David Spilman Fine Books

Mountains and Molehills; Or Recollections of a Burnt Journal [with illustrations by the Author | Reprinted in facsimile from the first American edition of 1855] [Introduction and Notes by Marguerite Eyer Wilbur]

Marryat, Frank

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1952. Very Good in Very Good dust-jacket First Edition. [Reprinted in facsimile from the first American edition of 1855] [7.5x5.25in]; i-xiv introduction, x, [2], 14-393, xv-xxxi editor’s notes and index, frontispiece, 8 plates and 17 engravings; Dark Beige cloth covers with black ink lettering ruled border and decorations on front and spine; Beige dust jacket with black and beige lettering on black filed on front and spine, illustration of burial overlooking San Francisco on front cover and barroom illustration with narrative on rear cover; Hinges slightly loose, minimal shelf wear to edges, dust jacket chips and tears along all edges and spine edges, no loss of text, crude tape repair of spine edges. [Kurutz 429b]. Item #13125

Samuel Francis (Frank) Marryat (1826–1855) was a sailor, artist, and author. He was the son of Fredric Marryat, a British Naval Captain and English novelist that knew Charles Dickens and admired by Samuel Clemens. In 1850, Frank left England for California via Panama with Barnes, a manservant, and three hunting dogs. The intent was to participate in the Gold Rush and write a book about it as "a sportsman-tourist's chronicle of California in the early 1850s: hunting, horse races, bear and bull fights, and an Englishman's bemused comments on social life in San Francisco, Stockton, and the gold fields". Marryat’s work is one of the best descriptions of life in the mines and his eight colored lithographs, including “High and Dry” and ‘Winter of 1849” are noted by Kurutz as the best views of the time period. This is book is a reprint of the American edition which does not contain the colored lithographs. This edition has an introduction and extensive editor notes with an index.

Price: $50.00