"ENTIRELY NEW AND QUITE WONDERFUL": EARLY FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION, 1822 FIRST EDITION, WITH FIVE CHARMING WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS

(LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION) [PHILLIPS, George]. Travels in North America. Dublin: Christopher Bentham, 1822. 12mo, contemporary full green straight-grain morocco gilt, marbled endpapers. $2600.

First edition of this apocryphal account of Irishman George Phillips' travels with the Lewis and Clark expedition, with five woodcut illustrations. An excellent copy in contemporary morocco-gilt.

Several apocryphal accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition were published during the early 19th century, but this particular narrative "was in a class of its own for the license it took in fabricating a travel tale around a core of factual data… Entirely new and quite wonderful" (Beckham, Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2003). "Phillips claims to have been engaged for the journey by Capt. Lewis. He gives a circumstantial narrative of the expedition's outward trek and of the return journey to as far as Fort Mandan, where he left the party and proceeded eastward via Chippeway and Lake Ontario to Montreal" (Eberstadt). "Imaginary experiences of an imaginary Irishman with the Lewis and Clark expedition" (Howes). Phillips' Travels is among the least common Lewis and Clark-related editions. The charming woodcut illustrations depict a mining operation, a native hut interior, Niagara Falls, icebergs, and an Esquimaux encounter—all but the frontispiece with duplicates bound in. Sabin 62456. Wagner-Camp 21c:1. Howes P305. Eberstadt 112:455. "Education Society" lettered in gilt on front cover; "102" lettered in gilt on spine.

Text clean, expert repair to joints. An excellent, attractive copy of this scarce and intriguing work.