[White Mountains]. Ball, B[enjamin] L[incoln]. Three Days on the White Mountains, 1856.

[WHITE MOUNTAINS]

BENJAMIN LINCOLN BALL. THREE DAYS ON THE WHITE MOUNTAINS; BEING THE PERILOUS ADVENTURE OF DR. B. L. BALL ON MOUNT WASHINGTON, DURING OCTOBER 25, 26, AND 27, 1855. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. BOSTON: NATHANIEL NOYES, 1856

12mo (7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.; 190 x 114 mm). Publisher's red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers stamped in blind, upper cover lettered in gilt; minor wear and soiling. Red cloth clamshell case, spine lettered in gilt.

First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed by Ball to Thomas Starr King, whom Ball mentions meeting and being encouraged by, two days before his "adventure". King went on to write The White Hills (1860), a classic of White Mountains literature.

Dr. Ball, a Harvard graduate, went for a hike on a rainy autumn afternoon, up the unfinished Mount Washington carriage road. Though aware of both the late hour and the lateness of the season and having knowledge of the death of Lizzie Bourne from exposure on the mountain the month before, Ball did not turn back when rain turned to sleet and then snow. He endured three days and two nights in a blizzard, protected solely by his umbrella. This was a survival so unparalleled in the past and so unlikely to be repeated in the future as to be worthy of putting into print. Ironically, Ball survived the cold of Mount Washington only to die of the heat in Panama at age 39. 

LITERATURE:

Bent p. 2; Hammond p. 20; Sabin 2933

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Starr King (presentation inscription)