Illustrated Sketches Of Death Valley And Other Borax Deserts Of The Pacific Coast

JOHN R SPEARS

Publication: Rand, McNally & Company, Publishers, 1892, Chicago and New York

First edition.12mo. Full brown leather, raised bands, titles stamped in gilt on a leather spine label. light green front and rear endpapers, 226 pp. plus 6 pages of advertisements, frontispiece, illustrated, plates, map. Edwards' The Enduring Desert offers high praise for this title as "it is noted for its early photographs in almost the same degree as for its textual content. It is conceivable that these may be the first pictures ever published -- perhaps ever taken -- of the Death Valley region. Maximum importance attaches to them." We learn much about borax, its mining and the chemicals involved to perform the borax test. Also there is a wonderful description of the early freight wagons used in the 20-mule team borax outfits -- those ten sturdy old wagons that were in constant use without a single breakdown during the five years the Works were in operation. Significantly, even after standing exposed to the rigors of Death Valley weather for fifty years, two of these ancient wagons were sufficiently preserved to participate in the San Francisco Bay Bridge Celebration. Edwards goes on further to say: "Many books and articles written of the Mojave Desert and its glamorous Valley of Death -- and particularly among those written prior to 1930 -- are of an ephemeral nature, arousing only a passing interest in the country they attempt to describe. Spears' ILLUSTRATED SKETCHES, on the other hand, is a book equally as distinguished as it is distinctive; and its substance guarantees as perpetual the sustained interest that pulsates throughout every chapter. It is as adequate and as dependable a commentary on Death Valley and the Mojave Desert today as it was in that day -- years ago -- when Spears wrote it. It is Death Valley's number two book; and it will probably continue to remain so. Certainly no desert collection even merits the name without a copy of the Spears." Front hinge starting else a very good, clean copy attractively presented.

Inventory Number: 51326