Unwritten History: Life Amongst the Modocs

Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1874. First American Edition. 445pp. Octavo [23 cm] Black cloth with the title gilt stamped on the front board and backstrip. About very good. Rebacked with original backstrip laid over. New endsheets and patedowns. Corners bumped and rubbed. This work is based on Miller’s years among the mining towns and Indian camps of northernmost California during the tumultuous 1850s. Miller attempted to form an Indian republic among the Pit River Indians, the Klamaths, Shastas, and Modocs.

'Joaquin' [Cincinnatus Heine] Miller (1837-1913) traveled to the California gold fields in 1854 at the age of 17. During (truncated) his time in California he tried his hand at a variety of professions (mining camp cook, a lawyer and a judge, a newspaper writer, a conservationist, and a Pony Express rider.) His true love was writing and he proclaimed himself 'The Poet of the Sierras' and 'The Byron of the Rockies.' At the urging of Ina D. Coolbrith, he changed his name to Joaquin Miller sometime around 1870. Howes M608. (Inventory #: 10491)