London: Richard Bentley, 1839. First edition. Two volumes. Frontis, xvi, 473pp; frontis, xi, 372pp (including a half title in Volume II, none called for in Volume I). Handsomely rebound in half leather and marbled paper. Minimal browning to a few pages in Volume I, very little foxing. Murray (1806-1895) was a British writer and diplomat, although some of the details of his career sound more like one of the Flashman novels. (He arranged the transport of a hippopotamus to England in 1850, and his dalliance with the sister-in-law of the Shah of Persia led to the Anglo-Persian war of 1856-7.) No matter, his travelog and a thinly disguised novel about his affair with an American beauty were popular books. Murray traveled up the Hudson River into Canada, then through New York to Washington, D.C., through Virginia, up the Ohio River to Ohio, Kentucky and St. Louis, and then spent three months in the Indian Territory. "This is the first and best edition of a most interesting work, by an intelligent observer of the peculiarities of the Pawnees, before they had been modified by contact with the whites." according to Sabin, and Howes adds, "The best account of the Pawnees while yet uncontaminated by whites." Sabin 51490, Howes M913, WCB 77:1. Item #26197

Price: $375.00