FILSON, John.

Histoire de Kentucke, Nouvelle Colonie a l'Ouest de la Virginie...

Item #52149

FILSON, John. Histoire de Kentucke, Nouvelle Colonie a l'Ouest de la Virginie...Traduit...par M. Parraud. Paris:Buisson, 1785. 1st French edition. Small 8vo, xvi, 234pp. A fine copy in period style calf-backed marbled boards. Private library stamp. This edition follows the notoriously rare first American edition, published in Wilmington, DE, in 1784, and preceding the first English edition of 1793. This book is a cornerstone of frontier literature and is illustrated with a large folding map of Kentucky. The map, measuring 15 1/2 by 14", was executed specifically for the French edition and differs significantly from the maps in the American edition and in the later English edition. Further, the map in the American edition was not usually issued with the book; this, then, is the first edition of this work with a generally available map. The book's importance "lies in its being the first history of Kentucky. It contains the first map of Kentucky and probably the first account of Daniel Boone. The author first described Kentucky, and then incorporated the Boone narrative, which was certainly not written by Boone. 'The Minutes of the Pianashaw Council, held at Post St. Vincent, April 15, 1784' was followed by brief descriptions of Indian tribes, and tables giving the distances from Philadelphia to the Falls of the Ohio by way of Boone's Trace and from Philadelphia to New Orleans by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. "Filson came to Kentucky in 1782 or 1783 from Pennsylvania. He was a surveyor and consequently saw much of the country, or his map could not have been produced." --Clark II, 23. "First book on Kentucky and most notable product from the pen of a Western pioneer." --Howes F129. Sabin 24338. Church V, 1212. Field 537.

Price: $3,750.00