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Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Title: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft
Place Published: San Francisco
Publisher:The History Company
Date Published: 1883-1890
Description:

39 volumes. Illustrated with plates and maps, many folding. (8vo) 23.1x14.5 cm (9x5¾"), original sheepskin, morocco spine labels, lettering in gilt, raised bands, all edges marbled. First Edition.

Complete and handsome set of Bancroft's great history of the North American West, with contributions by many leading scholars, the work is based largely on original source material, interviews with participants in the events, and other first-hand accounts. Cowan remarks poetically, "As time passes and prejudice drifts into obscurity, these works become more and more strongly entrenched each year. For scholars and investigators they will always remain the greatest source of authority." Howes notes the work as "a colossal co-operative undertaking; nothing approaching it has ever been attempted in this country." "[Bancroft's] History of California is the best extant for it contains more material about the state's past than any other historian has succeeded in amassing." Cowan p.33; Howes B89; Zamorano 83.

Varying degrees of wear and rubbing to covers of volumes, vol 29 boards and hinges currently held with cloth tape, vol 30 has scotch tape on bottom quarter of spine and interior hinges; interiors generally bright throughout; volumes all very good with two in need of some restoration.