Item #77563 Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country. CUMING, ortescue.

Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country

Item #77563

CUMING, F[ortescue]. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, through the States of Ohio and Kentucky; a Voyage Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and a Trip through the Mississippi Territory, and Part of West Florida. Commenced at Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807, and Concluded in 1809 ... Together with a Notice of an Expedition through Louisiana. Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, 1810. 1st ed. 12mo (6 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches). 504pp. Orig. tree calf, gilt-decorated spine, tan morocco spine label, housed in custom green morocco-backed slipcase. Inner cloth chemise. Light scattered foxing and toning, bookplate, early ownership signatures, else very good. HOWES C-947, "b." Buck 71. Clark II:13. Jones 739. Graff 944 (page 25 mispaginated 28). Sabin 17890. Streeter Sale III:1325. Thomson 286. Servies 808. First edition of this "excellent and extensive observations on pioneer conditions throughout the Ohio and lower Mississippi" (Howes). Thomson calls this one of the most interesting works relating to the West. It is likely that this account was edited by Zadok Cramer, from whose press it was issued, and who included over one hundred pages of other information on the West gathered by himself, which follows the Cuming narrative. These include contributions by Loskiel, Forsyth, Hildreth, Badger, and Heckewelder, among others. Cuming himself undertook his tour in 1807 and 1808. An excellent account, one of the most notable early trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans and environs. With the bookplate of M. Sheffey Peters, who contributed to many magazines in the 1890s.

Price: $4,000.00

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