THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. New York: The Century Co., 1894. Octavo, pp. [i-viii] ix [x] xi-xiii [xiv-xvi], [1] 2-381 [382: blank [note: the blank leaf preceding the half title leaf was excised by the binder], frontispiece, 51 illustrations, 2 maps, original pictorial olive-green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in green and gold, t.e.g., fore-edge rough trimmed, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. The copies first printed, not necessarily the copies first circulated, have folio 1 below the text on page [1]; this copy has it. For his first book Muir selected and carefully revised articles which had appeared between 1875 and 1882 in several magazines and a newspaper. These selections, which represented much of his finest writing of the period, were prefaced by a new essay on the Sierra Nevada to provide an introduction to the detailed sketches which followed and a framework for his selections. The result was an enduring Sierra Nevada classic. "More books came from Muir's pen," writes Lawrence Clark Powell in California Classics ... ( 1971), "but none has the power, the style, and the charm of his first ... It is one man's testament to the glory of the Sierra Nevada, that radiant Range of Light. By the act of reading, book and range become ours. Such is the power of a classic." THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA met with immediate and far-reaching success. Muir's biographer, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), p. 268) summarizes its impact: "It rallied and solidified the conservation sentiment of the entire nation, leading directly to a new upsurge of determination to preserve the forests." Currey and Kruska 258. Howes M 880. Powell, California Classics 12. Zamorano Eighty 56. BAL 14746. Kimes 189. Early owner's signature at the top edge of the front free endpaper. Tiny ink mark on spine, a bright, nearly fine copy. A remarkably fresh copy of this book with none of the often encountered foxing to binding, endpapers or text. A superior copy. (#167589).
No statement of printing.