Bartram, William | “It is written in the spirit of the old travellers.” — Coleridge

Bartram, William

Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy and the Country of the Choctaws. Philadelphia: James and Johnson, 1791

8vo (200 x 118 mm). Frontispiece, folding map of East Florida, and seven engraved natural history plates, one of which folding; some browning, offsetting, and spotting, page 291 misnumbered (as 289) with remaining pagination continuing from 289 with page 487 misnumbered as 478. Contemporary, possibly publisher’s, sheep, flat spine decoratively gilt, red morocco lettering-piece; overall rubbed with some loss, joints staring with upper board nearly detached.  

First edition. Due to its lyrical narrative, Bartram's Travels influenced many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors both in Great Britain and the United States, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. "The classic of southern natural history and exploration, with much on the southern Indian tribes. Bartram's account of the remote frontier, of the plantations, trading posts, and Indian villages at the end of the eighteenth century is unrivaled" (Streeter).

REFERENCE:

Evans 23159; Harwell, Georgiana 11; Howes B223; Sabin 3870

PROVENANCE:

Christopher Marshall (ownership inscription to front free endpaper) — Isaac R. Marshall (bookplate to front pastedown)