8vo. Photographic frontispiece and 2 plates. Original printed wrappers (restoration to spine and cover extremes); folding case.

FIRST EDITION of this keystone paper in which Turner "put forward the theory that the uninterrupted search for 'free land' and its corollary, the constantly moving 'frontier,' 'with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character.' The trader, the rancher, the farmer, the missionary, the soldier, they all contributed to 'this perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life'; the necessity of setting up, again and again, new forms of administrative, judicial and governmental institutions made the 'frontier' a sort of political laboratory of democracy" (PMM 379). Turner's thesis is perhaps "the most influential work of American historiography, and moved Turner into the first rank of American commentators. Its immediate effect was to focus attention on the closing of the frontier in the United States and the end of the frontier West" (Reese). Graff 4209; Grolier American 96; Howes T422; Reese, Best of the West pp.249-250; Streeter sale 4288.