Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 225

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(TRAVEL.) Charles William Janson. The Stranger in America: Containing Observations Made During a Long Residence. Map, 9 hand-colored plates, engraved additional title, and vignette in text. 22, 49[9], [1] pages. 4to, later 1/2 morocco, minor wear, rejointed; edge wear on first 4 leaves with 2 minor repairs, lacks the usual 3 ad leaves; with half-title; leather armorial bookplate of Cortlandt F. Bishop on front pastedown. London, 1807

Additional Details

First edition. Memoir of an Englishman who proved a failure in both law and business in the young United States. Discusses slavery, intemperance, land scams, agriculture, and more. "Janson draws a picture of unrelieved black, but one worthy of attention because of the length of his stay and the breadth of his interests"--Clark, Travels in the Old South II:99. "Petulant view of U.S. life"--Howes J59. Abbey Travel 648; Sabin 35770.
William Reese listed Janson's work in his Federal Hundred as #100, shedding some new light on its significance: "The view on the engraved titlepage is the earliest known published image of the White House, and the Mount Vernon plate is one of the earliest of Washington's home. The appendix to the book contains what appears to be the first British printing of Thomas Jefferson's December 1806 message announcing the completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition. . . . This seems to have gone unnoticed by bibliographers."