THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA by J. D. Borthwick. With eight illustrations by the author. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, MDCCCCLVII [1857]. 22.2x13.8 cm, pp. [i-iii] iv-vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-384 + 16-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, eight inserted plates with illustrations drawn by Borthwick and engraved by M. & N. Hanhart, original decorated salmon cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, cream endpapers. First edition. In May 1851 Borthwick, a Scotsman visiting New York, was sized by gold fever and traveled to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. For three years the artist "wandered through the mining towns and camps in such places as Sacramento, Placerville, Coloma, Greenwood Valley, Nevada City, Foster's Bar, Downieville, Jacksonville, San Andreas, and Sonora. His travels allowed him to make a detailed and accurate review of mining methods, ethnic groups and tensions, transportation, amusements, lynch law, hotels and restaurants, and the growth of California. He returned home to Edinburgh in 1856 ... Borthwick's narrative has universally been proclaimed as one of the most important accounts of the Gold Rush. Gudde calls it 'one of the best, if not the best book of the period.' Streeter states: 'I do not know of another story by an actual miner that is so well written and so true to that wonderful life in the Days of Gold.' ... The handsome illustrations by Borthwick have been reproduced countless times" (Kurtz 65a). "Outstanding account of mining life, with the best illustrations the period produced" (Wheat, Books of the Gold Rush 21). Cowan (1933), p. 64. Howes B622. Rocq 15706. Zamorano 80 #8. Cloth lightly worn at spine ends and corner tips, tissue guards tanned, a very good copy. Actually, quite a nice copy of a book usually found in tatty condition or rebound. (#166341).
Price: $1,750.00
No statement of printing.