Polly's Lion, A California Story for Children
San Francisco: Published by the Author, 1894.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo, 174 pp, with 5 plates from photographs, 2 full-page wood engravings, 1 chromolithograph plate, and additional illustrations in the text. Original white pictorial cloth, with image of California poppies in gilt, green, and orange. Early ownership signature (Robert John Tupper) on front flyleaf. Light soiling to rear board, corners bumped, color plate chipped at the fore edge, but on the whole an exceptionally clean and sound copy of this scarce early California children's book. Incidents in the life of a young girl and her family, who live in the San Joaquin Valley and spend summers at a cottage in Yosemite near the Sylvan Hotel (clearly modeled on Wawona). Life is generally good for Polly, who makes doughnuts, picks wildflowers, has a birthday party, and gets lovely presents her parents have bought in San Francisco. But one night in Yosemite, she becomes lost while fetching water from the spring and is forced to take shelter in an abandoned cabin. The lion of the title is a mountain lion that comes to the door and threatens to attack her, before being shot (and later stuffed) by a handsome young friend of the family.
Item #14080
Sold