Charlevoix, Pierre François-Xavier:

$4,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO NORTH-AMERICA...CONTAINING THE GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THAT COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY CANADA. TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CUSTOMS, CHARACTERS, RELIGION, ... The George Brinley-Brayton Ives copy, with their bookplates from their sales in 1879 and 1891. Brinley was one of the greatest American book collectors of all time, and he amassed an astounding collection of books from dealers, at auction, and by travelling throughout New England and "scouting" for himself. His library was sold at a series of sales between 1879 and 1893. Brayton Ives, a graduate of Yale, was commissioned a brigadier general during the Civil War and was subsequently very active on Wall Street, where he was elected president of the New York Stock Exchange in 1877. Ives himself built a significant collection of Americana, and was an active participant at the Brinley sales, where he bought this copy, in 1878, for $1.75. It sold at the 1891 sale of Ives' books for $6.Charlevoix was sent to Canada by the Jesuits at the age of twenty-three. After four years of missionary work, he returned to France, whereupon he accepted the commission for this trip from the regent of France. During 1720-22 he travelled in the Great Lakes region and down the Mississippi. Although his trip was publicly stated to be for the purpose of inspecting interior posts and settlements, he was actually under orders to seek out information relating to the existence of a passage to the Pacific vi

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