Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the West
Philadelphia: Harrison Hall, 1845.
First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Two volumes, 12mo, pp 282, 276, with plan of the Fort at Boonesboro as frontispiece to Vol. I. Rebacked, with new cloth spines and paper labels, original embossed cloth boards. Light foxing; near fine. As he explained in the Preface, Hall believed the time for full narrative history of the West had not yet come, as reliable source material was scarce. Instead he offered collection of sketches based on his own observations and "intended as examples and illustrations of topics connected with the western states." The work includes "a rather detailed account of the first trans-Allegheny explorations, with ample treatment of the early French settlements and the infiltration of the Scotch-Irish Pioneers into Kentucky and Ohio...the character and habits of the pioneers, early education and literature in the Ohio Valley, felons and desperadoes, and the exploits of George Rogers Clark" (Flanagan). Field (636) notes that "narratives of frontier warfare with the Indians, and incidents of Indian life, fill almost all the pages of these interesting volumes." A chapter on "Indian hating" provided much of the source material for Herman Melville's treatment of that subject in The Confidence Man. Sabin 29794; Howes H-78.
Item #14904
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