The Overland Monthly, 1868-1875; The Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, 1883-1931

first edition Hardcover

1931 · San Francisco

by HARTE, Bret, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Jack London, Joaquin Miller, John Muir, Clark Ashton Smith, George Sterling, and others

San Francisco: A. Roman & Company; John H. Carmany & Company [et al.], 1931. Hardcover. Very Good. Magazine. 93 bound volumes and 40 single issues in wrappers. Octavos and folios. A long run of *Overland Monthly*, California’s most important literary magazine of the 19th and early 20th Century. The set includes a near complete run of the original series from July 1868 until December 1875 (lacking only the January 1870 issue, else complete); and a long, near complete run of the second series from 1883 (when it resumed publication) through 1931. In 1923 it merged with Out West to become *Overland Monthly and the Out West Magazine*, and changed (truncated) its format from octavo to folio.

Founded and first edited by Bret Harte, *Overland Monthly* established serious literature and progressive social criticism in the American Far West. It quickly won national and international acclaim as a leading literary force in American letters. Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and Harte contributed sardonic stories and verse, and all manner of informal, highly personal commentary which propelled Harte and the magazine to literary celebrity. The magazine gave rise to a new generation of writers, loosely known as the West Coast Romantics, that included Bierce and Harte, John Muir, Willa Cather, Joaquin Miller, Jack London, George Sterling, and fantasy/science fiction writer Clark Ashton Smith, all of whom contributed to the magazine. Among the many important works featured in this long run is Harte’s “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” “Dickens in Camp,” and “Plain Language from Truthful James,” and Bierce's "The Haunted Valley" and “Grizzly Papers,” (in five installments). Mark Twain contributed his famous travel log in four installments: “By Rail Through France,” and “A Californian Abroad: A Few Parisian Sights; Three Italian Cities; A Mediaeval Romance.” Willa Cather’s short story “On the Divide” appeared in 1896.

Most volumes are bound in full beige or blue cloth. The original series lacks one monthly issue (January 1870), otherwise it is complete in 14 bound volumes (volumes 1-3, and 5-15), with four unbound issues in wraps (February-May, 1870). Volume 3 from 1869 has the original wrappers and supplements bound in. Volumes 1-6 of the second series is incomplete, consisting of 11 unbound single issues in wraps from 1883-1885: (April 1883; January, April, July, August, September, October, and November 1884; January, March, May 1885), then follows a consecutive run of mostly bound volumes 7-89 from 1886-1931 (with 29 single issues from 1921-22 in wrappers). The bound volumes from 1901-1931 have the original wrappers bound in.

An ex-library set with bookplates or ink stamps on the front pastedowns. Only two volumes in half calf (from 1895 and 1897) are scuffed and worn, thus good only, about ten volumes and a few single issues in wraps from the 20th Century have some intermittent torn leaves, the volume containing the “San Francisco Fire Number” (May 1906) is split at the gutter with detached leaves, else overall an about very good set. A scarce, large assemblage of many first appearances of important American literary works and articles. A list of notable selections is available. (Inventory #: 378785)

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