Around the Horn in '49. The Journal of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company. December, 1848 to September, 1849
first edition
1928 · San Francisco
by Hall, John Linville
San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1928 Reprint of the 1849 first edition. One of 250 numbered copies printed by the Grabhorn Press. Historical introduction by Oscar Lewis. [14], 127pp. Tipped-in color frontispiece. Brown cloth spine, marbled boards, paper spine label printed in gold. Handsomely engraved bookplate on inner cover. Offsetting to free endpapers (as usual). A fine copy. Journal kept by John Linville Hall; a day to day account of the voyage of the barque "Henry Lee" from New York to San Francisco in 1849. Hall was a printer who set up his machinery and printed his Journal while at sea. That original issue is now very rare; this reprint is extremely scarce. "One of the most delightful of the Club's publications, certainly one of the most difficult to obtain today" (Hundredth Book). "The first printed narrative of a California gold-seeker and the best record of an Argonaut expedition by sea" (Howes). "This journal ranks as one of the most celebrated and interesting of all Gold Rush narratives
" (Kurutz). Although Howes attribute authorship of this journal to George Webster, Oscar Lewis and Gary Kurutz attribute the authorship to its printer, Hall. One of the Fifty Books of the Year. [Grabhorn: 106; Howes I: W-202; Howes II: W-199; Hundredth Book: 30; Kurutz: 305c].. (Inventory #: 8078)