Reid, John C.

Reid's Tramp; or, A Journal of the Incidents of Ten Months Travel through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Sonora, and California. Including Topography, Climate, Soil, Minerals, Metals, and Inhabitants; with a Notice of the Great Inter-Oceanic Rail Road. Selma, Alabama: Printed at the Book and Job Office of John Hardy & Co., 1858



In 4s (8 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.; 207 x 130 mm). Typographic plan on p. 129; text block lightly browned, a few leaves at beginning lightly creased. Publisher's brown cloth, covers elaborately paneled in blind, spine gilt, plain endpapers and edges; tiny loss to foot of spine, upper right quadrent of rear cover a bit stained, extremities rubbed, additional bookplate erroneously inserted on rear pastedown. Half brown morocco folding-case.

Clark, Old South 3:490; Cowan, p. 528; Ellison, Alabama Imprints 1091; Fifty Texas Rarities 39; Graff 3450; Streeter sale 1:176; Wagner-Camp 307

A near-fine copy of the rare first edition, inscribed by the author. Reid's Tramps details the 1856 overland journey he made—in company with other members of the Messilla Valley Company—from Marion, Alabama, to the Gadsden Purchase in present-day New Mexico, where the travelers were to claim homesteads. In 1857, Reid left his companions to join Henry Crabb's filibustering expedition into Mexico, eventually reaching California, where he journeyed north from San Diego to San Francisco. He returned to Alabama by way of Panama, Havana, and New Orleans. "The book contains brief notes on towns and villages along the route, the Mexican character, German immigrants, Indian life, flora and fauna, and the agricultural possibilities of the area" (Clark). The development of the southern railroad route mentioned in the title—which was one of the motivations for the Gadsden Purchase—was delayed until after the Civil War.

Presentation copy, inscribed by Reid, in pencil, on the flyleaf facing the title-page: "My Dear Cousin—Martha C. McCoy will accept this little volume as a slight evidence of the love & esteem of her kinsman The Author, Oct. 1858."