Across the Continent - Bowles, Samuel

• Title : Across the Continent; A Summer's Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States, with Speaker Colfax

•Author: Bowles, Samuel

•Edition: First edition

•Publisher: Springfield, Mass.: Samuel Bowles & Company, New York: Hurd & Houghton

•Date1865

•Format: Octavo (8vo)

•Binding: publisher's original brown cloth with author and title stamped in gilt on spine

•Pagination: [2], xx,438 pp.,1-6 pp.(Two pages of “adverts” a description of the book followed by a map frontispiece followed by title page, introductory letter and contents the main text block followed by six pages of adverts for other books from the publishers

•Condition: Slight bumping and abrading of corners small cut  in cloth at the lower rear joint, not effecting the structure of the book. Map is in excellent condition with good color.

•

•Description: This work documents journalist Samuel Bowles’ journey across the United States in the summer of 1865, traveling with Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and future Vice President. The book blends journalistic reportage, social commentary, and travel writing, covering:

•The Rocky Mountains

•The Utah Territory and Mormon society

•California and the Pacific Coast states

•Observations on Reconstruction-era America, Native peoples, western expansion, and the early post–Civil War landscape

Bowles was the editor of the Springfield Republican and brought a reformist, Eastern liberal perspective to the frontier.