Frank Forester's Fugitive Sporting Sketches; Being the Miscellaneous Articles upon Sport and Sporting, Originally Published in the Early American Magazines and Periodicals
Westfield, Wisconsin: (no publisher given), 1879. First edition. Hardcover. 147 pages plus viii pp. ads. Hardcover in very good condition, bound in textured, beveled and blind-ruled brown cloth worn smooth in spots, and slightly faded on the unlettered spine. Previous owner's inkstamp and paper label are on the front pastedown, but otherwise it is an impressively fresh, sound copy. Gilt lettering on front board is bright, binding is sturdy, and contents are as clean as new. Item #835
Herbert, born to an upper-class family in England in 1807, came to the United States in 1830 or 1831, reportedly to escape debts. After teaching to earn money, he established himself as a successful writer of historical novels, then switched topics and wrote, under the name Frank Forester, about outdoor activities he had participated in as a boy. Later he also wrote, edited and translated books on historical subjects. However, after a series of misfortunes, in 1858 he shot himself and died. Pond, born in Wisconsin in 1856, was an early proponent of fish and game protection who went on to write for and edit several publications, including Wildwood's Magazine and also Herbert's book Sporting Scenes and Characters (Philadelphia, 1880). In this book a twelve-page biographical piece by the editor precedes ten articles by Herbert, on woodcock, quail, deer, trout, fox, snipe and other related topics. Eight pages of advertisements, three of them illustrated, for guns, sporting publications, cigarettes and the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Van Winkle and Randall's 1936 Herbert bibliography lists four variant bindings, in gray wrappers, brown-red cloth, black cloth, and a special edition usually bound in half green morocco, all "probably issued simultaneously."
Price: $175.00