Beschreibung:

Title: Eldorado, Or, Adventures in the Path of Empire: Comprising a Voyage to California, Via Panama; Life in San Francisco and Monterey; Pictures of the Gold Region, and Experiences of Mexican Travel Author: Taylor, Bayard Place: New York Publisher: George P. Putnam Date: 1850 Description: 2 volumes. 2 vols. xii, 251; [2], 247 + 45 [i.e. 47] ad pp. Illus. with 8 tinted lithograph plates. (8vo), original blindstamped green cloth, spines lettered in gilt. First Edition. Tipped into the first volume in a 2 page ALS from Taylor, dated March 21, 1854 from Sandusky, Ohio, to an un-named recipient regarding his Western speaking engagements. One of the most influential and widely read books on the California Gold Rush. A successful author and correspondent with the New York Tribune, Bayard Taylor went to California specifically to record the Gold Rush. The Zamorano Eighty notes that "This work by an eminent writer and artist is probably the outstanding book on the early gold rush in California. The author's description of the Constitutional Convention at Monterey is the best we have, as are also the views he gives us of the earliest mining camps. The colored plates are beautifully tinted works of art depicting San Francisco, Monterey, Sacramento, and the mining camps. Bayard Taylor saw everything and recorded everything he saw." Cowan p.630; Graff 4074; Howes T43; Kurutz 618a; Sabin 94440; Streeter 2654; Wheat Gold Rush 204; Zamorano Eighty 73. Lot Amendments Condition: Rebacked and recased, original spine cloth laid down, wear to cloth, evidence of removed bookplates on front pastedowns, lacking front free endpaper in Volume 2, this volume also with a library stamp on verso of title page and obliterated institutional stamp on final ad leaf (bleeding through to penultimate leaf) with small tear to page; foxing; very good. Item number: 210702