DANA, Edmund. Geographical Sketches on the Western Country: Designed for Emigrants and Settlers. Cincinnati: Looker, Reynolds & Co., 1819.

12mo (169 x 103 mm). (Toned, some spotting, a few short tears occasionally affecting text.) Contemporary brown sheep (some light wear, hinges starting, some wormholing to foot of upper cover joint). Provenance: Dudley Bell Priester (1923-2017), Mississippi River collector and bibliographer (sold Bloomsbury, 20 November 2009, lot 72). FIRST EDITION, prepared for publication by Reuben Kidder, a lawyer in Indiana while Dana worked as a Land Agent in that region. Based on the materials collected by Dana during the years he spent exploring the West while helping emigrants locate and purchase land, the Geographical Sketches "are almost entirely devoted to the states east of the Mississippi, though Texas, Arkansaw Territory, and Missouri Territory each rate a few pages, and at the end are three pages on the Columbia River" (Streeter). Bradford 1183; Buck 136; Eberstadt 136-233; Howes D-47; Graff 997; Sabin 18408; Streeter 840; Wagner-Camp 15a.

[With:] MONTULE, Édouard de (1767-1833). A Voyage to North America and the West Indies, in 1817. London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co., 1821. 8vo (211 x 130 mm). 6 engraved plates (2 folding). (Some occasional offsetting and light spotting.) Later quarter blue morocco, spine gilt-lettered, marbled edges (a few minor stains to sides). Provenance: Dudley Bell Priester (1923-2017), Mississippi River collector and bibliographer (bookplates, sold Bloomsbury, 20 November 2009, lot 100). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Mountule's description of traveling "by steamer up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers," and of "life in the West" (Buck, pp.61-62). Howes M-750; Rusk II, p. 119; Monaghan p. 69; Sabin 50230.

Property from the Collection of Perry B. Hansen

DANA, Edmund. Geographical Sketches on the Western Country: Designed for Emigrants and Settlers. Cincinnati: Looker, Reynolds & Co., 1819.