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FRÉMONT, John C. (1813-1890). Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and Northern California in the years 1843-44 . Washington, D. C.: Gales and Seaton, 1845.
FRÉMONT, John C. (1813-1890). Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and Northern California in the years 1843-44 . Washington, D. C.: Gales and Seaton, 1845. 8 o (225 x 140 mm). 22 lithographed plates and 5 maps (two folding, the large Preuss map in separate binding as described below). Three autograph letters tipped-in (see below), photograph of Frémont pasted to front free endpaper. Green half morocco covered boards, spine stamped in gilt, t.e.g., marbled endpaper. [ Including: ] PREUSS, Charles. Map of an Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and North California in the Year 1843-44 . Baltimore: E. Weber & Co. [1845]. Large folding map (825 x 1346 mm), mounted on linen (a few separations along folds). Tipped into a separate, uniformly bound half green morocco binding. Provenance : Benjamin DeForest Curtiss (bookplate on front pastedown); Watertown Library (bookplate on rear pastedown). FIRST EDITION, the Senate issue of this seminal work. The two reports, written with the help of Frémont's wife Jessie Benton, "caught the public imagination: images of Frémont's guide, the then little-known Christopher 'Kit' Carson, riding bareback across the prairie, and Frémont himself, raising a flag on a Rocky Mountain peak, entered the national mythology" (Pamela Herr, American National Biography ). The reports mapped out all California rivers south of the American River and the three Colorado rivers. They became essential guides for gold rush travelers and settlers heading for California and the Oregon Territory. Frémont stresses the importance of Preuss's large map of the routes traversed in both expeditions: "it fills up the vast geographical chasm" between Missouri and the Columbia River. Historians ever since have warmly agreed, calling it "monumental in its breadth--a classic of exploring literature" (Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire , p.248). Wheat, in Mapping the Transmississippi West , deems it "as important a step forward from the earlier western maps...as...Pike, Long, and Lewis and Clark in their day" (p.495). Cohen Mapping the West pp.130-133; Field 565; Graff 1436; Howes F-370; Sabin 25845; Streeter sale VI:3131; Wagner-Camp-Becker 115:2. [ Tipped-in :] THREE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, one tipped to page 3; the other two tipped to the rear free endpaper. BENTON, Thomas Hart ALS to unidentified correspondent, 21 November 1847. 2 pp., 4to . A SPIRITED DEFENSE OF FRéMONT DURING HIS COURT MARTIAL FOR INSUBORDINATION IN THE MEXICAN WAR. "Col. Frémont's trial is becoming one of great public interest, and will become more so as it goes on. He deserves honors and rewards instead of prosecution, and I shall stand by him to the last, without regard to any earthly consequence..." -- FRÉMONT, John C. ALS ("J. C. Frémont") to Maj. Linus Stevens, New York, 6 December 1863. 3 pp., 8vo, on Union Pacific Railway Co. stationery . Lobbying Sen. Sumner on behalf of a friend in distress: "Have you seen Mr. Sumner? If not, pray do so at once. Mr. Sumner can ask for the revocation of the order degrading Tracy with great probability of obtaining it..." -- FRÉMONT, Jessie B. ALS ("J. B. Frèmont") to Mr. Phillips, Pocaho, near Tarrytown, N. Y., 20 March 1875. 1 p., 8vo, on mourning stationery . Recommending a biography: "Mr. Phillips will find the best work of the kind he asks for in 'Bigelow's life of Frémont' published in '56..." (2)