Incidents of Travel to California, across the Great Plains; together with the Return Trips through Central America and Jamaica; to which are added Sketches of the Author's Life.

viii, [9], 302, [6] pp. 8vo. Frontispiece portrait of author. Howes U-3. Sabin 97663. Early accounts of California and the gold rush, Salt Lake City and the Mormons, the Pacific (i.e. transcontinental) railroad, Nicaragua, Panama, and Jamaica. Also included is the Declaration of Independence in its entirety. Udell was a farmer and Baptist preacher who made the journey to California four times, returning by sea the first three times, and remaining there the fourth. Many dealers seem to think their copies of this work bear Udell's handwritten name beneath the frontispiece portrait ('Your Friend, John Udell'), but this is clearly printed. This appears to spring from some confusion about the enumeration of editions in Howes's US-iana: he states 'rptd. L A 1946. O [4, 9-20] 88 8pls 775 copies [25signed]', which clearly refers to the 1946 reissue, not this 1856 original. They are correct to note, however, that some copies did not include the frontispiece (Howes notes: '302 errata 1. port [not issued in all copies; probably added after some had been distributed]'). The copy we offer here does.