Robinson's Life in California 1846

Heading:
Author: [Robinson, Alfred], An American
Title: Life in California: During a Residence of Several Years in That Territory, Comprising a Description of the Country and the Missionary Establishments, with Incidents, Observations, Etc.
Place Published: New York
Publisher:Wiley & Putnam
Date Published: 1846
Description:

xii, [2], 341 pp. (12mo) 19x11.5 cm (7¾x4½"), rebound in modern leather retaining the original gilt-stamped cloth lettering on spine, fresh endpapers. First Edition.

Lacking the nine lithograph plates. This is the first book in English on California to be written by a resident of the province. Alfred Robinson came to California as a super-cargo in 1829, and married into the de la Guerra family, one of the most prominent in the territory. Zamorano maintains the book is "unquestioned as an authority, his work is undoubtedly the most important book for the period it treats... Robinson originally intended his Life in California to be a preface for Fray Boscana's Chinigchinich [the appended historical account of the Indians of Alta-California], but in the end the `tail wagged the dog' and for historians the Life in California is vastly more important." Cowan p.536-7; Graff 3525; Howes R363; Sabin 72048; Zamorano Eighty 65. Institutional stamp on foot, embossments on title page.
Condition Report: Stain to title page at top edge with continuing stain to first few leaves, light ripple to leaves; very good or better.