Our new way round the world. By Charles Carleton Coffin ... Fully illustrated. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., Successors to Ticknor and Fields, 1869. 19.8x12.7 cm, pp. [i-vii] viii-xvi [xvii] xviii 1-524, errata slip inserted at rear, flyleaves at front and rear, 95 illustrations, including frontispiece, 14 maps, original pictorial reddish brown pebbled cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind, brown coated endpapers. First edition, first printing. A popular book by a best-selling author that went through many printings from several publishers. The "new way round the world" is by way of the just completed transcontinental railroad across America and the soon to be completed Suez Canal. Charles Carleton Coffin (1823-1896), "war correspondent, writer, gained fame under his pen-name, 'Carleton,' and found a direction for his later writing by his success as a correspondent in the Civil War ... 'Carleton' exploited his war experiences in many volumes ... He was in Europe for sixteen months, 1866-1867, and thence went eastward through India, China, and Japan to San Francisco and thus home, describing his journey in Our New Way Round the World (1869). A popular book, The Seat of Empire (1870) was the outcome of a subsequent tour in the West ... His children's books, especially The Boys of '76, had a tremendous and deserved popularity ... Genial and warmhearted, Coffin had a host of distinguished friends, and was in great demand as a popular lecturer, giving in his lifetime some 2000 public addresses" (DAB). Mr. and Mrs. Coffin's trip to Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees in the spring of 1868 is described on pages 476-491. From Mariposa a party of eight, including the Coffins, traveled by saddle-horse to Clark's Station (Wawona) by way of Hatch's (thirteen miles from Mariposa). After a side trip to the Mariposa Grove, they continued on to Yosemite Valley by way of Inspiration Point. Following the descent to the Valley floor there is no further travel narrative other than a brief mention of Hutchings' bountiful table. The chapter ends abruptly after several pages cataloguing the natural features of the Valley. At the beginning of the next chapter we are in Salt Lake City. Apparently, the Coffins returned to the Bay Area by way of the Coulterville Trail on the north side of the Valley. Coffin's narrative is disappointing. A map of Yosemite Valley is present on page 486. A deluxe edition (21.6x15.1 cm) printed from the same plates, was published by Estes and Lauriat in Boston. This edition is copyright 1880. Two versions have been seen: one with no date on the title page, the other with a title page dated 1881. This edition has 145 illustrations, adding 50 full-page illustrations on inserted plates, and 14 maps. Flake 2448. Sabin 14169. An early copy with a gift inscription dated 4 June 1869 on the front flyleaf. Cloth worn at spine ends and lower corner tips, spine panel just a bit sunned, gold spine stamping dull, a tight, very good copy. (#166450).
No statement of printing.