signed first edition [2], 48, [2, blank]pp. Uncut. 8vo
1803 · [Washington]
by Jefferson, Thomas
[Washington], 1803. First edition. [2], 48, [2, blank]pp. Uncut. 8vo. Contemporary blue paper wrappers. Toned. First edition. [2], 48, [2, blank]pp. Uncut. 8vo. The true first edition of one of the most important books in Western Americana, the first real account of the Louisiana Purchase, the vast new western territory to become available to the American people, with details of geography, inhabitants, Indians, laws, agriculture, and navigation. Although the Philadelphia 1803 edition has been called the first edition of this work, it is, in fact, the second edition, issued after this undated, unimprinted Washington edition which Thomas Jefferson presented to members of Congress.
The bibliographic history of the Account and its Appendix is a source of much confusion, though is correct in the fourth edition of Wagner-Camp's The Plains and the Rockies. A contemporary note in the Yale copy, inscribed: "Sam. Mitchell Washington Nov 14, 1803", revealed much about the work which helped clarify its printing history. On the verso of the title of that copy Mitchell has written: "This pamphlet was written by Mr. Wagner, chief-clerk in the office of Mr. Madison Secretary of State; the materials were collected by the President of the U.S. [Mr. Jefferson] who received them in answer to certain interrogatories put by him to discreet and intelligent men in Louisiana. The various answers to these executive queries were put into the hands of Mr. Wagner to be compiled and digested in the Congress by Mr. Jefferson on 15th November, 1803. [i.e. Nov. 14 to the Senate, see below]."
The Appendix volume was initially issued separately about two weeks later, with Yale's copy of the Appendix also inscribed by Mitchell, but dated Nov. 28, 1803. That the Appendix, which is not present here, was initially issued separately from the Account is confirmed by Jefferson's own November 14, 1803 communication to the Senate, sending the Account: "I now communicate a digest of information I have received relative to Louisiana, which may be useful to the legislature in providing for a government of the country. A translation of the most important laws in force in that province, now in press, shall be the subject of a supplementary communication, with such farther and material information as may yet come to hand." On November 29, 1803, the Senate Journal records a further communication from Jefferson: "I now communicate an appendix to the information heretofore given on the subject of Louisiana. You will be sensible, from the face of these papers, as well as those to which they are a sequel, that they are not, and could not, be official, but are furnished by different individuals, as the result of the best inquiries they had been able to make , and now given as received from them..."
The Philadelphia edition was printed from this Washington edition, and in the next year a flood of second, third, and fourth generation editions from Baltimore; Providence; Albany; Carlisle; Wilmington; and Raleigh, North Carolina appeared, indicating the nation's eagerness to overcome the general lack of previous information on Louisiana. The work deserved to appear in as many editions as it did.
This true first edition is superlatively rare, as fugitive a piece as the Custis and Freeman report, similarly issued in Washington without imprint four years later. Howes did not know of this edition and incorrectly dates the Philadelphia edition as 1800. The present edition is probably listed as number 5199 in Shaw & Shoemaker, who did not evaluate its primacy. An item of paramount importance, and a cornerstone of any collection of Western Americana, here in superb unsophisticated condition. Wagner-Camp 2b:1; Shaw & Shoemaker 5199; Howes L493 (incorrectly describing the imprint), "b"; Reese, Federal Hundred 96; Reese, Best of the West 26 (Inventory #: 370922)
The bibliographic history of the Account and its Appendix is a source of much confusion, though is correct in the fourth edition of Wagner-Camp's The Plains and the Rockies. A contemporary note in the Yale copy, inscribed: "Sam. Mitchell Washington Nov 14, 1803", revealed much about the work which helped clarify its printing history. On the verso of the title of that copy Mitchell has written: "This pamphlet was written by Mr. Wagner, chief-clerk in the office of Mr. Madison Secretary of State; the materials were collected by the President of the U.S. [Mr. Jefferson] who received them in answer to certain interrogatories put by him to discreet and intelligent men in Louisiana. The various answers to these executive queries were put into the hands of Mr. Wagner to be compiled and digested in the Congress by Mr. Jefferson on 15th November, 1803. [i.e. Nov. 14 to the Senate, see below]."
The Appendix volume was initially issued separately about two weeks later, with Yale's copy of the Appendix also inscribed by Mitchell, but dated Nov. 28, 1803. That the Appendix, which is not present here, was initially issued separately from the Account is confirmed by Jefferson's own November 14, 1803 communication to the Senate, sending the Account: "I now communicate a digest of information I have received relative to Louisiana, which may be useful to the legislature in providing for a government of the country. A translation of the most important laws in force in that province, now in press, shall be the subject of a supplementary communication, with such farther and material information as may yet come to hand." On November 29, 1803, the Senate Journal records a further communication from Jefferson: "I now communicate an appendix to the information heretofore given on the subject of Louisiana. You will be sensible, from the face of these papers, as well as those to which they are a sequel, that they are not, and could not, be official, but are furnished by different individuals, as the result of the best inquiries they had been able to make , and now given as received from them..."
The Philadelphia edition was printed from this Washington edition, and in the next year a flood of second, third, and fourth generation editions from Baltimore; Providence; Albany; Carlisle; Wilmington; and Raleigh, North Carolina appeared, indicating the nation's eagerness to overcome the general lack of previous information on Louisiana. The work deserved to appear in as many editions as it did.
This true first edition is superlatively rare, as fugitive a piece as the Custis and Freeman report, similarly issued in Washington without imprint four years later. Howes did not know of this edition and incorrectly dates the Philadelphia edition as 1800. The present edition is probably listed as number 5199 in Shaw & Shoemaker, who did not evaluate its primacy. An item of paramount importance, and a cornerstone of any collection of Western Americana, here in superb unsophisticated condition. Wagner-Camp 2b:1; Shaw & Shoemaker 5199; Howes L493 (incorrectly describing the imprint), "b"; Reese, Federal Hundred 96; Reese, Best of the West 26 (Inventory #: 370922)
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