?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
(WEST.) Overton Johnson and William H. Winter. Route Across the Rocky Mountains; with a Description of Oregon and California. 152 pages. 8vo, original plain boards, minor wear, tastefully rebacked with worn original spine label laid down; moderate foxing, a few early pencil marks in margins; inscribed by the co-author on the front pastedown "from Overton Johnson to L.L. McDonald," later signature of George McDonald on front board. In modern 1/2 morocco slipcase. Lafayette, IN: John B. Semans, 1846
First edition. These two intrepid migrants attended Wabash College together in Indiana before deciding to head west on the Oregon Trail in the Great Emigration of 1843. They left Independence, MO in May 1843, and reached Oregon in November. Winter continued on to California. They both left the west coast in 1845 and reunited on the eastward trail. One of the first accounts of this challenging route to reach the presses. Cowan 1933, page 315; Graff 2221; Howes J142 ("d"--"in historical importance one of the greatest of overland narratives"); Sabin 36260; Streeter sale, V:3145 ("the adventurous trip of two Wabash College boys"); Wagner-Camp 122. Provenance: Christie's Kenneth Bechtel sale, 31 January 2002, lot 110. We know of no other inscribed copies at auction since 1978.
