Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Nordhoff, Charles. The Light-Houses Of The United States. The Century Company, NY, 1874.
Price: US$9.40 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 13pp extract, printed in double columns, illustrated with 13 characteristic Harper's engravgings, final page-only in photocopy, salvaged from a damaged issue of Harper's Monthly, Volume XLVIII, No. 286, March, 1874. Illustrations include Fire Island Light, New York, Bergen Point Light-House, New Jersey, Thatcher's Island light and fog signals at Cape Ann, Massachusetts, the Light-House at Thimble Shaols, Virginia, Body's Island Light-House, North Carolina, Lake Erie Light-House at Cleveland, Ohio, Spectacle Reef Light-House at Lake Huron, Point Reyes Light-House on the Pacific coast, the light-houses at Trinity Shoal, Gulf of Mexico, Alligator Reef, Florida, Piedras Blancas, California, and Calcasieu, Gulf Coast of Louisiana, and a sectional view of the operation of a siren, or steam fog-horn. Housed in protective mylar report cover with spine sleeve.
Seller: Legacy Books II, Louisville, KY, U.S.A.
Nordhoff, Charles. The Farallon Islands. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, New York., 1874.
Price: US$37.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Excerpt from the April, 1874, issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine in cardstock folder, reinforced with masking tape. Some discoloration of folder. Magazine sections are held together along spines with tape. Label on front of folder from Dellquest's Rare Books, Los Angeles, California. 9 pages with 7 woodcuts. An article about the topography and wildlife of the Farallon Islands, located 30 miles west of the San Francisco Bay.
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$37.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Excerpt from the March, 1874, issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine in cardstock folder, reinforced with masking tape. Some discoloration of folder. Magazine sections are held together along spines with tape. Label on front of folder from Dellquest's Rare Books, Los Angeles, California. 12 pages with 13 illustrations. History and description of lighthouses in the United States.
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First printing (same date on title page). Blue hardcover with gold lettering and elaborate black embossed design on cover; map frontispiece; many b&w illustration. Cover worn through along front hinge; upper cover over spine flaps loose. Pages prior to title page separated from binding. Binding weak at a number of places. Faint dampstain along lower and outer edges; most pronounced toward front of book. A rather rough but adequate copy. **We provide professional service and individual attention to your order, daily shipments, and sturdy packaging. FREE TRACKING ON ALL SHIPMENTS WITHIN USA.
Seller: Brentwood Books, Kinnelon, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$61.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo [23 x 17 cm]; 255, [viii, ads, including Central Pacific Railroad, Grand Hotel, publisher's books on travel] pp, 3 maps including frontis map, numerous engraved illustrations including full-page, birds-eye view, tables. original green cloth with decorations in black, gilted lettering on cover and spine, staining on covers, edges rubbed, bookplate removed from endpaper, old signature on title margin, minor foxing on few leaves, overall good clean copy. Cowan p. 162: "Mr Nordhoff's descriptions of the natural attractions of California were considered the best of their time and much esteemed." Very well-illustrated. The maps include San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento Valley A picture of this book is available on request.
Seller: Horizon Books, Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 256p small quarto, illustrated. Wearing at the corners nd spine heads otherwise a very solid copy in green cloth. Non-authorial gift inscription on the first page of chapter 1.
Seller: Old New York Book Shop, ABAA, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.
Price: US$108.00 + shipping
Description: Book has been recently rebound in green leather with original cover bound in. A bit of wear on the gilt E in Oregon on the cover. Frontis map is present.
Seller: Uncommon Books, Glastonbury, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$124.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Forest green boards with gilt lettering and black decoration on front and spine.Brown end papers. Ex-library with one oval stamp from The People's Library in R I. on title page, Dry glue residue from library pockets on rear end papers. Protective tissues on frontis map and portrait of King Kalakaua present and attached. Diffuse surface rubbing to boards, rubbing to corners, light rubbing to edges. Binding tight. Pages clean, lightly toned. Many illustrations.
Seller: onourshelves, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$128.75 + shipping
Description: Tall Octavo. 256pp., illustrated. The sequel to his first book on California. This work includes Oregon, including a journey through Washington Territory to Victoria, in Vancouver's Island and the Sandwich Islands. He writes about the farm lands, Hawaiians, wine country, the rivers, lakes, Indians, and more found on his journey. A travel guide of places to visit and things to see. A very good copy bound in brown cloth lettered and decorated in black and gilt, brown coated endpapers, wear to corners and spine ends.
Seller: Alcuin Books, ABAA/ILAB, Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.
Price: US$130.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 22 x 16 cm., 256 pp.,frontispiece map of Hawaiian archipelago and north Pacific ocean, intact tissue guard with fold, dedication, preface, portrait of King Kalakaua, intact tissue guard, contents, llustrations [ca. 100] black and white, maps, appendix, notes, neat owner's gift inscription in front from (Christmas 1876); owners stamp on title page; corners bumped, top and bottom of spine abraded, hinges beginning to fail but internally fine
Seller: T. W. Palmer Books, Eugene, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: Western Americana; travel; 256p.; 23cm; brown cloth, heavily worn; black and gilt decoration; inner hinges cracking; frontis. map; illus. listed p. 12-15; writer b. Westphalia, Germany; to U.S. as child; U.S. Navy 1844-47; merchant marine 1847-53; Cowan has date 1877.
Seller: Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA), Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Octavo. In slipcase. Brown cloth with gilted lettering to front cover and spine. Black, embossed designs to front and back covers as well as spine. Signature to front endpage from 1877. Map to the front endpages. Black and white illustrations. A history of California, Oregon, and Hawaii. Very Good. Minor staining to covers. Rubbing to bottom and side edges. Minor detachment between front cover and spine, but binding tight otherwise. Corners slightly bumped. Minor staining to front endpages. Small rip to front endpage. Slight foxing throughout. Aging as expected. Bottom edge of back cover exposed.
Seller: Yesterday's Gallery, ABAA, East Woodstock, CT, U.S.A.
Nordhoff, Charles. Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands. Harper & Bros, 1874.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Poor
Description: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" 256pp. Rocq #15985. With a two-page autograph letter from Nordhoff to Prof. Benson Lossing, May 25, 1860, discussing some Harper & Bros. project and American history. Bound in 3/4 old calf over marbled boards. Boards detached, spine missing; some yellowing along the edges of the text, and a few closed tears and shallow chipping, else a Poor copy suitable for rebindingB/w illus.; map.
Seller: Arundel Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 256 p. + Frontis Map. Illustrated with numerous drawings. Light age stain. Lightly XLib. 230 mm. Original full blue cloth binding, decorated in black and lettered in gilt gold. Corners worn with small loss. Hinge on front board slightly cracked. Binding rubbed and worn. First Edition. Very good copy. W12 Language: eng
Seller: FAMILY ALBUM, Kinzers, PA, U.S.A.
Charles Nordhoff. Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands. Harpers, New York, 1874.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: Blue boards, gilt lettering. spine sunned. boards show signs of wear. The text is unmarked. Filled with numerous black and white illustrations. signed by the previous owner, Joseph Smith to Miss Sarah F Jones. dec. 25, 1874. Book seller stamp on the first fly leaf.
Seller: Allison Robinson Books, DUXBURY, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: 22.5 cm (octavo), pp. [1-11] 12 [13] 14-15 [16-17} 18-256, flyleaves at front and rear, illustrations, frontispiece map with tissue guard, other smaller maps in the text, original decorated terra cotta cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and gold, rear panel stamped in black, brown coated endpapers. First edition. The emphasis of the material on Northern California is on it's natural resources and commercial prospects for the settler; largely reports on agriculture and the timber industry. This is not a tourist guide, although Nordhoff provides some information for the sportsman and excursionist. In his chapter, "The Mendocino Coast and Clear Lake -- General View," Nordhoff remarks that "some of the most picturesque country in California lies on or near the coast north of San Francisco. The coast counties, Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte, are the least visited by strangers, and yet, with Napa, Lake, and Trinity, they make up a region which contains a very great deal of wild and fine scenery, and which abounds with game, and shows to the traveler many varieties of life and several of the peculiar industries of California" (page 149). Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901), a Prussian-born immigrant, "dedicated his life and writings to fostering an understanding of the democratic way of life in America and to furthering the national prosperity. He was particularly interested in the working man, in agriculture, and in cooperative societies . His purpose in visiting the Pacific Coast soon after the completion of the transcontinental railroad was to get information about the resources of the western slope for travel and for immigration. Although he dealt with California as a whole, he paid particular attention to the southern part of the state, where, he felt, the agricultural possibilities had hardly been tapped and the climate was especially healthful for patients with rheumatic and pulmonary diseases" (Walker, A Literary History of Southern California, p. 107). Charles Nordhoff, sailor, adventurer, newspaper correspondent and author of many books, "wrote the most popular California booster book of all time -- CALIFORNIA: FOR HEALTH, PLEASURE, AND RESIDENCE (1872), which sold three million copies and stimulated a never ending flow of immigration to the Golden State" (Powell, California Classics, p. 18). See DAB for an account of Nordhoff's life and career. Rocq 15985. Forbes 3060. Norris Catalogue 2854. Mild spotting to cloth, cloth lightly rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, 20 mm spot of wear to cloth along rear fore-edge, but a very good, tight, internally fine copy with bright cover stamping. A very nice copy. (#168211)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$545.15 + shipping
Description: Octavo, frontispiece map, illustrations; original cloth. First American edition, in book form, of this popular travel account, including a a dramatic engraved illustration of native Hawaiian surfing action. The book was originally serialized for Harper's New Monthly Magazine and gives a good impression of how Hawaii was understood in the continental United States during the 1870's. It includes good descriptions of sugar plantation methods, native life and agriculture, ranching, and the like. . Spine ends a bit rubbed, a very good copy.
Seller: Hordern House Rare Books, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia