Letters and Notes on the Manners, customs and Conditions of the North American Indians, Written During Eight Year’s Travel Amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-39.
Author: Catlin, George
Year: 1841
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Catlin, George
Two volumes in one. London, publ. by the author, 1841. Engraved frontispiece and 310 engraved plates including one large folding map and two other maps, of which , depicting North American Indians, their artifacts and arts. Contemporary half calf over cloth, maroon label with gilt lettering, top edges gilt, fore – and bottom edges red, a small dampstain in the bottom margin of only a very few pages, one plate dampstained in the top margin as well, a few pages fingered, but overall the contents in an excellent condition with almost none of the usual browning and foxing, resulting in an unusual clean and crisp copy. Bookplate of William Edward Martin on inner frontboard,
Up till the early 1890’s (!) editions appeared with a title page dated 1841, apart from all those other editions that clearly mention their respective publishers. The last one published with the original title page and the plates in black and white, probably being the edition by W. & A.K. Johnston, that appeared in 1891 or 1892.
Thisr copy is a true first edition, printed by Tosswill & Myers, complete with the errata slip bound in (not tipped in) before the frontispiece, which is often lacking and only was inserted in this edition, the second edition (same year) and the first American edition; in all later editions, regardless whether they have the same title page or not, the mistakes, the principal one being “The false prophet Frederick…..” at page 104 of Vol. 1, have been corrected. Moreover this edition is the only edition published by George Catlin himself.
Harold McCracken; George Catlin and the Old Frontier (New York, The Dial Press, 1959):
“This is Catlin’s most important work. There are numerous reprints and subsequent editions. Some subsequent editions bear the original title page and date 1841. To establish a correct and definitive bibliography is extremely difficult if not impossible.”
Since this first edition, published by the author, was issued in 1841, alone in 1841 at least 3 other first thus editions appeared, amongst which the first American and the first English edition and many, many other editions appeared up till WW II. For 100 years this was considered one of the most important works on North American Indians and subsequent editions still are being issued up to this very day.
Catlin painted the Indians while travelling around the country, unlike McKenney who had native American delegates and leaders painted for the greater part in a studio in Washington, D.C.
The plates in our copy differ slightly from the list as given by Howes: first there is an unnumbered plate, the next plate is nr. 3. Extra missing are the plates numbered 64 and 248, but on the other hand the plates numbered 113 and 114 are present. Occasionally other copies containing these two plates appear on the market. In 1992 a copy was auctioned by Swann (# 1591-072) with their comment:
“Evidently an early issue, as plates 113/114 are present, whereas Howes is quite explicit about their absence.”
An unusual crisp and clean copy of a book which is very scarce in its true first edition. This edition not in Sabin who, amongst other editions, only lists the later first American edition under nr. 11536.
Biblio: Howes C241.
