FILSON, John (c. 1747 - 1788). Histoire de Kentucke, nouvelle colonie a l'ouest de la Virginie. Paris: Buisson, 1785. Provenance: with the ink library stamp of Fs. Theremin Pasteur on the recto of the first blank; with the bookplate of J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky on the front paste-down, their white manuscript shelf marks on the spines, and penciled shelf numbers on verso of title-page. THE FIRST BOOK DEVOTED TO KENTUCKY. First French edition, first published in Wilmington Delaware the previous year, and without a map, which was published simultaneously and separately by Pursell and Rook of Philadelphia, and reprinted eight times between 1784-1793. The map in this volume was engraved and published in France. Filson arrived in Kentucky in 1783 and soon settled in Lexington, where he became a teacher and surveyor. "Relative peace had come to the Kentucky frontier in 1782 after the battle of Blue Licks, which in part diminished the omnipresent menace from Native Americans. Filson quickly seized on an idea to publish an account of the dramatic story of Kentucky's settlement and its natural history that would attract settlers and thereby increase the value of his landholdings. As he conducted land surveys and traveled throughout the central bluegrass region, he began intensively interviewing prominent frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone, James Harrod, and others about their Kentucky experiences" (Hay).