GOLD RUSH: The Journals, Drawings, and Other Papers of J. Goldsborough Bruff, Captain, Washington City and California Mining Association, April 2, 1849 - July 20, 1851
New York: Columbia University Press, 1949. Hardcover. California Centennial Edition, revised and enlarged. First published in 1944, Bruff's lengthy account of his overland journey from Washington D.C. to California via the Lassen Trail, and his subsequent residence north of the mining country is an unusually full, precise, and carefully-crafted California Gold Rush journal. Bruff (1804-89) was a West Point graduate and a draftsman in the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers, whose keen observational skills helped him render as detailed a view of Gold Rush-era California as any that has been compiled. Edited by Georgia Willis Read and Ruth Gaines, with a foreword by F.W. Hodge. Quarto: lxxii, 794 pp. with a color frontispiece, 32 pp. sketches, and numerous textual drawings. Original rust cloth binding, with black and gilt-stamped titling. Internally crisp and clean. Ownership inscription and four bookseller tickets to the front flyleaf. The dust jacket is a little edgeworn, with a short tear to the spine heel that has been neatly mended with tape on the verso; otherwise very good. Kurutz, G.: California Gold Rush, #93b. Very Good / Very Good. Item #80144
Price: $75.00