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The Cruise of the Corwin; [Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in search of De Long and the Jeannette]
by Muir, John [William F. Bade, Ed.]
- Used
- near fine
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine
- Seller
-
Sebastopol, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1917. First Edition. Near Fine. Large Paper Edition #151 of 550 copies [Published October 1917] [9.5x6.5in"]; [2], xxxi, [1], 278 pp. [2], 22 plates of ten black/white images, including frontispiece , and 18 black/white illustrations from Muir sketches, one map, illustration of newly discovered plant on title page, appendices on glaciation and botanical notes; Pale green cloth binding with white lettering on front and spine, color photogravure of USRC Corwin in ice flows on front, top edge gilt, bottom edge trimmed and foredge untrimmed; Minimal shelf wear to corners of spine and bottom edges, slight age toning to end papers, prior owner book label of Vernon Howard on front end paper; [Arctic Biblio 11838, Kimes 348, Howgego III D5 and IV M94]. John Muir (1838-1914) was a well-known naturalist, preservationist, author, founder of the Sierra Club. His writings and advocacy to Congress led to establish Yosemite as a National Park in 1890, but, unlike Yellowstone, under California State control. Over the next decade, Muir founded the Sierra Club to promote environmental protections to wilderness areas, wrote several books on his travels and developed influence with government and business leaders. In 1903, on a trip to Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt, he described the State's mismanagement and exploitation of the National Park an pressed for Federal control, and in 1905 Yosemite was expanded and placed under the control of the Department of Interior.
The USRC Thomas Corwin was one of several Pacific Revenue Cutters based in San Francisco and assigned to the Alaskan waters. The annual cruise of 1881, under the command of Captain Calvin Hooper, was to visit and resupply settlements, search for the DeLong expedition in the "Jeannette" and lost whalers, and continue the scientific studies of the Arctic. Selected as the specialist in geology and botany, Muir's primary object in joining the Corwin expedition was to look for evidence of glaciation in the Arctic and sub arctic regions. In addition to glacial studies, Muir made a significant scientific contribution in studying the flora of the Arctic regions, including the discovery of a new species, named by famed botanist Asa Gray Erigeron Muirii . This book is from Muir's daily journal and 21 letters that he wrote to the San Francisco "Daily Evening Bulletin". The book also includes the articles that Muir wrote for the official expedition reports in 1883 and 1884.
Vernon Howard (1918-1992) was a California Mountaineer and bookseller.
The USRC Thomas Corwin was one of several Pacific Revenue Cutters based in San Francisco and assigned to the Alaskan waters. The annual cruise of 1881, under the command of Captain Calvin Hooper, was to visit and resupply settlements, search for the DeLong expedition in the "Jeannette" and lost whalers, and continue the scientific studies of the Arctic. Selected as the specialist in geology and botany, Muir's primary object in joining the Corwin expedition was to look for evidence of glaciation in the Arctic and sub arctic regions. In addition to glacial studies, Muir made a significant scientific contribution in studying the flora of the Arctic regions, including the discovery of a new species, named by famed botanist Asa Gray Erigeron Muirii . This book is from Muir's daily journal and 21 letters that he wrote to the San Francisco "Daily Evening Bulletin". The book also includes the articles that Muir wrote for the official expedition reports in 1883 and 1884.
Vernon Howard (1918-1992) was a California Mountaineer and bookseller.
Synopsis
The renowned naturalist John Muir married in 1880, but the lure of one last grand adventure proved too great. In the spring of 1881 he sailed for the Arctic aboard the Corwin, whose sad task it was to search for the Jeannette, lost during a polar expedition. Muir had already written about the effects of glaciation, and welcomed the chance to get a first hand view of Alaskan glaciers farther north than he had ever been. This journey was not without its own perils; the Jeannette was later found to have been crushed by pack ice and as Muir writes aboard the Corwin:"Shortly after one o'clock this morning I was awakened by unusual sounds on deck, and after listening for a few minutes, concluded that we must be entangled in the edge of the pack and were unshipping the rudder for fear it might be carried away...It seems that about midnight, owing to the fog and snow, we got into a field of heavy masses of ice on the edge of the main pack, which, on account of a north wind that had commenced to blow, was now moving slowly southward, and while backing out of it, a moderate bump that chanced to take the rudder at the greatest disadvantage broke it off without any appreciable strain."In its attempt to find the Jeannette, the Corwin travelled along the coast of Alaska and then Siberia. They visited native villages as well as the uninhabited Wrangell Island, which they claimed for America in 1881. (It is now the Russian "Ostrov Vrangelya.") Muir considered himself one of the first humans to have set foot upon it:"Not the slightest trace, however, could we find along the river, along the shore, or on the bluff to the northeastward, of the Jeannette party, or of any human inhabitant. A land more severely solitary could hardly be found anywhere on the face of the globe."The beach was well tracked by polar bears, but none of the party could discover any sign of reindeer or musk oxen, though the country seems to abound in the kind of food they require. A single fox track was observed, and some burrows of a species of spermophile; also a number of birds, and about twenty species of plants, most of them in bloom. The rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly, and is covered with a sparse growth of mosses, lichens, and flowering plants, not unlike that of the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska."The Cruise of the Corwin, pulled together from Muir's articles and journals by his literary executor, is a welcome addition to the literature about America's last frontier, Alaska. Muir captures the fierce beauty of the land and its inhabitants when a way of life was fast vanishing -- and thanks to his efforts, some of it is still preserved for this generation.
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Details
- Bookseller
- David Spilman Fine Books, ABAA & IOBA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 14197
- Title
- The Cruise of the Corwin; [Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in search of De Long and the Jeannette]
- Author
- Muir, John [William F. Bade, Ed.]
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Houghton, Mifflin and Company
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1917
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- Exploration;
Terms of Sale
David Spilman Fine Books, ABAA & IOBA
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About the Seller
David Spilman Fine Books, ABAA & IOBA
Biblio member since 2018
Sebastopol, California
About David Spilman Fine Books, ABAA & IOBA
David Spilman Fine Books, ABAA & IOBA is an online bookseller specializing in fine books, maps, publications, and ephemera related to Exploration, Adventure and World History with a focus on the Polar Regions, California and the American West. A particular interest is in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration from 1895 to 1920's. Other areas of interest are in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and a little bit of this and that.
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