The Cruise of the Corwin; Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in Search of De Long and the Jeannette
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1917. Very Good Plus. First Edition, 1st Printing. [Published November 1917][5.75x8.25”]; [2], xxxi, [1], 278 pp. [2], 22 plates of ten black/white images, including frontispiece, and 18 black/white illustrations from Muir sketches, one map of Wrangell land, illustration of newly discovered plant on title page, appendices on glaciation and botanical notes; Pale green cloth binding with white lettering on front and spine, color photogravure of USRC Corwin in ice flows on front, top edge gilt, bottom edge trimmed and foredge untrimmed; Minor shelf wear to covers, edges and corners, rubbing to top and bottom spine, slight age toning to end papers and text, some stain spots in text throughout. A very good and bright copy. [Arctic Biblio 11838, Kimes 348, BAL 14775, Howgego III D5 and IV M94]. Item #14331
John Muir (1838-1914) was a well-known naturalist, preservationist, author, founder of the Sierra Club. His writings and advocacy to Congress led to establish Yosemite as a National Park in 1890, but, unlike Yellowstone, under California State control. Over the next decade, Muir founded the Sierra Club to promote environmental protections to wilderness areas, wrote several books on his travels and developed influence with government and business leaders. In 1903, on a trip to Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt, he described the State's mismanagement and exploitation of the National Park an pressed for Federal control, and in 1905 Yosemite was expanded and placed under the control of the Department of Interior.
Muir's first trip to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska was in 1879 with a group of Tlingit guides to study glaciers in the Alaskan panhandle. He wrote about the adventure of the dog Stickeen on the Taylor Bay glacier (now the Brady Glacier). The trip continued up Glacier Bay to explore the inlets for glacier activity and calving of icebergs. There Muir found a very large and active glacier to be named the Muir Glacier in later years. Over the years, Muir traveled to Alaska five more times on various studies. In 1881, he participated on the Corwin in the search for the "Jeannette", described below, and the 1899 Harriman expedition. His last book was published after his death in 1915 on his "Travels in Alaska".
The USRC Thomas Corwin was one of several Pacific Revenue Cutters based in San Francisco and assigned to the Alaskan waters. The annual cruise of 1881, under the command of Captain Calvin Hooper, was to visit and resupply settlements, search for the DeLong expedition in the "Jeannette" and lost whalers, and continue the scientific studies of the Arctic. Selected as the specialist in geology and botany, Muir's primary object in joining the Corwin expedition was to look for evidence of glaciation in the Arctic and subarctic regions. In addition to glacial studies, Muir made a significant scientific contribution in studying the flora of the Arctic regions, including the discovery of a new species, named by famed botanist Asa Gray Erigeron Muirii . This book is from Muir's daily journal and 21 letters that he wrote to the San Francisco "Daily Evening Bulletin". The book also includes the articles that Muir wrote for the official expedition reports in 1883 and 1884.
Price: $250.00