L. W. Currey, Inc.

LeCONTE, JOSEPH NISBET. Journal of a camping trip amongst the highest of the California Sierra summer of 1890 [by] Joseph N. LeConte. N.p., n.d. [circa 1943]. 27.2x20.7 cm, [1] 2-145 leaves [note: three blank leaves precede the title leaf and three blank leaves follow the last leaf of text], mimeographed from typewritten copy, original blue cloth , spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Joseph N. LeConte's journal of a two-month trip with Hubert P. Dyer, Cornelius B. Lakenan and Fred S. Pheby through the High Sierra of Kings Canyon and Yosemite in the summer of 1890. The party visited Kings Canyon, Granite Basin and Paradise Valley; then ascended Bubbs Creek and entered the Owens Valley by way of Kearsarge Pass. After a side trip to Lone Pine and Mount Whitney, the four traveled up the Owens Valley and entered the Yosemite High Sierra via Bloody Canyon. They visited Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys. For supplementary accounts of the trip see Hubert P. Dyer, "Camping in the Highest Sierras," Appalachia, January 1982 and J. N. LeConte, "My First Summer in the Kings River Sierra," Sierra Club Bulletin, February 1941. Joseph N. LeConte, the son of Professor Joseph LeConte of the University of California, was a prominent early member of the Sierra Club with extensive knowledge of the Sierra Nevada based on many extended trips into the High Sierra back country. In his preface to the 1972 edition Ansel Adams remarks: "He explored, mapped and photographed in relentless, accurate detail. He demolished errors in the early inadequate maps, clarified the topography, established trail routes, made many important ascents and did as much as any man to interpret the High Sierra to his and subsequent generations. While John Muir is the better-known personality, we must not forget that Joe LeConte encompassed a greater experience and possessed a greater knowledge of the 'Range of Light.'" The events leading to the production of the mimeographed version of this classic of High Sierra literature are described by Shirley Sargent in her introduction to the 1972 edition: "It was Joe LeConte's custom to write descriptions of his Sierra Nevada outings. Between 1890 and his death in 1951 he composed more than eighty such brief accounts ... He felt that the long 1890 excursion warranted a fuller record, however, and beside [sic] writing the journal, he reported on the trip in a short piece printed in the February 1941 issue of the Sierra Club Bulletin ... Shortly after that, his good friend James S. Hutchinson read the journal with great interest and persuaded Joe to have about ten nicely bound typewritten copies made for close friends and selected libraries." A fine copy. Provenance: a presentation copy with signed inscription by LeConte on the front free endpaper: "To my good friend / Mary MacLaughlin / Joseph N. LeConte. / Dec 12, 1943." Beneath LeConte's inscription the recipient has written: "As Cedric Wright says --- / This book is mine -- / And it's going to stay with -- / Mary M. MacLaughlin."