Books and Manuscripts

[Americana] Haswell, Anthony
Memoirs and Adventures of Captain Matthew Phelps...Particularly in two Voyages, From Connecticut to the River Mississippi, From December 1773 to October 1780...
Bennington, Vermont: From the press of Anthony Haswell, 1802. First edition. 12mo. iv. 210, 63, (i) (errata), ii, xii pp. (subscribers list). Contemporary brown sheep, rebacked, spine tooled in gilt, red morocco label, tips worn; edges untrimmed; endpapers renewed; scattered stains and foxing throughout text; closed tears in fore-edge of some leaves; small chip in bottom corner of pp. 79/80, affecting some text; horizontal tears to pp. 29/30, 79/80, 81/82; other scattered wear along edges. Clark 287; Graff 1816; Howes H-300; Sabin 30829; Streeter 1528

Scarce first edition of the exploits of Captain Matthew Phelps, a Connecticut sailor who, along with his family, were part of an early expedition up the Yazoo River, from 1773-80. The land they traversed would later become the Mississippi Territory, when it was ceded to the United States by Britain at the end of the Revolutionary War. While the trip ended tragically for Phelps, as he was the only member of his family to return alive, the account provides a first-hand look at frontier conditions in the American South during the Revolution. 

“…the Memoirs is one of the most fascinating and harrowing narratives of the early nineteenth century.” (Graff)