L. W. Currey, Inc.

(California Literature) Mighels, Henry Rust. SAGE BRUSH LEAVES[.] By Henry R. Mighels. San Francisco: Edward Bosqui & Co., Printers, cor. Clay and Leidesdorff Sts., 1879. 17.5x10.8 cm, pp. [1-6: blank] [1-2: frontispiece] [i-vi] [i-v] vi [vii-xii] [13] 14-335 [336: blank] [337: section title] [338: blank] [339-347] [348: blank], frontispiece (mounted albumen photograph with facsimile signature below), original terra cotta cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, brown coated endpapers. First edition. A posthumous collection of essays, sketches and vignettes by the editor and owner of the CARSON DAILY APPEAL, a pioneer newspaper published in Carson City, Nevada. "These philosophical essays, letters and notes by a popular early day Carson City journalist cover daily politics and mining to the 'heathen Chinese.' Delightful descriptions of a trip in 1877 from Carson City to Lake Tahoe and its settlements are on pages 233-255 [Mighels camped in what is now the Desolation Wilderness in the Eldorado National Forest and climbed Mount Tallac]. Many copies have Mighel's photograph pasted on the leaf before the title and signed below in facsimile" (Paher 1278). Mighels' writings are preceded by a 7-page "Sketch of the Life and Character of the Author" by George C. Gorham, and a section following the main text is "Recollections of Harry Mighels" by Sam P. Davis, Mighel's successor on the Carson APPEAL and the man who married his widow. There is brief biography of Mighels in Ella Sterling Cummins' THE STORY OF THE FILES: A REVIEW OF CALIFORNIAN WRITERS AND LITERATURE (1893), pp. 104-106, that incorporates a brief biographical sketch by his son, Philip Verrill Mighels. According to Cummins, "There is sweetness, crispness and shy humor in the sketches, some of which are exquisite in their tinting, especially one entitled 'Mountain Lights and Shadows'" (a sketch found on pages 182-185 of this collection). A member of the Sage Brush school, Henry ("Harry") Rust Mighels (1830-1879), American journalist, editor and politician, was born in Norway, Maine. In 1849 he went to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He arrived in California in 1851. A staunch Republican, he served in the Union army during the American Civil War. After the war he settled in Nevada, where he became editor and owner of the CARSON DAILY APPEAL in 1865. In 1866 he married Nellie Verrill Mighels (1844-1945) also from Norway, Maine, after a lengthy courtship by mail. Mighels died of cancer in 1879, just shy of fifty years of age, and his widow published this work for his friends and family as a memorial to his life and work. Cowan (1933), p. 428. Rocq (1970) 10455. Baird and Greenwood 1721. Spine ends and corner tips lightly worn, a very good copy. (#166707).

Price: $150.00