THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH OVERLAND DIARY OF BYRON N. McKINSTRY 1850-1852 (Unique Copy) by Byron Nathan McKinstry; Bruce L. McKinstry - 1975

Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Co, 1975. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Collectible Fine. q. 1st printing. Full leather with raised bands with gilt title / year of pub on spine. 401pp. Illus. Index. Inscribed (12 line presentation) by the editor and McKinstry descendant to the fine Chicago book binder Ed Lhotka, the author of ABC of Leather Bookbinding, on January 2, 1975. Lhotka died in 2007 at the age of 97. He was a book binder at the great R. R. Donnelley Company in Chicago for nearly 50 years and "... did work for museums and libraries around the country..." (Chicago Tribune obit). This copy is fine and elegant, and is bound in red leather with a gold stripe running diagonally across both front and back covers. It represents the trail and features a wagon wheel on both covers. The presentation page appears to be bound in. In the back, also bound in most creatively is the dust jacket of the trade edition. The rear paste down has paper adhering from something that was glued and removed. This is the only "flaw." Laid inside the back cover is a folded US map showing McKinstry's route. Penciled on the recto of the map is "Wagon Trail / Council Bluffs to San Francisco." It does not appear to have been the piece removed from the paste down. The end papers are custom, and affixed to the front free end-paper (fly leaf) is Lhotka's custom bookplate with a drawing showing a hand utilizing a tool on a book spine. This leather copy is slip-cased in red cloth with a printed paper label on the spine of the box. The title is volume X in the Arthur H. Clark Co. American Trail Series. Truly a collector's copy.