PBA Galleries

2 volumes. xii, 251; [2], 247 + 12 ad pp. Illustrated with 8 tinted lithograph plates, with tissue guards. (8vo), 19.2x12 cm (7½x4¾"), original blindstamped green cloth, spines lettered in gilt. Second American Edition.

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." This second American edition is the same  imprint, date and collation as the first edition, though it has few advertisement leaves at the end of the second volume.  Howes T43; Kurutz 618c; (Sabin 94440; Streeter 2654; Wheat Gold Rush 204; Zamorano Eighty 73). Bookplates of F.W. Dorhrmann, Jr., on front pastedowns; small sticker of John Howell, Importer, on rear pastedowns.