Lot 67
"First published account of a journey in modern times across the Texas Panhandle”—Streeter
67. PIKE, Albert. Prose Sketches and Poems, Written in the Western Country. Boston: Light & Horton, 1834. viii, 200 pp. Bound with this copy is an engraved map with original coloring: Mexico and Guatimala [below neatline]: J. H. Young sc.| xxxv; neat line to neat line 20 x 24.5 cm. 12mo, original dark green moire cloth (rebacked, remains of original spine laid down, new endpapers). Scattered light to moderate foxing. Upper blank margin of pp. 103/104 repaired where a small section is missing (no loss of text).
First edition. BAL 16031 (binding A, no priority) Field 1219: "This tour, made in 1831, through the country of the Comanches and the other Indian tribes, gives some interesting particulars of their life and customs." Graff 3285. Plains & Rockies IV:50: "Pike was one of the first Anglo-American authors to use the Southwest as a setting for his writings." Rittenhouse 466. Streeter 1150: "This seems to be the first published account of a journey in modern times across the Texas Panhandle. It is an unusual book by an unusual man, who besides hunting for furs on the Plains, wrote poetry and was later a leading lawyer of the Southwest." Cited by Streeter in the introduction to his Texas bibliography as "especially desirable for a Texas collection" (p. 328). ($1,500-3,000)
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