Harris, A. C. Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields containing A Full Account of the Discovery of Gold; Enormous Deposits of the Precious Metal; Routes Traversed by Miners; How to Find Gold; Camp Life at Klondike; Practical Instructions for Fortune Seekers, Etc., Etc. Including a Graphic Description of the Gold Regions; Land of Wonders; Immense Mountains, Rivers and Plains; Native Inhabitants, etc. Chicago & Philadelphia: Imperial Publishing Co., (1897). Expanded edition (same year as first). [8799]
Pictorial ochre cloth, front cover stamped in black & gold with blue, red, & silver tinting, pictorial spine in gilt, black, & blue, some fading/rubbing to the colors. Light edge-wear & soil to binding, marbled page edges, decorative end papers, front paste-down with remnants of a removed bookplate. 20.25 cm (8 x 6 1/4 inches); map is 13 x 21 inches, complete with short tear at center fold. The map is tipped to the back of the frontispiece and the weight of it had pulled the leaf somewhat; we repaired the frontis hinge with a little pH neutral archival paste. Frontis with b/w illustration on both sides. 556 clean pp. The large folding Alaska map has routes marked with a dotted red line; smaller b/w folding "Official Map of the Klondike and Yukon Region before p. 17; "Map of Alaska and its Gold Fields" within the text on p. 20. Frontispiece plus 12 b/w photographs with images on recto and verso printed on coated paper; with an additional 234 wood-engravings. Good. Hardcover.
With a color stereo-optic card laid in, "Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks, Where Millions Were Taken Out, Klondyke, Alaska."
Title continues: Including Mrs. Eli Gage's Experiences of a Year among the Yukon Mining Camps; Mrs. Schwatka's Recollections of her husband as the Alaskan Pathfinder; Prosaic Side of Gold Hunting, as seen by Joaquin Miller, the Poet of the Sierras. Embellished with many Engravings representing Mining and other Scenes in Alaska.
No. 236h in Kurutz, The Klondike & Alaska Gold Rushes: A Descriptive Bibliography...&c. "Traveler A. C. Harris produced one of the earliest and most detailed accounts of the gold stampede. Although not a miner himself, he loaded his narrative with dozens of quotations from men and women in the Klondike whose opinions and experiences no doubt influenced thousands of would-be fortune hunters...Harris covered every major aspect of the Klondike, including routes, mining methods, miners' laws, outfits, transportation, weather, health, saloons, dance halls, and indigenous peoples...The engravings feature iconic scenes...The large folding map delineates routes to the gold fields by land and sea, including the 'Back Door Route' via the Mackenzie River in the Yukon Territory."
This is the expanded edition that was issued later in the same year as the first, with the additional chapter "Advent of Winter." In this copy it is included in the table of contents. "To capitalize on gold fever, this new edition was issued by a number of different publishers that same year, each with its own specific title page." - ibid.
