Bidwell, John; Herbert Ingram Priestley (introduction). A Journey to California, with Observations about the Country, Climate, and the Route to This Country by John Bidwell. A Day-By-Day Record of the Journey from May 18, 1841, to November 6, 1841
San Francisco: John Henry Nash, 1937. ix, 48 pages.
An account of the first wagon team to come overland to California, in the early 1840s. Bidwell kept a journal, and while stopping at "Bodega, Port of the Russians," he mailed it back to a friend, Elam Brown, in Missouri, where Bidwell had lived. Brown had the diary published in a small pamphlet, of which only one copy survives, at the Bancroft Library.
During the early 20th century, Bidwell's account became a popular subject for reprints. This fine press edition, by one of San Francisco's most popular pressmen, has an introduction by Herbert Priestley, who retraced Bidwell's path across the Sierra Nevadas in the 1930s.
This copy is signed by the printer on the front pastedown.
Wagner-Camp 88, note. Howes B433. Cowan and Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, p. 51.
A very fine copy in a near fine (one closed tear, a bit of chipping to the top of the spine) stiff-paper dust jacket with a paper spine label. (#S853)
$100
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