L. W. Currey, Inc.

POWELL, EDWARD ALEXANDER. End of the trail[:] the Far West from New Mexico To British Columbia[.] By E. Alexander Powell, F. R. G. S. ... With forty-eight full-page illustrations and a map. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914. 21.5x14.3 pp. [i-vi] vii-ix [x-xii] xiii-xiv [xv-xvi] [1-2] 3-462 [463] [464: blank], 48 inserted plates with illustrations from photographs, 1 map (folded), original olive green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. First edition. A fine travel narrative written by Powell to illustrate that "the Last West" still exists "in the hinterland of that vast region which sweeps westward and northward from the Pecos to the Skeena, and which includes New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, [and] British Columbia, frontier conditions still endure and the frontiersman is still to be found." His trip to Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park by way of roads to the parks recently opened to travel by automobile is described on pages 245-258. "As a result of the Powers That Be at Washington having recently had a change of heart in respect to motor cars entering the Yosemite, every valley town between Stockton and Visalia has announced itself as the one and only 'official gateway to the valley,' and has backed up its claims with tons of maps and literature. As a mater of fact, the Department of the Interior has announced that motorists desiring to visit Yosemite must enter and leave it by the Coulterville road, and this road can be reached from any one of half a dozen valley towns with equal facility" (page 246). Edward Alexander Powell (1879-1957), American journalist, war correspondent and travel writer, published over twenty books of adventure, travel and world politics between 1920 and 1938, and two autobiographical works, FREE LANCE (1937) and ADVENTURE ROAD (1954). A fascinating narrative, especially the section on British Columbia. The folded map is "Map of the Far West, from New Mexico to British Columbia, Showing the Route Followed by the Author." Penciled signature of early owner dated October 1915 on the front free endpaper. A very good copy with bright cover stamping in a frayed and chipped pictorial dust jacket. (#166610).