AN AMERICAN IDYLL. Boston: The Arena Publishing Company, 1896. Octavo, pp. [1-6] xv-xvii [xviii] 19-244 [note: text complete despite gap in pagination], inserted frontispiece, numerous illustrations in the text, original purple cloth, front panel stamped in gold and black, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Presentation copy with 1896 Christmas gift inscription to "Miss Sims" by Slocomb signed "the author." "Ethnographic romance set in Southern Arizona about the relationship between a white gentleman-scholar ('the Scientist') who visits the region to learn about its flora and fauna, including the local Indians, and the young maiden, Ampharita, who waits on him and becomes infatuated with him and his tales of the wonders of the civilized world beyond her pueblo. Things end tragically, but with a final redemptive note afforded by his vision of the perished maiden urging him to value Love over Knowledge. Of interest mainly for the careful ethnographic research that went into the writing (forty pages of "explanatory notes" and "glossary of Indian and Mexican Terms" follow the story) and the many detailed drawings." - Robert Eldridge. Wright (III) 4963. Cloth stained, hinges cracked still a sound, good, internally clean copy of an uncommon book. (#139203).
Price: $200.00
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