[MASSACHUSETTS] — JOHN C. PHILLIPS. 'BOY JOURNALS 1887-1892'. [CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS]: PRIVATELY PRINTED, [1915]

8vo (9 1/2 x 6 1/8 in.; 242 x mm). Closed marginal tears to pp.65-68, one or two stray spots. Three quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, spine with raised bands in five compartments, second and fourth gilt-lettered, marbled endpapers; some rubbing to extremities. 

OCLC 32635374 (records only two copies: Duke University and Harvard University)

8vo (9 1/2 x 6 1/8 in.; 242 x mm). Closed marginal tears to pp.65-68, one or two stray spots. Three quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, spine with raised bands in five compartments, second and fourth gilt-lettered, marbled endpapers; some rubbing to extremities.
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"An extremely rare work. According to a note in my copy, only 250 were printed and all but 50 were destroyed" (Heller 592).John C. Phillips was an American hunter, zoologist, ornithologist, and environmentalists. Here he offers a charming account, taken from his boyhood journals (even retaining his childhood spelling errors), of his early angling experiences and adventures in Essex County, Massachusetts. In an entry dated the 26th of August 1890, a 14-year-old Phillips writes: "In the Afternoon I went out with my rod. I have rigged thus: I have the middle piece and tip for the pole and do not use the but [sic] at all.  I bind the reel on and carry the line through the rings and my hooks well attached to a brass lead and strung out thus with cat gut...I went out to the fishing grounds and dropped anchor, baited my hooks and dropped the line with a bob attached.  For a long time I did not get even a bite. Suddenly my bob went under. I pulled up on my rod.  My reel ran a little and the fish made a tremendous pull.  I thought at first it must be a bass. But when I got him to the top of the water I saw a very large pick.  I got him into the boat and saw he was the much largest I ever had caught.  He was a perfect beauty."   

Phillips himself was a great-grandson of John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston, and a grandnephew of Wendell Phillips, the abolitionist and orator.