A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery under the command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke of the army of the United States from the mouth of the river Missouri through the interior parts of North America to the Pacific ocean, during t

Book Description

Pittsburgh: Printed by Zadok Cramer, for David M'Keehan, Publisher and Proprietor, 1807. 12mo. (6 5/8 x 4 inches). (Neatly repaired tear to upper margin of title, paper-fault tear to outer blank margin of 'A2', 1 1/2 inch repaired tear to H1). Expertly bound to style in half calf over contemporary marbled paper-covered boards, spine in six compartments with raised bands, the bands highlighted with gilt roll tool and flanked by double gilt fillets, red morocco label in the second compartment, the others with repeat decoration in gilt. Rare first edition of the earliest published first-hand account of the Lewis and Clark expedition: - "...One of the essential books for an Americana collection" (Streeter) Gass was a sergeant who, by order of Lewis and at the insistence of Thomas Jefferson, kept a journal of the expedition's activities, and this book seems closely based on that document. 'Patrick Gass was a rough reliable frontier soldier when he joined the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was made a sergeant when Sergeant Floyd died. He writes a terse soldier's narrative, exasperating in its brevity, but always with rugged honesty. His story was for many years the only true account of the expedition - the first real information the nation had of the Oregon country and of the Louisiana Purchase. It is a work of primary importance' (Webster A. Jones). Graff 1516; Hill (2004) 685; Howes G77 'b'; Literature of the Lewis & Clark Expedition 3.1; Sabin 26741; Shaw & Shoemaker 12646; Smith 3465; Streeter Sale 3120; Wagner-Camp 6:1

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