Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2009 Issue
19th Century Travellers from the William Reese Company
The whale won its battle with the Essex.
Half a century later, travel in the western United States was infinitely easier and more comfortable. That's when Englishman Thomas C. Porter visited the West. Unlike Parkman, Porter had access to railway tickets and a neat device to record what he saw - the camera. Item 154 is Impressions of America, limited to 150 copies, and published in 1899. Porter visited Yellowstone, Yosemite, Salt Lake and the natural wonders of Utah, and San Francisco. He not only provided text and photographs of his journey, but a stereoscopic viewer to make the images appear three-dimensional. $1,350.
Item 1 is a lengthy manuscript journal (234 pages, roughly 40,000 words) of an American who spends a few years in London during the 1860s. The writer sets off for England from New York in 1863 to avoid the draft during the Civil War. From the ship, waiting in the harbor, he observes some of New York's infamous draft riots. The rioters particularly target blacks, forcing those on board to hide the two Negro cooks. He describes the food, or at least, how it was described to him - two-year-old biscuits reground to make new ones. After a miserable trip, the writer describes his four years in London, though he evidently misses home. $2,250.
The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.
