Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 358

Price Realized: $ 45,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 60,000
WASHINGTON, GEORGE. The Journal of Major George Washington, Sent . . . to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio. Folding map. 32 pages. 8vo, disbound; 2 small closed tears and minor edge wear to map; signature of early owner Rev. James A. Corcoran (1820-1889) and inked notes on title page, inked stamps of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on title and page 13. London, 1754
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Additional Details

Second edition after the virtually unobtainable Williamsburg, VA edition, and the first to include the map.
In 1753, on the eve of the French and Indian War, a 21-year-old Virginia militia major named George Washington was sent on a diplomatic mission. The French had started to assert authority in the Ohio Country, which the British viewed as part of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Major Washington was sent to meet with the French commander. His arduous wilderness journey took him from Williamsburg, VA to Cumberland, MD, across the Alleghenies through what is now Pittsburgh (where he met with Indian leaders), to Fort Le Boeuf near today's Erie, PA. There, the French commander politely informed him that he had no plans to withdraw from the Ohio Country. After an equally difficult return journey to Virginia, Washington presented his notes to the governor, who had them published. This was Washington's first publication, and his first real appearance on the public stage.
The journal remains a classic frontier account, and would be a worthy read even if written by Major George Nobody. The map in this copy is the less common issue with the caption reading "The Shawanons are the same with ye Satanas." Brown, Early Maps of the Ohio Valley 19; Church 999; Clark, Old South I:323(1); Howes W134 ("c"); Sabin 101710; Streeter sale III:1713; Vail 472.