The Old Journey: Reminiscences of Pioneer Days

[Salt Lake City]: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1897. First Edition. 53pp. Duodecimo [21.5 cm] 3/4 leather over marbled boards with matching pastedowns and endsheets and the title and author gilt stamped on the backstrip, T.E.G. Very good. Crown of backstrip chipped. Complete with all eighteen plates. This work is considered to be the first LDS "fine press" work. Produced as a privately distributed keepsake for the still living Pioneers who made the trip west in 1847 that was revised from the author's larger work: 'An old sketch book.' The preface mentions an intended 500 copy print run, but whether or not that was the final number is unknown. Alfred Lambourne (truncated) (1850-1926) was a noted landscape painter and writer, who authored fourteen books, on a myriad of topics.

"When the Jubilee Celebration of the strange journey - for it is that and those who made it that we are this year commemorating and honoring - was decided upon, it was suggested that an appropriate souvenir of the occasion would be 'The Old Sketch Book.' That work, however, was a large and costly volume of a limited edition, and hardly manageable for the present purpose. The author therefore decided to place the matter and sketches in the form now used, under the title of 'The Old Journey,' and carefully revised and lengthened the descriptive portions. It was in consideration of the singular fitness of the 'Old Journey' as a souvenir to be presented, during the Jubilee, to the Pioneers still living." - from the preface. Flake/Draper 4730. Howes L43. Eberstadt 106:184. (Inventory #: 10332)