“MY LIFE WAS TO BE AMONG THE INDIANS AND IN WASTE PLACES”: FIRST EDITION OF FREMONT’S RICHLY ILLUSTRATED MEMOIRS OF MY LIFE

FREMONT, John Charles. Memoirs of My Life… Including in the Narrative Five Journeys of Western Exploration. Chicago and New York: Belford, Clarke, 1887. Large thick quarto, original pictorial brown cloth elaborately stamped in gold, silver, black and red.

First edition, with frontispiece portrait, 82 engraved plates (one in color) and seven maps (two in color, four folding, including one that measures 26 by 26 inches, which is often not present). “Extremely rare.”

The autobiography of national hero John Charles Frémont, who, in the course of his 77 years, became a Western explorer, a mountaineer, an officer in the Mexican-American War, a speculator in the Gold Rush, Major General in the Union Army, a presidential candidate, and the governor of the Arizona Territory. He was a leader in wresting California from Mexico, and he served as one of the state’s first senators and was instrumental in the state’s admission into the Union. Fremont’s popularity and his antislavery position were equally instrumental in his being chosen the Republican Party’s first presidential nominee in 1856, the youngest man yet to run for the office. This volume “embraces [Fremont’s] first three exploring expeditions and the part played by him in the conquest of California” (Howes F367). The outstanding illustrations were taken from contemporary paintings, sketches, and daguerreotypes, executed by the leading illustrators of the day, including Darley. “Extremely rare” (Soliday 869). Volume I is the only volume of Fremont’s memoirs; the manuscript for Volume II is in the Library of Congress, but was never published due to his death in 1890. Eberstadt I:150(a). Howes F367. Cowan, 224-25. Bookplate of Herbert McLean Evans (“Pioneer America… The Far West”), renowned collector of western Americana and professor of anatomy at the University of California, in Berkeley, where he also became director of the Institute of Experimental Biology. Evans isolated Human Growth Hormone and co-discovered Vitamin E. Original owner ink signature, dated 1887.

Inner paper hinges expertly reinforced, expert restoration to spine ends, headbands renewed. Very scarce, especially in the original cloth and in such nice condition.