California—Gwinn Harris Heap | Central route to the Pacific from ... the Mississippi to California. Philadelphia, 1854

California—Gwinn Harris Heap

Central route to the Pacific from the valley of the Mississippi to California: journal of the expedition of E.F. Beale, superintendent of Indian affairs in California and Gwinn Harris Heap, from Missouri to California, in 1853. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co. 1854

FIRST EDITION, issue without the added London imprint, 8vo (223 x 134mm.), 13 lithographed plates, some tinted, manuscript marginalia, underlining and notes in pencil and ink, modern calf, spine in five compartments with raised bands gilt, marbled endpapers, without half-title, map (as usual) and advertisements

"Some of the areas explored are here described for the first time" (Graff). This copy is without the map, which Howes says was "not inserted in all copies".

The manuscript notes by an early reader are especially concentrated on chapters 5 ('Journey to the Mormon settlements near Las Vegas de Santa Clara') and 6 ('Departure from Las Vegas de Santa Clara. Passage of the desert. Arrival at Los Angeles, California').

LITERATURE:

Cowan, p. 273; Graff 1837; Howes H378; Sabin 31175; Streeter sale 3177; Wagner-Camp 235