Francis Parkman Jr. collection
Date Published: 1849 to 1893
Binding: No binding & hard cover
Francis Parkman Jr. was an American historian, best known as the author of The California and Oregon Trail and his monumental seven-volume France and England in North America.
The collection consists of 7 items dating from 1849 to 1893, specifically 4 letters, 2 books with signatures, and 1 signed postcard
3 Autographed Letters Signed (ALS):
• ALS (slight tears at the side) addressed My dear Sir (Brantz Mayer), 17 July 1852, 4 pp., with envelope, re Parkman’s reaction to Mayer’s pamphlet, Calvert and Penn, or, The growth of civil and religious liberty in America, as disclosed in the planting of Maryland and Pennsylvania: a discourse, 1852. Mayer (1809-1879) was an author, lawyer, founder the Maryland Historical Society, and president of the Maryland Union State general committee during the Civil War.
• ALS addressed Dear Sir, n.d. (between 1886 and 1893), has received his correspondent’s note of the 23rd, will be spending the summer at his house on the shore of Jamaica Pond, and after midsummer will be visiting his daughter, Mrs. J.T. Coolidge (née Katharine Parkman), at her colonial mansion of Governor Benning Wenthworth (built in 1750) two or three miles from Portsmouth, NH.
• ALS addressed Dear Sir, Boston, 22 November ?, telling his correspondent that he would "be delighted to have the opportunity of meeting you."
2 books (one with ALS included & one with signed card affixed in):
• The California and Oregon Trail; Being Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life. New York: George P. Putnam, 1849. First edition, second state. 448 pp., 2 pp. of ads in front plus pp. 3-10 of ads in rear, with signed dated 18 Feb. 1881 card affixed to front end paper. Rebacked and repaired professionally, dull green stamped cloth hardcover, gold lettering nearly faded off backstrip, binding with small chips at both ends of backstrip, edges shelf-worn and corners bumped; notable light water-stain top 3 corners of first 30 or so pp., light foxing throughout. Advertisements numbered 1-2 at front, 10 at back. 8, Leavitt, Trow & Co. imprint on copyright page. BAL 15446. Grolier, 100 American, 58. Howes P97. Printing and the Mind of Man 327. Sabin 58801. Streeter. Wagner-Camp 170:1b. Johnson (Blanck) p. 409.
• History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, and the War of the North American Tribes Against the English Colonies after the Conquest of Canada. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851. xxiv, 630 pp. Illustrated with four engraved maps, two of which are multi-page and folding. Includes an ALS (2 pp.), 16 January 1876, in rear pocket, to Mr. Stewart, saying that he is sending Stewart a copy of Pontiac by Eastern Express and that “A New Brunswick salmon is always sure of a cordial welcome.” Rebacked and green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and blocked in blind on the covers and spine panel. Xlibris with some library markings including a label on the front pastedown and blind stamped on title page. Howes P100
1 signed postcard:
• ANS on a postcard, 24 December (188?), to Clement Hugh Hill, “I will try to stir up FC.—and also L. if I have a chance. F.P.” Someone has written Parkman’s name in pencil under his initials. Possible glue marks and paper remnants on the left side, perhaps where it was attached to a photo album at some point, not affecting the signature.
MacKenzie King [Canada's longest serving Prime Minister] was once asked which historian of Canada he would most enthusiastically recommend to a student. He replied immediately: “Oh, Francis Parkman. No country has ever been more fortunate than has Canada in having Parkman to record her history . . . We really should have a monument to Parkman, and I hope we will. You can read all kinds of books on Canada, but Parkman should be the foundation. His style is so fine, and he has heart and inspiration.“ Maclean article Sept. 19, 1964
Collection on consignment with LDRB.
Item #8291
$785.00 USD
$1,080.71 CAD