The Shirley Letters: From the California Mines …, Louise Clappe, 1949, VG w/DJ

Clappe, Louise, and Carl I. Wheat (Introduction and Notes). The Shirley Letters: From the California Mines, 1851-1852 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949).

English, First Borzoi Edition, a Very Good book in a Very Good dust jacket, HC, 8vo, 8 3/4" x 6," 216 pp., including List of Illustrations, + plates and map.

ISBN: N/A

First Borzoi Edition. Very Good maroon cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine and small gilt decoration on front. Covers have slight wear to extremities and slight fading along bottom edge and tail of spine, else clean and intact, binding tight, sharp tips. Very Good orange paper dust jacket with black-and-white lettering on spine and wrap-around color illustration on front and spine. Dust jacket has light age toning (white lettering faded to beige) and some wrinkling at head and tail of spine, else clean and intact, not price-clipped, protected in a paper-backed Mylar sleeve. Pages have light age toning, else pristine and intact. 20 illustrations and one map (on front and back free endpapers) included. Part of the Western Americana series edited by Oscar Lewis and Robert Glass Cleland. A collection of 23 letters by "Dame Shirley," also known as Louise Clappe (1819-1906), an American author, teacher, and the wife of physician Fayette Clappe. Louise had written her famous "Shirley Letters" to her sister, Molly, who resided in New England, while traveling with her husband during the California Gold Rush from 1851-1852. Louise's letters provide a fascinating account of the California Gold Rush, mining life, and what it was like to be a pioneer woman in the American West. Perfect for scholars and appreciators of Western Americana and an invaluable resource of California history.