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SEVENTH AND BEST EDITION
157. KENDALL, George Wilkins. Narrative of the
Texan Santa Fé Expedition... New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1856. xviii [13] 452 + xiii [10]-442 pp., 5
engraved plates, folding map: Texas and Part of Mexico
& the United States.... (40.5 x 28.8 cm; 15-7/8 x
11-1/8 inches). 2 vols., 8vo, original dark brown
blind-stamped cloth. Endpapers with some staining,
occasional mild to moderate foxing, overall a very good to
fine set, with contemporary ink ownership inscription.
Preserved in a brown cloth
slipcase.
The rare seventh edition, with additions (Falconer’s
diary, synopsis of Marcy’s Red River discoveries, and
a chapter on the Woll and Snively expeditions and the
Mexican-American War). Basic Texas Books 116J.
Eberstadt Texas 162:457: "The rarest and most sought
of all editions." Fifty Texas Rarities 26a. Graff
2306. Plains & Rockies IV:110:10. Streeter
1515Bn: "This famous Narrative [went] through seven
editions by 1856. This seventh edition...includes for the
first time an account by Kendall’s companion and good
friend, Thomas Falconer, of the course of the expedition
from August 31st, when Kendall left the main body with the
small group looking for the Mexican settlements, until its
surrender early in October....The most desirable edition of
the Narrative is that published by Harper &
Brothers in 1856 with ‘Seventh Edition’ on the
title page." WLA, A Literary History of the West, p.
499: "There are a few inspired pieces of journalism, such
as George W. Kendall’s Narrative;" p. 624:
"When Texas Republic president Mirabeau B. Lamar stubbornly
commissioned the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition in 1841, an
astute young journalist went along to report what he first
believed to be a trading mission. Kendall of the New
Orleans Picayune soon perceived that Lamar had
grandiose plans to annex New Mexico to his republic.
Kendall records with a sense of the newsworthy the
hardships, the imprisoned members of the party suffered on
their march to Mexico." This edition contains the same
excellent map as in the first edition.
(2 vols.)
($1,200-2,400)