"FIRST AMERICAN JUVENILE BOOK ON THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI REGION": BELL'S TALES OF TRAVELS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 1830 FIRST EDITION, WITH DOUBLE-PAGE MAP AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

(SNELLING, William Joseph) BELL, Solomon [pseudonym]. Tales of Travels West of the Mississippi. Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1830. 12mo, 20th-century purple cloth, renewed endpapers. $1400.

First edition of this collection of accounts of western travel, including the expeditions of Lewis and Clark, Long, and Jewitt. Written for a younger audience, this illustrated account includes a double-page map of the United States west of the Mississippi River, wood-engraved frontispiece, vignette title page, and 37 wood-engraved illustrations throughout the text.

"Solomon Bell" was the pseudonym of William Joseph Snelling. "This was Snelling's first book, the earliest juvenile on the Far West. The author's father was Josiah Snelling after whom Fort Snelling was named. He was, at one time, a fur trader in the far west" (Graff). "First American juvenile book on the trans-Mississippi region, giving account of its early explorers, wild tribes, etc." (Howes). Sabin 85429. Howes S-739. Graff 3875. Contemporary owner ink inscription, dated 1831.

First leaf (advertisement) and last leaf (blank) with some edge-wear, light foxing to text. Spine sunned. A very good copy.