The Collected Library

8vo (239 x 146 mm). (Spotting throughout.) ORIGINAL HOLLAND-BACKED BOARDS, printed paper label on spine, uncut (rubbing, some minor soiling); slipcase and chemise. Provenance: John W. Low (bookplate); John Talbot Gernon (morocco book label).

FIRST EDITION. At the age of nine John Tanner was kidnapped by two Odawa men and carried into the Northwest Territory following a series of land disputes with Tanner's father and other settlers in what is now northern Kentucky. Over the ensuing years Tanner would become fully integrated into Indigenous society. It was while working as an interpreter at a U.S. Army outpost on Mackinac Island that Tanner first met Edwin James, who transcribed Tanner's story. The narrative was a great success, as it captured the lives of Indigenous peoples in the Midwest during times of increased settler displacement and conflict. During a ferry ride from Detroit in July 1831 Tanner encountered French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, where he gifted him with a copy of his book. This meeting would greatly influence de Tocqueville's understanding of Indigenous societies in North America; a passage from Tanner's book was quoted in de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. Howes J42; Sabin 35684; Streeter 3701; Wagner-Camp 40:1.