History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark...A.

1893. LEWIS, Meriwether, and CLARK, William. History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark...A New Edition, Faithfully Reprinted,..With Copious Critical Commentary...BY Elliot Coues. New York: Francis P. Harper, 1893. Three text volumes plus atlas, totaling 1364pp. Facsimiles, plates, and maps (some folding). Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Light shelfwear. A few inner hinges repaired. Two pages in third volume with offsetting from a laid-in newspaper clipping, otherwise quite clean internally. A very attractive set. One of 800 sets on "fine book paper", from an edition limited to 1000 sets. The first "modern" edited scholarly edition of the Lewis and Clark account and manuscripts, reprinting the official text of 1814, but with extensive notes by Coues based on his examination of the surviving manuscripts and maps of the expedition. This was also the first of a series of landmark publications by Harper on western exploration, and the first editing project of the prolific Coues. "[Coues'] edition of 1893 ranks second in importance only to the original journals. His lengthy annotations, based on first-hand knowledge of the territory, are highly informative, and his bibliographical essay is a major contribution" - Wagner-Camp. An important, landmark work in the history of western historiography, ushering in modern scholarship the same year as the Turner thesis. HOWES L317. GRAFF 2484. WAGNER-CAMP 13:7 (note). LITERATURE OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 5b.2.