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Hard Cover, 8vo, in pictorial gray cloth blocked with a broad border design in black of character portraits,(including the Author,) woodsy and railroad scenes, the titles centered in gold to the front board and the spine. Rear board is plain. French-mustard colored, glazed endpapers. Two title pages, the first a color lithograph with the image of a young lady in a red and white striped dress, and the second, text only. The frontispiece, plus 40 full page photogravures of paintings or lithographs by a variety of artists, are monotone printed in shades of sepia, puce, terracotta and black,(unpaginated) and the remaining images are arranged wrapped in text. 338pp. plus 4pp. publisher's advertising, [2]. **CONDITION: Very Good plus (or better). Slight wear at head and foot of spine, minute wear to tips and along joints. Hinges in order. There is a 1 x 1 1/2 inch patch to the upper right corner of the ffep. Binder's front fly with a modern embossed foil sticker of a former owner. Otherwise, the book is clean, tight and bright.** With some notional reference to, perhaps, a writer such as Mark Twain, AUTHOR William Henry Harrison Murray (1840-1904) displays a folksy appeal and wry sense of humor in this fictional travelogue of a cross-country rail journey with a group of acquaintances meeting by chance from Boston and Washington DC. Traveling by rail northward through Vermont, they are destined for the coolly scenic miles of Canadian forest, mountains and glaciers, with San Francisco and Yosemite among their destinations. Apparently written while sitting home in Vermont, Murray was no stranger to travel. His many titles set in the northern woods of New York and southern Quebec earned the one-time minister and passionate outdoorsman the soubriquet "Adirondack Murray." [ See some of these titles under our Adirondack section.] The newly opened (1881) Canadian Pacific Railway linking Montreal to Vancouver seems to have expanded Murray's creative travel beyond the piney portages in lightweight foldable canoes upon which the bulk of his earlier work relies. President Grant's "World Tour" of 1879 through Europe to China, Japan and then via San Francisco through the Rockies and Vancouver must have been another popularizing influence in travel as a benevolent force for cultural connection. **Massachusetts-born ART EDITOR Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) is notable in relation to this book, as the then-recent 1888 purchaser of the Boston Photograveur Company, whose art reproduction technology he availed himself of in the creation of this work. As listed in his obituary, Millet, a Harvard graduate, was also interested in engineering, inventing a naval submarine bell signal device which became the standard in use. Additionally, he was involved with Wilbur Wright, becoming President of the Boston Aeronautical Society. President Grant appointed Millet to the so-called Red Cloud Indian Commission investigating the conduct of Indian Affairs in the 1870's. After 1908, he retired from these various endeavors and returned to publishing, drawing admiration for a series of beautifully produced illustrated books about Japanese culture written by Captain Francis Brinkley. REFS: R. S. Beach, p.127. New York Times, Jan. 28, 1938, p. 21. Wright 3906.
Ref: ADV 9251
$135.00