Beschreibung:

JOHNSTON, William G. (b. 1828). Experiences of a Forty-Niner . Pittsburgh: Privately Printed, 1892.
JOHNSTON, William G. (b. 1828). Experiences of a Forty-Niner . Pittsburgh: Privately Printed, 1892. 8 o (230 x 160 mm). Frontispiece portrait, 13 plates, large folding lithographed map on blue paper. Original green cloth stamped in gilt (hinges cracked). Provenance : Thomas W. Streeter (pencil notations on title-page and front flyleaf; bookplate; his sale part V, Parke-Bernet, 23 October 1968, lot 3198). FIRST EDITION with publisher's scarce addenda slip (blueprint map and author's portrait) laid in. Johnston's gold rush account, by "a member of the wagon train first to enter California in the memorable year 1849." The text is drawn almost entirely from Johnston's contemporary diary. His initial intention was to merely transcribe the diary for the benefit of his family, but he decided to have approximately 200 copies privately printed instead. The period covered is 1 March to 6 December 1849, detailing his westward journey via Missouri and Salt Lake City, and life in the mining camps of Sacramento and San Francisco. T. W. Streeter: "The original blueprint and not one of the later restrikes is in my copy, which has the frontispiece portrait... For a guess, this is the portrait sent around with the slip" (Streeter sale V: 3198, this copy). Braislin 1067; Byrd 41; Cowan I p.122; Cowan II p.316; Graff 2229; Heckman 191; Howes J-173; Kurutz 364a; Matthews p.316; Mintz 261; Wheat Books of the California Gold Rush 113. RARE.