THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES OF AMERICA. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: ITS CLIMATIC, PHYSICAL, AND METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. By P. C. Remondino, M.D. ... Fully Illustrated. Philadelphia and London: The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers, 1892. 23x14.7 cm, pp. [i-ii] iii-xiv 1-160 + 32-page catalogue for the "Season of 1891-1892" inserted at rear, 45 illustrations, 1 inserted map (folded), 1 inserted profile (folded), original bevel-edged green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, decorated endpapers. First edition. A presentation copy, perhaps given by Remondino to America author Eugene Field whose bookplate is affixed to the front paste-down and whose signature is found at the upper edge of the front free endpaper. Inscribed by the author at the top edge of the title page: "With compliments of P. C. Remondino, M.D., / San Diego, Calif., / Dec. 22, 1893." Peter Charles Remondino (1846-1926) arrived in California in late 1873 and was appointed city physician of San Diego three years later ... During the Civil War he served as an assistant to various surgeons and later graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. In poor health as a result of malarial fevers, he was lured to the San Diego area by booster literature proclaiming its healthy climate. The miasma-free air of Southern California worked, and he spent the next fifty years vigorously building a career, heading a family, and writing a number of books. In THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES OF AMERICA, Remondino explains that 'one of the greatest peculiarities or oddities of the Southern California climate consists in the relative conditions existing between the degrees of temperature and the degrees of atmospheric humidity.' ... To this day advertising agencies extol the virtues of Southern California's climate by boasting that one can take an early morning dip in the Pacific, snowboard in the afternoon in the mountains, and relax in the evening with friends in a desert community such as Palm Springs. In what is essentially an advertisement for those seeking better health, especially those with respiratory diseases, Remondino stresses that rest in the long hours of bright sunshine, surrounded by dry warm soil and steady cool winds, will eventually bring one back to health ... The book also offers enticing illustrations of many scenic locations in Southern California, including beaches, missions, resorts, and orange groves" (Gordon J. Van De Water). Cowan (1933), p. 529. Rocq 16360. Zamorano Select 93. Cloth rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, a very good copy. (#167612).
Price: $1,000.00
No statement of printing.