VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL ... TO THE FROZEN AND PACIFIC OCEANS

Book Description

London: Cadell & Davies, 1801. First Edition. buckram. Paper evenly browned. Good copy with a wonderful association. Quarto, bound in modern buckram; [4] viii, cxxxii, 412 pages + errata leaf. Field 967: "No writer upon the subject of Indian customs and peculiarities has given us a more minute, careful and interesting relation"; Hill, pp. 187-88: "This is the first and finest edition of one of the most important of Canadian books"; Howes M-133; New Howes M-133 "dd": "First crossing of the continent from ocean to ocean by a white man.... The account of the fur trade--first ever published--is attributed to Roderick Mackenzie"; Wagner-Camp 1: "Mackenzie was the first white man to cross the continent, and his journal of this expedition is of surpassing interest"; Wheat 251. One of the greatest books in the field of Travel and Exploration and a classic of Canadiana and Western Americana, this copy lacks the half title, as usual, and also the three maps which are represented by reduced blueprint copies provided by a previous owner, the famous Polar explorer and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Adolphus W. Greely, whose bookplate graces the front pastedown. Greely has also made brief notes or marks on four pages. A lackluster copy, certainly, but with a distinguished provenance linking one of the greatest explorers of the 18th century to one of the greatest of the 19th century. Adolphus W. Greely, the Signal Corps' fifth Medal of Honor winner began his life of service on some of the Civil War's bloodiest battlefields - Balls Bluff, Antietam and Fredericksburg. After rising from Private to Sergeant in the 19th Massachusetts, Greely accepted a commission in the 81st Colored Troops in 1863.Lieutenant Greely, Regular Army, saw frontier service in places like Wyoming and Utah. In his spare time, he studied telegraph and electricity. The training served him well when he was detailed to the Signal Corps in 1867.After serving as a "trouble-shooter" in the construction of frontier telegraph lines, Greely volunteered in 1881, to lead an Arctic weather expedition. On a three year stint to Ellesmere Island near the north pole, Greely's party amassed a great deal of data on Arctic Weather and tidal conditions, but was almost wiped out when relief ships failed to reach them for two successive summers. When they were finally rescued on 22 June 1884, nineteen of Greely's 25-man crew had perished from starvation, drowning, hypothermia, and in one case, gunshot wounds from an execution ordered by Greely. The survivors were themselves near death, and one did die on the homeward journey. The returning survivors were venerated as heroes, though the heroism was tainted by sensational accusations of cannibalism during the remaining days of low food. In 1887 President Grover Cleveland advanced Greely from rank of Captain to Brigadier General with his Appointment as Chief Signal Officer. In the following years, Greely's innovation led to the military use of wireless telegraphy, the airplane, the automobile and other modern devices.Greely retired in 1908. After a trip around the world, he helped found the National Geographic Society and the first free public library in Washington, D.C.On his 91st birthday, March 27, 1935, Greely was presented with a special Medal of Honor for "his life of splendid public service." Greely died the following October and was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

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