A TRUE PICTURE OF EMIGRATION; OR FOURTEEN YEARS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA; BEING A FULL AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS DIFFICULTIES AND ULTIMATE SUCCESS OF AN ENGLISH FAMILY WHO EMIGRATED FROM BARWICK-IN-ELMET, NEAR LEEDS, IN THE YEAR 1831

London: G. Berger, [1848]. FIRST EDITION. 180 x 110 mm. (7 x 4 1/4"). [2]-62 pp., [6] blank leaves.
The original printed paper wrappers bound in early 20th century green crushed half calf over marbled paper boards, monogrammed "F. O. L." in gilt on leather corner at lower right of upper board, raised bands, spine compartments gilt with floral sprig, gilt lettering, marbled endpapers. Engraved bookplate of Frank O. Lowden on front pastedown. Howes B-992; Sabin 97133. Spine evenly sunned to a medium brown, small early repair to upper edge of paper wrapper, but a fine copy, the binding with virtually no wear, and the contents extremely clean and fresh with only trivial defects.

This is an excellent copy, from the library of an important Illinois politician, of the scarce memoir of a female Illinois homesteader. Our author, Rebecca Burlend (1793-1872) and her husband John, a farmer and schoolteacher, made the choice in August of 1831 to leave their Yorkshire home and travel with five of their children to Illinois. They arrived in New Orleans two months later and began an arduous journey up the Mississippi to their land claim in Pike County across the river from Hannibal, Missouri. The author's description of the trip and their subsequent difficult first few years in the United States provides an unvarnished picture of frontier life. Burlend candidly recounts hardships caused by such things as weather, fire, and squatters, and critically discusses the people she met, many of whom she disliked--writing that "ignorance was the predominant feature of Western character." While she apparently felt the adversity had been largely worthwhile, she intended the present narrative as a realistic guide for other prospective British emigrants. The book concludes with the practical sentiment that "if the account I have given of our proceedings, adverse and successful, does not allure [the reader's] fancy with ideas of visionary prosperity as the invariable result of crossing the seas, it may perchance tend to make him a little better satisfied with his present condition, though it should only be a snug little cottage in the land where his childhood was reared." Her memoir was published anonymously in London in 1848, after she had composed it on a return visit to England with the help of her son. She was not formally identified as the author of the piece until 1936. The present copy is distinguished by its connection to another figure in Illinois history: Frank Orren Lowden (the "F. O. L." on the front cover, 1861-1943) represented Illinois' 13th district in the U.S. House of Representatives and later served as governor of Illinois from 1917-21..