Astoria or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains; Tacoma Edition

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. Later edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 2 vol. 8vo. [4], v-xxi, [4], 2-389, [1]; [4], v-xvi, [3], 2-391, [3] pp. Maroon textured cloth with gold lettering and decorations on the front board and spine; top edges gilt. Each volume with a silk bookmark bound in. Volume one illustrated with a frontispiece and fourteen additional plates; volume two with a frontispiece and twelve additional plates. Cazedessus 6. Oregon Encyclopedia, "Astoria (book, 1836)". Irving's Astoria was the result of two years of research conducted by him and his nephew. His sources included John Jacob Astor's journals during Astor's attempt to grow his company (the Pacific Fur Trading Company, the first American fur trading company on the West coast of what is now the Continental United States). Irving also used records from the U.S. Superintendent of Indian Trade, Thomas McKenney, the journals of Lewis and Clark, Steven Long, and the traders Cox and Franchere. Astoria is a narrative of Western adventure and competitive commerce: fur traders and trappers, Native American tribespeople, and the flora and fauna of the west comprise the world of Irving's narrative. Twenty-five editions of Astoria were published before the author's death. According to the Oregon Historical Society, the novel inspired many Americans to emigrate to the West. Irving himself was in favor of American Western expansion, for romantic and economic reasons. A beautiful edition of a valuable chronicle of early nineteenth-century American thought, in particular, the way Americans viewed their country's natural resources, and their desire to expand the Union to the Pacific Ocean. Close to Fine with just a small abrasion to the bottom textblock of volume two.