Gold Regions of California: Being A Succinct Description of the
Item #50120
FOSTER, George C. The Gold Regions of California: Being A Succinct Description of the Geography, History, Topography, and General Features of California: Including A Carefully Prepared Account of the Gold Regions of that Fortunate Country. Prepared from Offical Documents and Other Authentic Sources. New York: Dewitt & Davenport, Tribune Buildings, 1848. 80pp. Frontispiece map. Dbd. A bit of light, scattered foxing but on the whole a clean, very good copy. In a half-morocco box. KURUTZ 250a. GRAFF 1387. HOWES F287, "aa." MINTZ 160. ROCQ 15810. STREETER SALE 2529. COWAN, p.219 (third ed). SABIN 25225. WHEAT GOLD RUSH 77. WHEAT GOLD REGION 39. EBERSTADT 107:55-58. DECKER 24:68. HOWELL 50:85. Edward Eberstadt called this "the first considerable pamphlet on the Gold Regions and but two others (Sherwood and Simpson) are contemporary with it." Several editions of this work were published in 1848-49, after this first edition. "Foster, in his eloquent and stirring introduction...correctly predicted that a fortune could be made by the enterprising blacksmith, wheelwright, carpenter, shoemaker, etc. This slender work is a useful anthology of some of the earliest reports of the gold discovery and features the writings of Farnham, Mason, Doniphan, Larkin, Folsom, Fremont, Colton, and articles from the June and August issues of the CALIFORNIAN" - Kurutz. The frontispiece map shows California from Los Angeles to Sutter Buttes, with the Gold Region encircled by a dotted line. According to Wheat the map is one of the first to mention the Gold Region. This is the first edition of Foster's work, but it does not include the six leaves of ads usually found at the rear. An important early gold rush book.
Price: $5,000.00