TRAVEL LETTERS BY W. H. GILE. Penacook, New Hampshire: The W. B. Ranney Co., Printers, n.d. [1923?]. 19.4x13.5 cm, pp. [1-5] 6-109 [110-112: blank], 21 inserted plates with illustrations from photographs, original green cloth, front panel stamped in gold. First edition. Author's "compliments of W. H. Gile" written on the front free endpaper. The first two sections (fourteen pages of text) briefly summarize the author's trips to Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees and a trip in the spring of 1909 from Pasadena (where he passed the winter) to Yellowstone National Park, the Seattle World's Fair, and Alaska. The rest of the travel letters pertain mostly to foreign travel, many in southern European regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The four-page account of his visit to Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove (year not specified) is found on pages [5]-8. The accounts of the trips abroad "were printed in the LAWRENCE TELEGRAM at the request of its editor, the late John N. Cole" (author's "foreword"). A scarce privately printed book with no content of importance for Sierra Nevada research. OCLC calls for 20 illustrations but there are 21 illustrations on 21 inserted plates. W. H. Gile, a successful New England businessman, founded W. H. Gile & Company, a clothier and hatter, in 1869 in Milford, Massachusetts. He sold the business to a partner, H. D. Bowker, in 1889, after which he traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. Cloth worn at spine ends and lower corners, ninth section leaf wrinkled, a good copy. OCLC reports 4 copies. (#167187).
No statement of printing.