MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF JOHN LEDYARD, FROM HIS JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE

London: Henry Colburn, 1828.. xii,428pp. Half title. Original plain paper boards, rebacked at an early date with green cloth, most of the original paper spine laid down, printed paper label. Boards scuffed and stained, spine soiled. Contemporary ownership inscription on front board, armorial bookplate of the Elphinstone family on front pastedown. Minor scattered foxing. A very good copy. Untrimmed and partially unopened. The first British edition of Sparks' life of Ledyard, after the first American edition of the same year. After these first two printings, this popular and compelling biography would see an additional four editions including a German translation (truncated) over the next five years.

John Ledyard was one of the first great American explorers. He accompanied Cook's third expedition as a sailor, and so visited the Pacific, the Northwest Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii, where he was one of the oarsmen in the boat which took Cook ashore for the parley at which he was murdered. After the American Revolution, at the behest of Thomas Jefferson (then U.S. minister in Paris), Ledyard attempted to cross over to America by traversing Russia, only to be arrested and sent back in farther Siberia. He disappeared while exploring up the Nile in 1789.

"Soon after Ledyard's death in Egypt in 1789, his cousin, Dr. Isaac Ledyard of New York, began collecting material for a biography. The project was aborted, but the material was preserved and ultimately turned over to Sparks...his compilation remains one of the great American biographies" - Forbes. An important source for Cook's voyage and other great explorations, compiled by an important American scholar and historian. HOWES S818. FORBES 709. SABIN 88991. BEDDIE 4525. WICKERSHAM 6566. LADA-MOCARSKI 92 (note). (Inventory #: WRCAM57581)