Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. -- Clifford Nickels Carver's copy --

London: Printed for the author, 1778. 1st edition. Hardcover. very good/no dj as issued. Printed for the author, 1778. [20], 543, [1] pp. A beautiful copy with 2 copper-engraved maps, frontispiece portrait of Carver and 4 additional copper-engraved plates. 23.3x15 cm (9¼x6"), rebound in burgundy 19th century half-morocco and gilt-ruled, marbled paper-covered boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt amidst raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. First Edition.

Gilt fading on spine, light rubbing at extremities; title page trimmed slightly with small puncture near gutter, hints of foxing; minor stub tears to maps (not affecting images); ownership marks of Cha.M. Wallace on preliminary blank, dealer label on verso of front free endpaper; very good or better. --- Association copy with bookplate of noted bibliophile and collector of bookplates Clifford Nickels Carver. Scarce first edition of this important account of exploration into the interior of North America by an Englishman seeking a transcontinental waterway. Carver penetrated farther to the west than any English explorer before the Revolution. Notwithstanding the lack of substantial contributions to geographic knowledge, Howes notes that "his book...stimulated curiosity concerning routes to the Pacific, later satisfied by Mackenzie and Lewis and Clark." According to Carl Wheat, Carver was the first to use the name "Oregon" or "River of the West," the great river thought to exist west of the great mountains, eventually emptying into the Pacific, and a sought-after water passage across the continent. There are two folding maps in this first edition, well-engraved and on heavy paper. The first is "A Plan of Captain Carver's Travels in the Interior Parts of North America," showing Lakes Superior and Michigan, the headwaters of the Mississippi, etc., of which Wheat notes that while "this map does not extend west of the upper Mississippi...it is one of the earliest to show actual results of British exploration in the interior." The other is "A New Map of North America," anonymous, which Wheat describes as "the same as that of Thomas Kitchin of 1787." The plates are of the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi, Indian artifacts including a peace pipe, and two of Indian men and woman. The plates and maps are lightly colored at a later date. With old armorial bookplate; old ink name on the title-page. Field 251; Graff 622; Howes C215; Sabin 11184; Streeter 1772; Wheat Transmississippi 175 & 210.

"A graduate of Princeton University (1913), Carver became Secretary (1914-1915) to Walter H. Page, American ambassador to Great Britain, and then served as Secretary (1915) to Edward Mandell House ("Colonel House"), President Wilson's personal representative to Europe. He was an assistant to Bernard M. Baruch, working for the War Industries Board and then gained a commission in the U. S. Navy, attached to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Carver was a renowned collector of book-plates by famous Americans, Princetonians, and Europeans. He authored Book-Plates of Well-known Americans, 1911." - Long Island University.