(CALIFORNIA) McGlashan Charles F History of the Donner Party

Sale 2432 - Lot 77

Price Realized: $ 2,860

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(CALIFORNIA.) McGlashan, Charles F. History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierras. 193 pages. 8vo, publisher's cloth, moderate wear, a bit shaken; minor foxing and toning; long author's inscription in front flyleaf, bookseller tag on front pastedown and his description tipped to front free endpaper. Truckee, CA, [1879]

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first edition, by the editor of the Truckee Republican and based on primary sources. The scarcity of this first edition is explained by the author in his 1925 inscription to bookseller John J. Newbegin. He exclaims that it is the "only one I have seen for years," and that it was sent to "twenty-six survivors . . . for corrections and additions. Fearing I would write a sensational book instead of a plain, truthful history, several of the members of the party declined to help me, but after this little book was read, they gave me cordial and most valuable assistance in perfecting my task. For this very purpose the small first edition was issued." Cowan 1933, page 406; Graff 2610; Howes M102 ("b"--"best account of the most harrowing of all overland disasters"); Zamorano Eighty 53.