The Far West or A Tour Beyond the Mountains .

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1838. First edition. Two volumes. Small octavo. 263, [1]; 241, [1] pp. Publisher's salmon muslin with printed papers spine labels. Some foxing to first and least leaves, labels with wear (but mainly legible), some soiling to cloth and A piece of the front and rear endpaper in first volume excised. Still, a very good copy in the publisher's binding.Written when he was 23, Edmund Flagg went on the become a successful writer, lawyer and diplomat. "Edmund Flagg was born November 24, 1815, in Wicasset, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1835 and then moved to Louisville, Kentucky. In Louisville, Flagg taught school and became a contributor to the Louisville Journal. He came to St. Louis in 1836 and studied law under Hamilton R. Gamble. After completing The Far West (1838), a journal of his wanderings through Illinois and Missouri, he worked briefly for a Louisville newspaper. Flagg practiced law in Vicksburg, Mississippi,with noted orator S.S. Prentiss and then served as editor of the Marietta (Ohio) Gazette. In 1845, he returned to St. Louis to edit the St. Louis Evening Gazette, leaving that paper after a short while to become a court reporter for St. Louis County. He contributed stories to the Missouri Republican, and published several novels and plays during his stay in St. Louis. In 1848, Flagg was appointed as a clerk to serve under U.S. Minister to Berlin Edward A. Hannegan. Two years later, Flagg was appointed U.S. consul to Venice by President John Tyler. He returned to St. Louis to become editor of the St. Louis Times in 1853. He was appointed superintendent of statistics for the Department of State in 1856, at which time he wrote his "Report on the Commercial Relations of the United States with All Foreign Nations." He served in this capacity until 1861 when he was appointed to serve as head of the copyright library for the U.S. Patent Office. Flagg retired from public service in 1870 and moved to his farm near Falls Church, Virginia. He continued to practice law. Edmund Flagg died in Virginia in 1890" (Missouri History Museum).