David Spilman Fine Books

Mountains and Molehills; Or Recollections of a Burnt Journal [with illustrations by the Author]

Marryat, Frank

New York: Time Life Books, 1982. Near Fine. First Edition. New York: Time Life Books; 1982, First Edition [Classics of the Old West][facsimile reprint of London edition 1855] [6x8.5”]; Brown leather covers with gilt lettering on front and spine, gilt rules on spine, darker brown embossed illustration of cow horn, tomahawk and six shooter entwined in rope on front and gold pan with pic ax on spine, marbled endpapers, bookmark gold ribbon, all edged trimmed and gilt, burnt orange/brown marbled endpapers; [1], x, [2], 443 pp., [1], facsimiles of eight colored lithograph plates by Hanhart and Marryat including frontispiece, eighteen woodcuts in text, index [same as 1855 London edition], tipped in two page note from editors, bookplate of Classics of the Old West on front endpaper. Overall condition is Near Fine [Kurutz 429a][Zamorano 80]. Item #13248
ISBN: 0809439980

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 was 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".

This book is a very good facsimile of the 1855 London edition. 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.

Price: $45.00