Search Results: Alaska from Walkabout Books

Softcover. Very good. 7" x 11" strong-tied photograph album containing 35 snapshots (3.5" x 5") corner-mounted one per page, rectos only. A small album without captions, but with good documentary content. The first two images are a nice Juneau street scene and a shot of the Alaska Air Transport Terminal in the Juneau harbor. These are followed by some rural scenes showing country roads and houses that we suspect are outside Juneau, and several shots of a terminal where cargo is being either loaded from rail car to ship, or vice versa. From there, three shots show a ship's passage, presumably across the Gulf of Alaska from Juneau to Kodiak, as the remainder of the images (20+) seem to be from Kodiak. There are several nice images of the Kodiak dock and harbor, several of a rural road and house, a view looking down at the town from a hillside, and many shots of the beautiful Russian Orthodox church.

Hardcover. Very good. Bound typescript with no publication information given, but identified in OCLC as "a translation made by Antionette Hotovitzky in 1935 of the original Russian ed., St. Petersburg, 1847, omitting the Indian vocabularies in the originals." [vii] 422 pp, with text on rectos only, bound in green cloth. Numerous ink stamps of the Alaska Indian Service in Juneau on endpapers and edges, otherwise clean and sound. "Contains [an] introductory outline of Russian trade, administration, and exploratory work in Alaska before Zagoskin's visit, and of the latter's mission in 1842-44, to survey the Kvokhpak (Yukon) and Kuskokwin River regions, with a view to developing trade, establishing posts and routes....Zagoskin describes in detail the Russian trading posts; his arrangements for travel and food; topography of the Norton Sound region; and Eskimo inhabitants, their customs, trade with Russians, etc." (Arctic Bibliography 19779, 19781).

Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior, 1891. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 9pp, 7.75 x 10 inches; stapled self-wrappers. Old creases from folding, light handling wear; very good. Issued in advance of the full 1890 census report on the Alaska territory, this bulletin provides demographic information on Alaska's population, which is divided into 7 geographic districts. The total population of the territory is given as 21,929 and is broken down by sex and race (white, black, mixed, native, Chinese). The native population is also ennumerated by tribe, and there are tables indicating the numbers of people from different groups who are of school age and who are able to read, write, and speak English.

Salem, MA: Newcomb and Gauss, Printers, 1900. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 251 pp, with frontispiece and many sketches by the author (which are rather amateurish, but charming). Mild marginal dampstain to the first few pages, boards a bit scuffed, rubbed at corners and spine ends. The author joined the Lynn Mining Company and departed from Massachusetts in November 1897, traveling via the Schooner "Abbie M. Deering" to Bahia, Brazil and on to San Francisco. From there the party secured passage to Seattle and then St. Michael, eventually traveling up the Yukon and Koyukuk Rivers to the Arctic Circle. Includes detailed and colorful description of the outfitting process and the vicissitudes of travel and prospecting. Wickersham 80; Tourville 4919; Graff 4712; Howes W556; Smith 11106, Arctic Bibliography 19606.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1920. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 291 pp + [1] ("Afterthoughts") and publisher's ads, with illustrations from photographs and a large folding map of the White Pass & Yukon Route, with inset Map of Atlin Lake District laid in at the back. Original red cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Spinelightly sunned, a bit of scattered foxing, attractive engraved bookplate (identifying the owner simply as "Alexandra") on the front pastedown. Cameron traveled extensively and generally alone, publishing books on Africa, South America, Mexico, and the South Seas, among others. Although she has been described by some critics as more of a globetrotting tourist than an explorer (see Robinson p. 177 and the DNB) she was elected to membership in the Royal Geographical Society in 1913, suggesting her contemporaries, at least, felt otherwise. Wickersham 10, Tourville 785.

Mount Pleasant, MI: John Cumming, 1968. Hardcover. Near fine. ix, 190 pp, with 3 maps and 2 illustration. Previous owner's name in red ink on front flyleaf, else a fine copy in publisher's dark gray cloth. No dust jacket. First-person account of three years mining in during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1958. Softcover. Very good. xi, 192 pp, including glossary, selected bibliography, index. Previous owner's name on title page, light general handling wear; contents clean. Geological Survey Professional Paper 301. The first of five professional papers Reed including summaries of 10 years of explorations in Alaska with details such as geophysics, drilling, geology, and operations.

Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910. Hardcover. Very good. Volume VIII: pp ix, 238, indexed, with color frontispiece and 16 other plates, as well as figures and line drawings in the text; Volume IX: pp ix, 284, indexed, with photogravure frontispiece and three plates. Original green cloth stamped in gilt. Volume XIII has a small area of dampstaining on the back cover (not affecting the interior) and light rubbing to the spine ends; Volume IX has some minor discoloration to the front board. Both volumes internally very clean and sound. Organized and financed by railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, the Harriman Alaska Expedition included 25 scientists and naturalists, as well as sizeable team of photographers and artists, among them Edward Curtis, Frank Dellenbaugh, and Louis Agassiz Fuertes. During the summer of 1899, the party cruised the waters off southeastern and southern Alaska and the eastern Aleutians, making numerous stops for scientific investigation and collecting. Trevor Kincaid, the… Read More

Paris: Horizons de France, 1958. Hardcover. Very Good-. xx, 363 pp + illustrations from photographs, map. Moderate soiling and general wear to boards; contents clean and sound. No dust jacket. Text in French.

Glocester: R. Raikes for T. Jefferys, 1764. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Quarto, pp. [8], 280, [8], with 7 engraved maps and plates (4 folding). Contemporary calf boards with new, complementary calf spine in six compartments. Some edgewear to boards; minor foxing to endpapers; text and plates exceptionally clean and bright. Bookplate of Sir Joseph Copley on front pastedown. An abridged translation of the Russian edition of 1755, which offered "The first reliable descriptions of Kamchatka, based on the observations of the author and his companions during the Russian expedition to the far north, 1734-43, a part of Bering's Great Northern Expedition" (Arctic Bib. 9264, 9265). It describes the customs, morals, religion, and languages of the inhabitants of the Kamchatkan peninsula. In addition, the the author had access to the notes made by pioneering German botanist George Steller during his travels to North America with Bering's expedition, and the second part of the narrative includes much on… Read More

Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press, 1997. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. Nine volumes, including The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768-1771 (1968 reprint); The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure, 1772-1775 (1969 reprint); The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, 1776-1780 (2 Vols., 1967 reprint); The Life of Captain James Cook (1974 first edition); Charts & Views, Drawn by Cook and His Officers and Reproduced from the Original Manuscripts (1969 reprint, portfolio containing 58 plates); and The Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages (3 folio volumes published by the Hakluyt Society in Association with the Australian Academy of the Humanities, all first editions). All volumes except the portfolio accompanied by original dust jackets, all in near fine or fine condition. Flaws include small tears to dust jackets, small amounts of foxing to jackets and/or endpapers, mild spine slant on Volume Two of the Charts & Coastal Views. Hill 367 and 371: "These are… Read More

Colorado Springs, 1993. Softcover. Very good. 78 pp. Signed by author on front blank. Light handling wear; very good. Account of life as a missionary in Kodiak, Alaska in 1968. The author and her husband were associated with the Kodiak Baptist Mission, which celebrated its centennial in 1993.

Buffalo, NY: E.H. Hutchinson, 1889. First Edition. Softcover. Near fine. 87 pp, in original printed wrappers. Mild soiling. The author was an attorney and Principal of the Buffalo Classical School. He traveled to Oregon, Washington, Alaska (primarily Sitka), and British Columbia in 1888, reporting back in a series of articles for his local newspaper, the Commercial Advertiser. This is their first appearance in book form. Includes interesting letters on indigenous crafts in Alaska, the Russian population in the Sitka area, and the Sitka mission, along with sketches of Portland, Astoria, and the Puget Sound region. Tourville 658; Wickersham 1987; Not in Smith or Arctic Bibliography.

New York: The America Press, 1943. Hardcover. Good +. vi, 97 pp, extensively illustrated with b/w photographs from Alaska and the Yukon. Boards edgeworn, bump to lower corner near spine; light staining to a few pages; else clean and sound. No dust jacket. Signed with short inscription by author on frontispiece."These 'stories,' which were first published by the Saturday Evening Post, which is hereby complimented on its good taste, are true stories... If the dogs, Mageik the clown, Pete the fighter, Snookum the wolf, and Katmai the faithful, seem to some quite the best parts of the book, that will no doubt be quite all right with Father Hubbard" (Preface).

Milwaukee, WI: North American Press, 1921. First Edition. Soft cover. Good. Unpaginated (c 200 pp), 6 x 9 inches, oblong, bound in flexible leather, illustrated with many b/w photographs from the Klondike Gold Rush (including scenes along the trail and views of Fairbanks and Dawson), one color illustration. Signed "Sincerely Yours, Fred Crewe," on the dedication page, which also bears the author's signature in facsimile. Spine has been recovered with brown cloth library tape, covers are heavily chipped at the edges and leather is flaky. Binding tender but intact. Occasional staining to pages. Previous owner's signature, dated 1922 in Anchorage, on front free endpaper.

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Fiftieth Congress, 1887-'88, Volume 19. 4to. 128 pp, with many b/w illustrations from photographs and two color plates of birds (auks). Bound in full leather with red and black spine labels. Boards are scuffed and lower spine label is mostly chipped away, handwriten number on spine, otherwise unmarked and sound. Report of the Corwin's cruise in Alaskan waters, Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea, May-Oct 1884, a one-man inspection party at Point hope, a small party's exploration of the Kowak (Kobuk) River and another of the Pribilof Islands; with appended reports on conditions of the natives, fisheries, and seal islands by members of the expedition (Arctic Bib. 18400).

Alaska Historical Commission, 1980. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Oversized paperback. x, 169 pp, with index, illustrations, maps. Mild cover wear. Clean, tightly bound, unmarked. Provides an overview of Russian Orthodox archives in the United States and detailed description of the archives of the Alaskan Diocese in Kodiak. An annotated bibliograpy covers books, pamphlets, and periodicals on orthodoxy in Alaska, southwestern Alaska, Russian America, general histories of Alaska, and guides to documentary sources.

New York: Doubleday, Page, 1908. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 321 pp with illustrations from photographs, in original green cloth with mountain vignette in white on front board, top edge gilt. Previous owner's name on front free endpaper, some tiny white paint specks on spine, foxing to fore edge of text block and front matter. Binding tight, text clean. Cook famously claimed to have reached the summit of McKinley (on the second of the expeditions described here) but was later proved to have lied and used a deceptive angle to create a fake summit photo. Arctic Bib. 3390; Neate C123.

Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior, 1891. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 15 pp, 7.75 x 10 inches; stapled self-wrappers. Old creases from folding, light handling wear; very good. Issued in advance of the full 1890 census report on the Alaska territory "in view of the extraordinary interest now being manifested in everything that relates to this remote and comparatively unknown country," this bulletin provides details on the "four principal sources of wealth" in Alaska: fur, fish, minerals, and timber. The author, a Russian-born soldier, historian, and newspaper editor, was director of the 1890 Census for Alaska. Here, after discussing the resources prominent in different parts of the territory, he bemoans the fact that the land is being stripped of its bounty by outsiders, with little care or compensation for the native population and other local residents: "The spectacle of so vast a tract of country being thus drained continually for twenty-three years… Read More