One Hundred Miles on Horseback. Introduction by Donald P. Ringler.
Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1963. An edition of 300 copies printed by Saul and Lillian Marks at the Plantin Press. Two frontisportraits, the first being Mary Austin's graduation photo (dated 1888) and the second being her wedding portrait (dated 1891). Binding extremities lightly rubbed. A near fine copy. Clothbacked marbled boards with paper spine label. Octavo. . [xv], [3], 19, {+1, colophon] pp. Item #16168
One Hundred Miles on Horseback, written in 1888, was Mary Austin's first published essay, though she wrote in various genres including short stories, dramas, and novels. After her graduation from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois (1888) at the age of twenty, Mary, her mother, and her eleven year-old brother left Carlinville for two homesteads in southern Kern County, California. Awaiting them in Monrovia, California was Mary's older brother, James Hunter, who had preceded them and made the initial plans for filing and occupying the homesteads - his own and his mother's. One Hundred Miles on Horseback represents the last portion of the trip that began in the Mississippi Valley and ended in the deserts of California.
Price: $100.00