Beschreibung:

Title: The Great California Trail in 1849. Wayside Notes of an Argonaut Author: McCall, A[nsel] J. Place: Bath, N.Y. Publisher: Steuben Courier Print Date: 1882 Description: 86 pp. (8vo) 21.6x14.7 cm. (8½x5¾") original printed wrappers. Housed in a custom cloth and marbled boards case. First Edition in book form, reprinted from the Steuben Courier. Inscribed on the front wrapper: "With Compliments, A.J. McCall". "[McCall] left Bath, New York, with Dr. James Read on March 14th, 1849 and arrived at St. Joseph on April 25. McCall and party followed the Great Platte Route, traveled by way of South Pass, Visited Salt Lake City, and followed the Humboldt-Carson Route into California in Early September. On September 7, McCall came upon one the "Cannibal Cabins" of the Donner Party and, by the 15th, reached Johnson's Ranch. Now at the end of his journey, the dutiful pioneer wrote his mother a letter dated September 18 from Sacramento, assuring her that he had arrived safely." (Kurutz). "No journal better reflects the pageantry of the great migration. (Mattes). McCall's account of his life in the diggings is described in the sequel to the present work "Pick and Pan" published the following year. Cowan II, p. 402; Kurutz 413; Mattes 540; Mintz 311. Not in Howes, Decker, Graff, Eberstadt, Soliday or Streeter. Quite scarce, particularly so signed. No copies appear in the auction records for at least 30 years. Lot Amendments Condition: Wrapper spine largely perished, front and rear wrappers with some wear at edges, glassine repairs to front wrapper at top of spine edge and to several tears on rear wrapper, archival restoration to the fore edge of both front and rear wrappers; very good. Item number: 219985