Beschreibung
First French edition. Amsterdam: Chez Marc-Michel Rey, 1769. Octavo (7 13/16" x 4 7/8", 199mm x 124mm). [Full collation available.] With an engraved folding map, three engraved folding plates (one map, two plans) and two engraved plates. Collated complete against Howes; Sabin calls for 16 preliminary pages, i.e., including a half-title. Bound in contemporary quarter calf over coral paper boards (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down). On the spine, seven pairs of gilt fillets. In the panels, a gilt central ornament. Title gilt to black calf in the second panel. Edges of the text-block glazed yellow. Coral silk marking ribbon. Quite subtly rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. Some rubbing to the fore-corners. Internally quite bright, with some mild tanning to the preliminaries. Lacking the half-title, as often. On the front paste-down the inkstamp "FONDS MARC DE VILLIERS DU TERRAGE". A lovely copy. William Smith (1727-1803), first provost of what is now the University of Pennsylvania, was principally an advocate for Anglicanism in America. It is nonetheless his account of Colonel Henry Bouquet, the Swiss mercenary who fought for the English in Pontiac's War in the Ohio Valley, that has won him enduring fame. Bouquet, as part of a peace requested by native tribes, negotiated for the return of over 200 European captives, some of whom had been raised from their youth as "White Indians." This fascinated the European world; the account was published in London, Amsterdam, Dublin in Paris, so great was the hunger for the tale. The fame endured: Conrad Richter's 1953 novel The Light in the Forest draws on Smith's account, and inspired a Disney movie of the same name in 1958. Marc de Villiers du Terrage (1867-1936) was himself a historian of French exploration in America, especially of the territory of Louisiana (his 1917 Histoire de la fondation de la Nouvelle-Orléans won the 1919 Prix Thérouanne). Howes S693, Sabin 84647. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6JLR0106
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