A Sketch Of the Life and Voyages Of Captain Alvah Dewey

The book achieves a certain notoriety at the hands of Thomas Streeter who writes about it in his Texas Bibliography and assigns to it a casket number 1316 while informing us that only a few copies (4) are known. Dorothy Sloan, in 1988, identifies 8 copies and this copy, discovered on the net, is possibly number 9. That makes the Gutenberg Bible absolutely common by comparison.

Here is what some experts have had to say. Howes is brief, may I say laconic. He writes “Dewey participated in Mina's filibustering expedition into Texas” and awards him two AAs which in the inverse world of book evaluation is not as good as two Ds. (If only I could have convinced my parents of this.) Dorothy Sloan does a good job in explaining the book in 1988 when she captures much of its bibliographical history, as follows: “Eberstadt 131:657: ‘Dewey led an adventurous life, most of it at sea. He joined the Mina Expedition of 1816 and gives a brief account of this harrowing experience.’ Howes J172. Streeter 1316: ‘Account of Dewey's joining General Mina's expedition of 1816 at Port au Prince, and sailing with it to Galveston. This gives information on the expedition and of affairs at Galveston not in William D. Robinson's Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution, Philadelphia, 1820. After arriving at Galveston, Dewey went on two privateering expeditions. While on the second expedition he was captured by the Spaniards and had a thrilling escape from Morro Castle.’”

So both Thomas Streeter and Dorothy Sloan firmly plant the Texas flag on this little volume and now Texas perfectionists will forever have to chase the absurdly small number of copies that have been located of which this one seems one of the best. In the mean time I stake a claim on behalf of the State of New York.

It’s a nice find and made possible by the AED in conjunction with listing sites.

As this book is absolutely rare I can not suggest any place you can obtain a reading copy but if there is a public outcry I believe in compliance with copyright law we can post the entire text for those interested.

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A Sketch Of the Life and Voyages Of Captain Alvah Dewey

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A Sketch Of the Life and Voyages Of Captain Alvah Dewey

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