(Cook, James) | First American book on Hawaii and first American book on the Northwest coast, by a corporal of marines aboard Captain Cook's ship Resolution

The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman

(Cook, James)

John Ledyard. A Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and in Quest of a North-West Passage, between Asia & America; Performed in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, and 1779. Hartford: Printed and sold by Nathaniel Patten, 1783

8vo (172 x 114 mm). Staining throughout, title-page a little frayed at fore- and lower edge, corners rounded, lacking the chart as in almost all copies (even Brooke-Hitching lacked it). Contemporary sheep; very worn, lacking front free endpaper. Half brown morocco slipcase, chemise.

First edition of the first American book on Hawaii, the first American book on the Northwest coast of America, and the only account of Cook’s third voyage by an American participant. "The most appealing of accounts of the third voyage was that of John Ledyard. … A Connecticut native, Ledyard was a corporal of marines aboard the Resolution, and was one of the oarsmen rowing Cook's launch when the fatal encounter with the Hawaiians occurred. He later made his way back to America to write his account—the first original narrative of a Pacific voyage to be published in the United States" (Reese).

Ledyard saw the great commercial potential of the Pacific Northwest, but he was fifteen years dead by the time Thomas Jefferson—with whom he corresponded and who called Ledyard "a man of genius"—commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

REFERENCE

Evans 17998; Forbes 52; Holmes 45; Howes L181; Kroepelien, 717; Lada-Mocarski, 36; Reese, Best of the West 14 note; Sabin 39691; Streeter 6:3477 cf. James Zug, American Traveler: The Life & Adventures of John Ledyard (2005)