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Author: Manly, William L.
Title: Death Valley in '49: Important Chapter of California Pioneer History
Place Published: San Jose, CA
Publisher:Pacific Tree and Vine Co.
Date Published: 1894
Description:

498 pp. With a frontispiece portrait of the author and 3 plates from drawings. 20x13 cm (7¾x5¼"), original mustard cloth, front cover decorated & lettered in black, spine lettered in gilt, leather-backed cloth slipcase with raised bands on spine, gilt lettering. First Edition.

From a laid in typed note: This copy is one of ten given by Manly to George Wharton James, presumably in soliciting James' help in promoting the book. James apparently did nothing with the copies and after his death they were sold to Yale and Brown, Pasadena book dealers. Out of the 10, 8 were extremely poor copies, in which chapters were intermixed, pages missing, etc. This copy was the best of the two good ones and was specially slip cased by E. I. Edwards, who bought it from Yale and Brown (for $25 at the time). It is also one of the rare copies not water stained from storage in Manly's basement. "Classic account, by a survivor, of dire sufferings endured by an emigrant party on a short-cut from Salt Lake City to California through the valley called ever after by this fearful name" - Howes. Zamorano notes that "Manly and a companion... were the heroes of the party. They escaped from the valley, reached San Fernando, and returned with food and relief for the suffering emigrants." Various ephemera concerning the volume laid in.

Moderate wear to outer slipcase, strip of browning on slipcase spine; slight wear to cloth of volume, slight rubbing at extremities, front hinge cracked; near fine in very good slipcase.