Lot 142: DELANO, Alonzo (1806-1874). Life on the Plains and Among the Diggings; being Scenes and Adventures of an Overland Journey to California . Auburn and Buffalo: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1854.

DELANO, Alonzo (1806-1874). Life on the Plains and Among the Diggings; being Scenes and Adventures of an Overland Journey to California . Auburn and Buffalo: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1854. 8 o (190 x 122 mm). Engraved frontispiece and 3 plates. (Some spotting.) Original brown cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine gilt-lettered (front hinge cracked, spine faded). Provenance : Thomas W. Streeter (bookplate; penciled annotations on front free endpaper; his sale part V, Parke Bernet, 23 October 1968, lot 3176; purchased from Edward Eberstadt & Sons, 1940). FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. A native of Auburn, New York, Delano resided in Ottawa, Illinois at the time of the gold discovery. He left of 5 April 1849 with a company of 50 men, and entered California via the Lassen Trail. He then went to the Feather River. His narrative has become one of the classics of the Overland Trail, writing about emigrants, miners, Indians, as well as his adventures in the mines. Byrd 28; Graff 1042; Howes D-230 ("One of the best 'forty niner' narratives"); Kurutz 177; Mintz 121; Sabin 19348; Streeter sale V:3176 (this copy); Wagner-Camp-Becker 238; Wheat Gold Rush 57.