Angel Island, The Ellis Island of the West
6.75" x 5," 104 pp, illustrated, in original wrappers. A scarce and early first-person account of a visit to the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay, where immigrants to the United States -- the majority from Asia, but also some from Mexico and Russia -- where detained and interrogated between 1910 and 1940. Over the decades, approximately 175,000 Chinese and about 60,000 Japanese immigrants in total were detained there under oppressive conditions. "Because the [Chinese] Exclusion Act and its revisions limited Chinese immigration to certain skilled occupations while also allowing entrance to the children of U.S. citizens, elaborate steps were taken by Chinese immigrants to masquerade as practitioners of qualifying vocations or as the "paper sons" and "paper daughters" of Chinese Americans. The immigration authorities' rigorous efforts to expose fraud resulted in protracted, exhaustive interrogations and related interviews of corroborating parties that sometimes kept the immigrants captive on the island for weeks or months" (Britannica). Mary Ellen Bamford (1857-1946), was sympathetic to Asians seeking to enter the United States and visited Angel Island several times as part of a missionary group that distributed bibles in several languages, offered English lessons, and helped immigrants settle into communities when they made it through the detention phase. Her book describes the describes the journey to the island, the facilities, and the people she met there, with separate sections on Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Korean immigrants. It includes illustrations from photographs, as well as a few color plates, most showing different Chinese flags. A good copy only; ex-library, with discard markings, call number at spine, card pocket at rear and bit of a musty odor. Some chipping to wrappers, small archival tape reinforcement to rear joint. No non-digital copies located in OCLC.
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Fore and Aft; Or, Leaves from the Life of an Old Sailor
359 pp, in original plum cloth. Spine sunned and slightly frayed, mild spine slant, ca. 20 pp with some discoloration to the margins. Cowan: " The author came to California in 1840, as master of the Boston ship 'Alert.' He was actively engaged in the 'Commodore Jones war,' as he terms it, and his various narratives are of great importance, although occasionally presenting minor inaccuracies. His chapter on 'The Hudson's Bay company' is one of the few sources of information regarding the operations of this great corporation in California." Howes P-290: "Author came to California in 1840, was active in the "Bear Flag Revolution" and his unpretentious narrative is a basic source on that event and Hudson's Bay co. operation in California." Everybody’s Friend, or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor
617 pp + ads, with illustrations by Thomas Nast and others. Bound in three-quarter leather and marbled boards, with marbled edges and endpapers. Some scuffing to leather, small split starting at lower front joint; interals sound and clean. Handwritten note on verso of front free endpaper reads "#186, From the Library of Thos. Nast." (We have no independent knowledge of this reported provenance). Josh Billings was the pseudonym of American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885), "whose philosophical comments in plain language were widely popular after the American Civil War through his newspaper pieces, books, and comic lectures. He employed the misspellings, fractured grammar, and hopeless logic then current among comic writers who assumed the role of cracker-barrel philosophers. His special contributions were his rustic aphorisms.and his droll delineations of animal life (Britannica). This volume includes the first printing in book form of Mark Twain's letter poking fun at Billings' use of phonetic spelling (see p. 573). BAL 17455. Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West; with Col. Fremont’s Last Expedition Across the Rocky Mountains: Including Three Months’ Residence in Utah, and a Perilous Trip Across the Great American Desert
Early reprint (first issued in 1856). pp. (vii)-xv, (17)-250, (1)-130 + [4] ads. Frontis illustration captioned "Catching Wild Horses" and 2 other plates. Includes the dedication page, which was excised in most copies, according to Howes (C-213). Original blind-stamped red cloth. Corners rubbed through, chipping to spine ends, mild spine slant, some foxing, plates tanned; frontis loosening at foot, binding has a few weak spots, but holding. Wagner-Camp 273: "Carvalho was an artist accompanying John C. Fremont's expedition of 1853 to explore the Rockies for a possible railroad route. He left New York in September 1853 and arrived in Parowan, Utah Territory in 1854. There the party split up and Carvalho took a southern route, reaching Los Angeles by way of Cajon Pass and San Bernardino on June 9." The last 130 pages are devoted to Mormonism, and include a discussion of plural marriage and sermons, discourses, and addresses by Parley Pratt, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and others. Flake-Draper #1224; Cowan p. 108; Graff 619. A True Account of the Siege of London-Derry
Small quarto, pp. 48, 41-59, [1], bound in recent quarter leather and marbled boards. Lacking license leaf before title page, margins narrow, otherwise a nice copy. The Siege of Derry was part of an attempt by England's recently deposed King James II to regain the throne by rallying his Catholic supporters in Ireland. After James captured Dublin in late March, 1689, he marched on Derry, the northern town to which Protestant supporters of William and Mary had fled. James troops began bombarding the fortified city in April, causing devastating fires and significant loss of life. However, despite this and other assaults, the city refused to surrender, and its poorly supplied defenders managed to repulse repeated attacks from James' soldiers. On August 1, after more than 100 days of siege, additional British forces arrived to relieve the defiant Protestant city and James retreated. George Walker (c. 1645-1690) was an English soldier and Anglican priest who was joing Governor of Londonderry during the siege. His account includes a description of the city and its defenses and a detailed account of the siege. According to the entry on Walker in the ODNB, "Although [his account] proved a popular and vivid description of the siege, it drew immediate criticism, especially from Presbyterians, and sparked off a pamphlet war." Walker was accused of having played up his own part in the events at the expense of others, and particularly for giving minimal credit to the role by the Presbyterians in defense of the city. Wing W 350, ESTC 37943. The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest [SIGNED]
First printing, signed on the half title page by both authors, and dated by Boukreev on 11/14/97, about a month before he was killed in an avalanche on Annapurna. Previous owner's name on front free endpaper, slight pull to binding at title page, otherwise sound, in a clean, priced dust jacket with no visible wear. This important book provides one of the several different viewpoints on the tragic events of the 1996 Everest climbing season, made famous by Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air. Because Boukreev died not long after publication, signed copies of this book are scarce. 