Texas), Northern Mexico, Arizona & Los Angeles In the Rare Publisher's Cloth Binding This classic western overland narrative, rare in any state, is almost always described as bound in printed wrappers. All the standard bibliographies describe it as bound in paper wrappers, with only Wagner-Camp mentioning "a few copies known in cloth." The present example is one of those very few copies bound in cloth, likely for the author's own use. Indeed, the neat written ownership inscription on the front flyleaf supports our assertion, as Virginia M. Clarke was the author's daughter, who was born on September 6, 1852, in Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts and died in Independence, Buchanan, Iowa. At the time of the 1861 Christmas day inscription she would have been nine years old, which stands to reason that her father gifted the book to her. A. B. Clarke lived in Independence, Iowa until his death in 1882. Clarke, a native of Conway, Massachusetts, sailed from New York on January 29, 1849, as a member of the Hampden Mining Company. After arriving in central Mexico [first via Brazos Pass in Texas], he proceeded westward via Arizona and the Gila River. He arrived in Los Angeles on July 9. In the Gila area, he met Dr. Field, one of the two survivors of the infamous Fanning massacre. By August 2, the New Englander labored in the Tuolumne Diggings. He spent the winter of 1849 and 1850 in San Francisco and, in the summer of 1850, worked on the Yuba River - Kurutz. Thomas Streeter, whose own copy of the book was in the standard printed wrappers, called Clarke's overland narrative "one of the most interesting, as the route was from Camargo, Mexico, on the south side of the Rio Grande through Chihuahua and Sonora to the Gila River of Arizona, then the Mexican-United States boundary. This route had not been previously described. The party reached Los Angeles July 9, 1849." In fact, another noted traveler who followed a similar southern route to California during the Gold Rush was John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the famous artist-naturalist, whose extremely rare illustrated work, Illustrated Notes of an Expedition Through Mexico and California in 1849-50, was also published in 1852. While the great desert bibliographer E. I. Edwards bemoaned that Audubon's journal contributed "but little material that is directly associated with the California desert territory," he highlights Clarke's book as excelling in this regard: Clarke's description of the desert crossing is dramatically impre.

N° de réf. du vendeur 69367

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [ Presentation Copy to the Author's Daughter ] Travels in Mexico and California: comprising a Journal of a Tour from Brazos, Santiago, Through Central Mexico, by way of Monterey, Chihuahua, the Country of the Apaches, and the River Gila, to the Mining Districts of California.
• Éditeur: Clarke
• Date de parution: 1852
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: VG
• Type de livre: Book
• Catalogues du vendeur:
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