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REID, John C. (b. 1824). Reid's Tramp; or , a Journal of the Incidents of Ten Months Travel through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Sonora, and California, including Topography, Climate, Soil, Minerals, Metals, and Inhabitants; with a Notice of the Great Inter-Oceanic Rail Road. Selma, Ala.: Printed at the Book and Job Office of John Hardy & Co., 1858.
8o in 4s (206 x 130 mm). (Title foxed, some foxing, soiling and pale browning.) Original green blindstamped cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (some spotting to covers, wear at extremities, front free endpaper and most of rear free endpaper lacking); green quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Herschel V. Jones; Frank T. Siebert (his sale Sotheby's New York, 28 October 1999, lot 878).
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE GREAT SOUTHWEST RARITIES: THE FINE HERSCHEL V. JONES-SIEBERT COPY. Reid's overland journey began in Marion, Alabama on 1 September 1856 in a party known as the Mesilla Valley Company, whose purpose was to explore the new Gadsden Purchase. Reid joined the ill-fated filibustering expedition of Henry Crabb in early 1857, but left for California in April. After a brief visit to San Francisco, Reid returned to the states via Panama.
The book contains a wealth of brief and entertaining descriptions of life in the Mexican cession, including towns and hamlets visited along the way, German immigrants, the agricultural promise of the region, desert flora and fauna, and speculation on the future of the Indians in the Southwest. Of great interest is the description of Reid's association with Crabb's filibusters. The rarity of the work is affirmed by Howes's "d" designation. Clark Old South III:490; Cowan p. 528; Decker 36:339 ("Reid's work is one of the genuine classics relating to the Southwest; his descriptions of mines and miners, the natives, in fact all the country through which he passed, are vivid"); Ellison Alabama Imprints 1091; Fifty Texas Rarities 39; Graff 3450; Howes R-172 ("d"); Jones Adventures in Americana 279; Jones 1401; Rader 2776; Streeter I:176; Wagner-Camp-Becker 307.
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FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE GREAT SOUTHWEST RARITIES: THE FINE HERSCHEL V. JONES-SIEBERT COPY. Reid's overland journey began in Marion, Alabama on 1 September 1856 in a party known as the Mesilla Valley Company, whose purpose was to explore the new Gadsden Purchase. Reid joined the ill-fated filibustering expedition of Henry Crabb in early 1857, but left for California in April. After a brief visit to San Francisco, Reid returned to the states via Panama.
The book contains a wealth of brief and entertaining descriptions of life in the Mexican cession, including towns and hamlets visited along the way, German immigrants, the agricultural promise of the region, desert flora and fauna, and speculation on the future of the Indians in the Southwest. Of great interest is the description of Reid's association with Crabb's filibusters. The rarity of the work is affirmed by Howes's "d" designation. Clark Old South III:490; Cowan p. 528; Decker 36:339 ("Reid's work is one of the genuine classics relating to the Southwest; his descriptions of mines and miners, the natives, in fact all the country through which he passed, are vivid"); Ellison Alabama Imprints 1091; Fifty Texas Rarities 39; Graff 3450; Howes R-172 ("d"); Jones Adventures in Americana 279; Jones 1401; Rader 2776; Streeter I:176; Wagner-Camp-Becker 307.