Beschreibung:

Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. 12mo. Publisher's cloth, spine decorated and lettered in gilt "THE FAMILY LIBRARY No 106" and titled [BAL's binding A], chipping to spine ends, some foxing. Provenance: Mrs. Rachel Myers (contemporary inscription). WITH: To Cuba and Back. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1859. 8vo. 16 pp ads dated April 1859. Publisher's cloth. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with dotted "i" in copyright line and unbroken running head at p 9, "one of the most sought-after books in American Literature and very rare" (Hill pp 78-79). Dana's narrative of a voyage to Alta California in 1834-36 was one of the first to come from a deckhand rather than a ship's officer or passenger, and gives a clear picture of California in the years just prior to the influx of American settlers in the 1840s, "our only trustworthy account before the 1849 gold rush" Grolier American 46. BAL 4434; Cowan I p 62; Graff 998; Howes D49; Johnson High Spots 26; Zamorano 80 26.