L. W. Currey, Inc.

FRÉMONT, JOHN CHARLES. Memoirs of my life ... [vol. I]. Chicago and New York: Belford, Clarke & Company, 1887. Large octavo, pp. [i-iii] iv-vi [vii] viii [ix] iv [xv] xvi-xix [xx] [1] 2-655 [656: blank] [note: preliminary leaves mis-paged], 82 inserted plates, 7 inserted maps (several folded), original full leather, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel elaborately stamped in gold, inner dentelles, a.e.g., marbled endpapers. First edition. One of the most remarkable American explorers active in the 1840s was John Charles Frémont, "whose passion for geological observation and analysis has left an invaluable heritage" (Herman R. Friis). In all Frémont made five exploring expeditions to the West (1842-1853). Frémont's biographer Allan Nevins has referred to him as "the first distinctively scientific explorer produced by the United States." This first volume of a projected but never completed multi-volume work "embraces his first three exploring expeditions and the part played by him in the conquest of California" (Howes). According to Howes, the work was also issued in ten paperbound parts. Howes F367. Mild rubbing to the leather professionally touched up, a remarkably fine copy of the deluxe issue of this large, bulky book. Certainly one of the finest extant copies. Enclosed in a custom brown cloth clamshell box with velvet lining and leather spine label. (#157088).