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The Cruise of the Corwin

The Cruise of the Corwin

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The Cruise of the Corwin

by Muir, John

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  • first
Condition
Original green cloth over boards, leather spine label. Spine a bit faded, label slightly rubbed, else fine, with part of box
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About This Item

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. First edition, No. 186 of 550 Large Paper copies. Hand-colored frontispiece painting after Denny. With 33 illustrations from photographs (some by Edward Curtis) and drawings. 279 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original green cloth over boards, leather spine label. Spine a bit faded, label slightly rubbed, else fine, with part of box. Curtis, Edward. First edition, No. 186 of 550 Large Paper copies. Hand-colored frontispiece painting after Denny. With 33 illustrations from photographs (some by Edward Curtis) and drawings. 279 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. BAL 14775

Synopsis

The renowned naturalist John Muir married in 1880, but the lure of one last grand adventure proved too great. In the spring of 1881 he sailed for the Arctic aboard the Corwin, whose sad task it was to search for the Jeannette, lost during a polar expedition. Muir had already written about the effects of glaciation, and welcomed the chance to get a first hand view of Alaskan glaciers farther north than he had ever been. This journey was not without its own perils; the Jeannette was later found to have been crushed by pack ice and as Muir writes aboard the Corwin:"Shortly after one o'clock this morning I was awakened by unusual sounds on deck, and after listening for a few minutes, concluded that we must be entangled in the edge of the pack and were unshipping the rudder for fear it might be carried away...It seems that about midnight, owing to the fog and snow, we got into a field of heavy masses of ice on the edge of the main pack, which, on account of a north wind that had commenced to blow, was now moving slowly southward, and while backing out of it, a moderate bump that chanced to take the rudder at the greatest disadvantage broke it off without any appreciable strain."In its attempt to find the Jeannette, the Corwin travelled along the coast of Alaska and then Siberia. They visited native villages as well as the uninhabited Wrangell Island, which they claimed for America in 1881. (It is now the Russian "Ostrov Vrangelya.") Muir considered himself one of the first humans to have set foot upon it:"Not the slightest trace, however, could we find along the river, along the shore, or on the bluff to the northeastward, of the Jeannette party, or of any human inhabitant. A land more severely solitary could hardly be found anywhere on the face of the globe."The beach was well tracked by polar bears, but none of the party could discover any sign of reindeer or musk oxen, though the country seems to abound in the kind of food they require. A single fox track was observed, and some burrows of a species of spermophile; also a number of birds, and about twenty species of plants, most of them in bloom. The rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly, and is covered with a sparse growth of mosses, lichens, and flowering plants, not unlike that of the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska."The Cruise of the Corwin, pulled together from Muir's articles and journals by his literary executor, is a welcome addition to the literature about America's last frontier, Alaska. Muir captures the fierce beauty of the land and its inhabitants when a way of life was fast vanishing -- and thanks to his efforts, some of it is still preserved for this generation.

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Details

Seller
James Cummins Bookseller US (US)
Seller's Inventory #
244856
Title
The Cruise of the Corwin
Author
Muir, John
Format/Binding
Hand-colored frontispiece painting after Denny. With 33 illustrations from photographs (some by Edward Curtis) and drawings. 279
Book Condition
Used - Original green cloth over boards, leather spine label. Spine a bit faded, label slightly rubbed, else fine, with part of box
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First edition, No. 186 of 550 Large Paper copies
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Place of Publication
Boston
Date Published
1917
Keywords
Arctic / Antarctic | California | John Muir
Bookseller catalogs
Americana; History, Travel & Geography;

Terms of Sale

James Cummins Bookseller

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About the Seller

James Cummins Bookseller

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2009
New York, New York

About James Cummins Bookseller

Founded in 1978 by James Cummins, the firm has grown to include two New Jersey locations as well as the main store at 699 Madison Avenue (between 62nd and 63rd Streets) in New York City.Hours: Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (During July & August, until 4:00 p.m. on Fridays.)The Madison Avenue store is a seventh-floor oasis for book-lovers, a quiet and pleasantly furnished book room with a carefully chosen, expertly catalogued and broad-based selection of fine and rare books, autographs, manuscripts, and works of art. We have built notable private collections for American and international clients. Our stock is always changing, and our steady input from private buying and public auctions assures our clients of new surprises (and temptations!) at each visit. Our stock covers a wide range of collecting interests, with particular emphasis in the following fields: British and American Literature, Sporting Books, Private Press and Illustrated Books, 19th-Century Color Plate Books, Americana, Travel, Sets and Fine Bindings, History, and Authors' Manuscripts and Letters. Our catalogued inventory exceeds 50,000 titles, much of which can be searched on the internet. In addition, our New Jersey warehouse contains over 400,000 books in all subject areas. We might have the books you're looking for.

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Spine Label
The paper or leather descriptive tag attached to the spine of the book, most commonly providing the title and author of the...
Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
BAL
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