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George W. Bonnell. Topographical Description of Texas....
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Description
The Earliest Texan Book on Texas: "the first book or pamphlet published in Texas giving an account of the country"--Streeter
George W. Bonnell. Topographical Description of
Texas. To Which is Added, an Account of the Indian
Tribes. Austin: Published by Clark, Wing, and Brown, 1840.FIRST EDITION, second issue. 8vo in 4s. viii, [7]-127, [1 blank], [130]-150 pages. Original printed beige boards. Housed in a modern quarter morocco clamshell case.
Very Rare First Edition of the Earliest Texan Book on Texas: "the first book or pamphlet published in Texas giving an account of the country" (Streeter).
"Bonnell played an important part for a few years in Texas as an officer in the Texas army, a Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a printer and publisher, and an author" (Streeter). He traveled to Texas in 1836 with a company of Mississippi volunteers recruited for the Texas War of Independence. He served as Sam Houston's Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and was appointed a government printer in 1839, starting the first Austin Texas Sentinel. He was killed in 1842 on the Mier expedition, the most disastrous of the expeditions from Texas into Mexico during the days of the Republic.
The present copy is the second issue, dated the same year as the first but, according to Streeter, probably published early in 1842, as the back cover advertises an edition of the "President's Messages . . . from Washington's to Tyler's Last Message, December, 1841." The pagination and text are the same in both issues, but the preliminaries have been reset with slight changes in the title-page, and there are many changes in the first signature.
In his preface Bonnell writes: "I have endeavored to present the country to the reader precisely as it is at the present time. But I am aware that our rapidly increasing population produces important changes at the end of nearly every month; and a section of country that is wild and uninhabited may, at the end of two or three months, be filled with a dense population." The book was favorably received by the Texas press at publication. Very rare: only two other copies (one of each issue) have appeared in online auction records in at least the past fifty years, neither in original boards.
Condition: Boards slightly rubbed at joints and edges, minor wear to extremities, some pale dampstains to covers, endpapers slightly browned or spotted. Some light even browning to some leaves of text, a few occasional spots or ink splatters. Overall a fine copy, extremely rare in original boards.
References: Field 148; Fifty Texas Rarities 21 ("The author of this guide book was one of the early settlers in Texas. That he loved his country is obvious in each of his descriptive lines"); Howes B-600; Raines, p. 27; Sabin 6317; Streeter 380A; Vandale 17.
Auction Info
2023 December 2 The Ted Lusher Texas History Collection, Part One Signature® Auction #6281 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2023
2nd
Saturday
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