Taylor, Bayard

Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire: comprising a Voyage to California, via Panama; Life in San Francisco and Monterey; Pictures of the Gold Region, and Experiences of Mexican Travel.  New York: George P. Putnam, 1850



2 volumes, 12mo (7  5/8  x 5 in.; 193 x 128 mm).  4 tinted lithographed plates after Taylor (one after J. C. Ward) by Sarony & Major.  Publisher's green blind-stamped cloth, spines lettered iin gilt; rubbed, spines darkened and with wear to spine ends.  Half blue morocco gilt slipcase, chemises. Together with:  a one-volume 1855 edition of the work.

J. S. Waters, Baltimore (small embossed stamp on front flyleaf with Poe's "Eldorado" copied out in pencil beside it.)

BAL 19638; Cowan 630; Graff 4073; Howes T43; Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 204; Zamarano 80 73

First edition.  "This work by an eminent writer and artist is probably the outstanding book on the early gold rush in California.  The author's description of the Constitutional Convention in Monterey is the best we have, as are also the views he gives us of the earliest mining camps.  The colored plates are beautifully tinted works of art depicting San Francisco, Monterey, Sacremento, and mining camps.  Bayard Taylor saw everything and recorded all he saw" (Zamarano 80).