Josiah Dwight Whitney: Life and Letters (scarce, with commemorative bookplate)
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. First edition. Hardcover. A scarce book, with no other copies available as of this writing, and with a commemorative bookplate on the pastedown that was original to the publication (as the last entry in the table of illustrations explains . . . see photo). The editor Edwin Brewster explains in the preface that William H. Brewer, who was Whitney's chief assistant on the California Geological Survey, originally intended to write a history of their West Coast work, and this book is based on Brewer's notes and the substantial help of Whitney's only sister, who supplied much of the correspondence. Whitney (1819-1896) was a professor of geology at Harvard and the chief of the California Geological Survey from 1860-1974. Mt. Whitney, California's tallest peak, is named for him. Blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine and top edge gilt. Frontispiece photo portrait of Whitney at age 70 with tissue guard, title page with an illustration of "Whitney's owl," and 15 other illustrations. Index and an extensive bibliography at rear. Very good with rubbing to corners and spine ends, just through to the boards at the lower corners. Slightest tear to cloth at tail. One bump to rear outer board edge. Ghosting to the front free endpaper from bookplate and/or something else previously laid. A page also seems excised between the table of contents and the list of illustrations, but we're not sure what that would be. A nice find. Very good. Item #2220
Price: $750.00 save 5% $712.50