California and Its Gold Regions; With A Geographical and Topographical
Item #50121
ROBINSON, Fayette. California and Its Gold Regions; With A Geographical and Topographical View of the Country, Its Mineral and Agricultural Resources...With A Map of the U. States and California.... New York: Stringer and Townend, 1849. 137pp., plus[6]pp. of ads. Large folding frontispiece map. Contemporary three quarter calf and marbled boards, gilt morocco label. Boards a bit rubbed and shelfworn. Ex-private 19th century library, with neat bookplate on front pastedown. The map has been backed by tissue, with a few small portions of loss at the crossfolds, though none in the western United States region. Advertising leaves trimmed a bit close, affecting some text at the very bottom. Very clean and fresh internally. A very good copy overall. HOWES R366, "b." WHEAT GOLD RUSH 168. WHEAT GOLD REGIONS 70. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 591. GRAFF 3527. COWAN, p.537. KURUTZ 539b. SABIN 72070. According to Wheat, "One of the best of the early books on California printed for gold seekers." Robinson, who had produced a book on the Mexican War shortly before, drew on both official and unofficial sources for this book. Kurutz calls this work "a fine anthology of several of the earliest reports of the gold discovery, conditions in California, history of the region, and ways to reach the diggings...The excellent map is important for delineating the various sea and overland routes to California." The gold region is tinted yellow on the map, as well as on the inset "Map of the Gold Region," and the overland routes our drawn in blue. Among the sources drawn on are reports by Mason, Fremont, Larkin, Emory, and Kearny, as well as newspaper accounts. Robinson discusses several routes to California, recommending the northern Overland Trail as the best. Howes and Kurutz note two issues of 137 and 144 pages, respectively, of which this is the former.
Price: $7,500.00