Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Muir, John. The Mountains of California. The Century Company. New York, 1894.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover. Bound in greenish (now brownish) cloth with gold lettering on the cover and spine, and gold and green decorations. Binding good and tight, although spine is faded a tone or two more towards brown than the boards are. Some mild shelfwear on the back cover. Some light speckled foxing on endpapers. Title page dated 1894. Copyright page also 1894. There is a small 1 at the bottom of page 1. Non-authorial gift inscription on the half-title page dated Christmas 1894. Some speckling on fore-edges and slight shelf-cocking (not unusual with this volume, likely to straighten out on our shelves). This is Muir's first book. Please email with questions or to request additional photos.
Seller: Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA, U.S.A.
Muir, John. THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. The Century Company, New York, 1894.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The first issue, with the numeral "1" on the first page of the text. Muir's first book consists of fifteen previously published articles, some dating from as early as 1875, which aside from some very brief detours to the Coast Range and the southern San Gabriels, concern the flora, fauna, and geology of the Sierra Nevada. As recorded here, Muir (1883-1914) theorized that the granite face of the Sierra had been shaped and scoured by glaciers, an idea that was rejected and even mocked by Josiah Whitney and other professional geologists of Muir's day. Time vindicated Muir, as it has his book, The Mountains of California remains California's most popular work of natural history. Octavo: 381 p. with a frontispiece lithograph from a drawing by J. Folles, 50 relief halftone illustrations, and 2 maps. Original tan cloth binding, with decorative gilt and green stamping. The spine is darkened, as is often the case; else an especially crisp example. Kimes 189; The Zamorano Eighty 56.
Seller: johnson rare books & archives, ABAA, Covina, CA, U.S.A.