Jedediah Smith and his Maps of the American West by Morgan, Dale L. and Carl I. Wheat - 1954

San Francisco: California Historical Society, 1954. First Edition. 86pp. Folio [44 cm] Red cloth with the title gilt stamped on the backstrip. Better than very good. Gentle sunning to the backstrip with a bookplate on the front pastedown. Complete with all seven maps. The four page prospectus is laid in. "This volume was the logical extension of Morgan's biography of Jedediah Smith. Morgan and Wheat examined the notes taken by Oregon pioneer George Gibbs from a now-lost map of the trapper's western travels drawn by Smith in 1831, before the latter's demise on the Santa Fe Trail." - Richard Saunders

"The most respected and most widely traveled Western explorer of his era (1822-1831). Jedediah Strong Smith passed from the scene when only thirty-two years of age, and both the man and his extraordinary career were long largely forgotten. Today, however, Smith is accorded a place in American exploration overshadowed only by Lewis and Clark. As a single figure he stands second to none; as a cartographer his achievements were unequaled for almost a generation." - from the prospectus.

This work was limited to an edition of 530 copies. Saunders 26.