Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
John Muir. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
Price: US$900.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First published in 1911, Muirs account of his 1869 summer sojourn in the Sierras. Text and sketches by Muir. NOT a stated First, but publication page data is consistent with known first printing. Chipping and other shelf-wear to top of spine, some shelf-wear to bottom of spine. Darkening of gilt on spine. Front board good. Glassine photo protectors excellent. Hinges and text-block in excellent condition. Early owners (1918) signature and final owners bookplate on inside of front board. Deckle fore-edge, gilt top-edge.
Seller: Quailcottage Books, Richmond, CA, U.S.A.
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO, BOSON AND NY, 1911.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: with illustrations from drawings made by the author in 1869 and from photographs by Herbert W. Gleason, lettering on spine faded, gilt decorated front cover, rubber stamp on front endpage Jere M. Pound , Merritt B Pound 6-7-33 written on top of front endpage, Dr. Jere (pronounced "Jerry") Madison Pound was the second president of Georgia State Womans College. He was appointed in July 1933 by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and served only until May 1934, due to illness. Dr. Pound was born in Liberty Hill, Georgia, in 1864. He received an A.B. from the University of Georgia in 1884 and an honorary LL.D. from the University of Georgia in 1915. He married Ada Murphey in 1890, and they had five sons: Murphey, Jere Madison Jr. (d. 1910 at age 14), Edwin Aldine, Merritt Bloodworth and William Stokely; and three daughters: Willie Greene, Ida, and Lucy Floyd. Dr. Pound had an extensive career as a Georgia educator and administrator, beginning as a teacher at the Boys High School in Atlanta (1884-85). He was the principal of the Fort Valley (Ga.) Institute (1885-87), then president of the Gordon Institute in Barnesville (1887-96 and 1897-1901). During 1896-97, he was the director of the Normal Department at Georgia Normal and Industrial College in Milledgeville. He was the superintendent of the Macon and Bibb County public schools (1901-04), and was briefly the superintendent of the East Florida Seminary (1904-05). Pound then returned to his former job as director of the Normal Department at Georgia Normal and Industrial College (1905-08). He was the Georgia State Superintendent of Schools (1908-10), and during this same time, was also the president of the Gordon Institute until 1912. Dr. Pound was then elected president of the State Normal School in Athens, later named Georgia State Teachers' College, and held that position for 21 years (1912-33) until his reassignment as president of GSWC in July 1933. DATE PUBLISHED: 1911 EDITION: FIRST 353
Seller: Princeton Antiques Bookshop, Atlantic City, NJ, U.S.A.
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1911.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 354 pages, 8vo. No DJ. First Edition, First Printing with dated title page. Published June 1911. Dark green cloth boards with gilt lettering along spine and front cover, illustration of wooded Sierras on front cover. Gilt top page edge. Illustrated from drawings made by the author in 1869 and from photographs by Herbert W. Gleason. Shelfwear: scuffing along edges and covers, some light fraying at corners and spine edges, spine is lightly cocked, previous owner's gift inscription on front endpaper (dated "Christmas 1911"). Volume is in Very Good condition.
Seller: Russian Hill Bookstore, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
John Muir. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, first state text. Clean, bright, attractive copy in very good later state dust jacket. Ownership signature to front free endpage, else unmarked. Light rubbing to publisher's illustrated boards; still sharp. Dust jacket has price of $3.50 on front flap and list of later Muir titles to rear panel. Chipping with some loss to jack at spine ends, else a fairly well-preserved period dust jacket.
Seller: Open Boat Booksellers, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1911.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing with dated title page. Bound in publisher's elaborately stamped dark green cloth; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine slight wear and light soiling to cloth with several small spots to the spine and some to the front cover. Pages tanned and with a very faint musty odor, former owner bookplate and inked date to the front free endpaper. A beautiful copy.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1911.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A presumed second printing, but with a scarce original jacket."June 1911" is stated on the copyright page, but there is no date on title page, and the list of other Muir titles in the front matter includes The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, first published in 1913. Elegant inscription on the front free endpaper reads "Bertha C. Chase, from Charles and Virgie, Christmas 1918." Laid in is a card that reads "Compliments of Dr. & me, Mrs. Charles Libby Keene, Many many happy returns of the day." Original decorative green cloth stamped in gilt and gray-green, lettered in gilt, top edge also gilt. Plates from photos by Herbert W. Gleason and illustrated with Muir's sketches from 1869. Very good or better with only light rubbing to corners and lower board edges, and a subtle, sporadic foxing to outer text block face. Interior clean and crisp. The scarcejacket is only fair: cracked through along front spine fold, so that it's in two seamless pieces; spine mottled with droplet stains to the point that it looks intentionally marbled. Chips at both ends of spine, tears at lower corners. Nonetheless scarce, with no other jackets on the market as of this writing. Both panels present well and are largely clean--all and all handsome. Price on jacket spine is "$2.50 net"; other titles advertised on back include books by Muir, Enos Mills, Dallas Lore Sharp, and John Burroughs. Muir wrote this book from notes at age 72, but he breathed a truly youthful exuberance into this essayistic memoir of his first taste of the Sierras, a classic of American environmental writing and arguably his best book .
Seller: Rural Hours (formerly Wood River Books), La Grande, OR, U.S.A.