Pike's Expedition - AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY IN PUBLISHER’S BOARDS - The

AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY IN PUBLISHER’S BOARDS - The Spiritual Sister of the Lewis & Clark Accounts PIKE, Zebulon Montgomery (1779-1813). An account of expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, and through the western parts of Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansaw, Kans, La Platte, and Pierre Jaun, Rivers; performed by order of the Government of the United States during the years 1805, 1806, and 1807. And a tour through the Interior parts of New Spain, when conducted through these provinces, by order of The Captain-General, in the year 1807. By Major Z. M. Pike. Illustrated by maps and charts. Philadelphia: printed by John Binns for C. & A. Conrad & Co.; Somervell & Conrad; Bonsal, Conrad, & Co.; and Fielding Lucas, Jr.; 1810. First edition. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $45,000. Cost: Dorothy Sloan, 15th February 2006, lot 68 - $40,250. Octavo in 4s (9 1/8” x 5 7/8”, 231mm x 149mm): binder’s blank, 2 binder’s blanks, π4 A-Mm4 (Mm4 blank), 1-264, 2 binder’s blanks [$1 signed]. 248 leaves, pp. 1-3 4-5 [3] (title, copyright, 3pp. to the public, blank, to the president, blank), 21 22-277, 3 blanks, 31 32-65 [1] (letterpress table), 41 42-53, blank, 51 52-87, blank. [=viii, 280, 66, 54, 88] With 2 engraved plates, 6 letterpress tables, 3 folding letterpress tables and 5 folding engraved maps. Bound in the publisher’s blue drab boards with beige tape backing. Fore and lower edges of the text-block untrimmed. Presented in a blue cloth clam-shell box with a blue morocco spine-label gilt. Hinges cracked, with some losses to the tape-backing. Some soiling to the boards, with a few abrasions and creases. Closed tear to the lower edge of A2. Transverse closed tear to 11, repaired verso with plastic tape. Ink marginalium to 94v (p. 6 of the Appendix to Part II). A little tanning and some spots generally. An exceptionally tall survival in publisher’s boards. In 1805, then-Lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1779-1813) was chosen by the Jefferson administration to trace the origins of the Mississippi River in the newly acquired Louisiana territory. This expedition was conducted in conjunction with the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, which traced the origins of the Missouri river. Soon after, Pike was instructed to explore the Arkansas and Red Rivers and, missing the latter entirely, wound up in Spanish territory. The Spanish authorities arrested him and confiscated his maps and papers, but his journals remained hidden within the barrels of the guns of his men. The publication of this book in 1810 allowed the American people to gain access to a wealth of knowledge about the newly explored West, from accounts of flora and fauna to weather conditions. The scope of Pike’s investigation was vast and yet precise. His account remained easy to read due to its diaristic structure. It was so popular that it was soon translated into Dutch, French, and German so that it could be circulated within Europe. It in turn fueled westward expansion in the XIXc and is the spiritual sister to the Lewis and Clark accounts. A single marginalium — “two than five” against “…the sandy soil… renders the river (in dry seasons) less navigable five hundred miles” — is the only clue to ownership. The section discusses the “Rio del Norte,” which we now would call the upper Rio Grande within New Mexico, and so the annotator must either have been familiar with the river’s behavior from personal experience or from another work on the region. Graff 3290; Howes P 373; Sabin 62836; Streeter Sale 3125; Wagner-Camp 9:1; Wheat Transmississippi West 297–299 (maps).

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