Langsdorff's Narrative of the Rezanov Voyage to Nueva California in 1806; Being that Division of Doctor Georg H. Von Langsdorff's Bemerkungen Auf Einer Reise um Die Welt, when, as personal physician, he accompanied Rezanov to Nueva California from Sitka, Alaska, and back | An English Translations Revised, with the Teutonisms of the original hispaniolized, Russianized, or Anglicized, by Thomas C. Russell
San Francisco: The Private Press of Thomas C. Russell, 1927. Fine in Near Fine dust-jacket First Edition. #101 of 260 limited numbered copies, Signed on limitation page, [10.25x7in]; [5], map, German [1812] and English [1814] facsimile titles pages, advertisements, xiv, 158 pp., frontispiece portrait of Langsdorff and Rezanov, six copper engraved illustrations, from German edition, on plates with tissue guard; Blue-Green paper covers with tan linen backed spine with black lettering and border on paper label, top edge trimmed with others untrimmed; Blue-Green dust jacket with black lettering and border on tan spine label, deckled fore edges; Slight fading to bottom edge of covers and spine; Minimal fading of spine bleeding over to covers and along bottom edge. [Hill 970, Cowan64 p. 382, Howgego II R9]. Item #13634
Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1774-1852) was a German naturalist and explorer that was a member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. He was selected as the naturalist and physician by Adam von Krusenstern for a Russian sponsored circumnavigation exploration (1803-06) The Co-commander was Count Nikolai Rezanov, a Russian nobleman promoting the colonization of Alaska and California. Both Langsdorff and Rezanov separated from the expedition in 1805 at Kamchatka and traveled to Alaska to review the Russian-American company's operations. In 1806, they traveled to San Francisco for Rezanov to negotiate a treaty establishing Russian-American colonies in California (Fort Ross) and the Pacific Northwest. Langsdorff also describes the romance between Rezanov and Dona Concepcion, daughter of the Commandante Jose Arguello. Langsdorff's writings on the his six week visit to California were one of the first published in Europe and London. From Hill, 'Nearly 70 pages are devoted to the extensive visit by Rezanov to San Francisco and the surrounding country in 1806."
Russell was a long standing printer, publisher and author in San Francisco from the mid-1880's to his death in 1931. This book and his many other books are beautifully written, designed and printed. His research has added to the history of California and the exploration of the Pacific Northwest. The publications were always limited and the early books were numbered, signed with handwritten annotations by Russell. After his death, the remaining bound and unbound stock was acquired by others and many copies were haphazardly numbered and/or signed by others with Russell's name. This copy is a considered a later signing after his death.
Price: $375.00