The Zamorano 80 Revisited: A Collector's Update of a Classic Work

By Gordon J. Van De Water

The vademecum to the legendary Zamorano 80goal of many bibliophiles
of the Golden State. A great reference and a sirens call to the world of
bibliomania.

W. Michael Mathes, Professor Emeritus, University of San
Francisco, Holder of the Orden Mexicana del guila Azteca,
author of numerous books in Spanish and English.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781462818686

Gordon J. Van De Water

Gordon J. Van De Water has long collected books dealing with California and the West, including many first editions of the eighty titles known as The Zamorano 80, which were selected in 1945 by the Zamorano Club of Los Angeles. These titles, dating from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries, are distinguished works of exploration and travel, history, politics, fiction, and poetry that are cornerstone volumes for any significant library of Californiana. Van De Water is a member of several book clubs and a Reader at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Currently he is serving on a Zamorano Club committee preparing a new list of significant California titles dating from 1870 to the later 20th century. His A Stroll by My Western Bookshelves: A Selection of Books from the Collection of Gordon J. Van De Water was published in 2009.

Book preview

THE ZAMORANO

80 REVISITED

A Collector’s Update of a

Classic Work

by

Gordon J. Van De Water

Featherwood Press

Diamond Bar, California

2010

Copyright © 2010 by Gordon J. Van De Water.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

62232

DEDICATION

To my Father

William Russell Van De Water

(1913-2001)

Soldier, Adventurer, Gentleman Farmer,

Curmudgeon, Critical Thinker

And Friend

&

To my Mother

Muriel Alice Van De Water

(1914-1993)

Comforting, Loving

And

With the patience of Job

A Note to the Reader

Excerpts

The following pages include excerpts from each of the eighty Zamorano titles. These have been reproduced, to the degree possible, as they were printed. This accounts for what the exacting reader will notice—misspellings, grammatical errors, lack of capitalization, and in many cases over-punctuation as judged by current standards. To have corrected these would have been pedantic and, more importantly, would have lost some of the particular flavor of the 18th and 19th century prose.

Public Access

The Beinecke Library at Yale is the only location where all eighty titles may be found as first editions. The Huntington Library in San Marino has 79 of the 80. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles has a huge collection of Zamorano 80 titles. Although these libraries are available to scholars with approved credentials, they are not open to the general public.

For many readers an easy, stay-at-home way of accessing excerpts or even complete reproductions of the Zamorano 80 would be through the Internet.

For readers who would like to experience the Zamorano 80 books that are not of extreme rarity in their actual physical formats the following libraries open to the public should be explored:

Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

New York City Public Library

California State Library, Sacramento

Los Angeles Public Library

Pasadena Public Library

and

Libraries at all California State Universities

Acknowledgments

While compiling the information contained in this book, I learned that there were many people able, and most importantly, willing to assist to make the end result a finer production than it would have been otherwise. I would like to thank them all for their ideas and suggestions, and for the many hours that some have expended on my behalf.

Without a doubt, there are two persons to head this list, the first being my wife Marianne, who provided computer assistance as well as moral support during the time she was a writer-widow. Another and most valuable form of assistance came from a life-long friend, William N. Rogers II,

Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University. Bill was engaged with the writing of this work from the beginnings, and spent many long hours making numerous amendments, suggestions, and corrections as the work progressed.

For sharing their bibliographic knowledge, bookish anecdotes and information that might otherwise have been unknown to me. I am much indebted to James E. Lorson and Charles A. Goldsmid, learned and genial booksellers, and members of the Los Angeles Zamorano Club. With Jim Lorson’s death on November 3, 2008, the bookselling community, especially in Southern California, suffered a major loss. My thanks also to Thomas F. Andrews, former Executive Director of The Historical Society of Southern California and a Zamorano Club member, for his thoughts and encouragement as material for this work was being assembled. Another who has given generously of his time and expertise is Stuart Robinson, M.D., author and fellow Zamorano Club member, who with his eye for detail and knowledge of Californiana, allowed me to separate the wheat from the chaff. An important academic who kept me on my toes regarding those books dealing with the early Spanish explorers and missionaries is Dr. W. Michael Mathes who lives in Texas, and so is a non-resident Zamorano member.

Special recognition goes to Donald Pouliot, gentleman farmer in Ontario, Canada, a friend of many years and proofreader extraordinaire.

Someone who deserves a most gracious thank you is bookseller Dorothy Sloan of Austin, Texas. Dorothy, also a member of the Zamorano Club, has been uncommonly generous in sharing her knowledge relating to the titles from the Zamorano 80. It has been a pleasure interacting with this dynamic lady. She was responsible for the publication of A Complete Collection of The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club. This fine book, which displays the collection formed by Daniel G. Volkmann Jr., is filled with illustrations (including the title page of each volume) and has a complete bibliographic description of each title and informative scholarly essays by Gary Kurutz and W. Michael Mathes.

For their assistance and expertise with the illustrations, I want to thank both Jen and Brad Johnson, proprietors of The Book Shop, LLC, located on Citrus Avenue in Covina, California, a shop brimming with fine used and rare volumes.

For their assistance, I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

I also want to acknowledge with a special note my admiration for Robert E. Cowan’s pioneering work, A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West 1510-1906, published in 1914 by the Book Club of California. Many of his discerning descriptions have become integral parts of this volume.

My special appreciation goes to all those, mentioned or not, who offered the essential encouragement, support, and expertise that brought this work into being. Should any errors be found they are strictly my own. Making a book such as this—one in which many friends and colleagues have played important parts—has been both pleasurable and deeply gratifying.

Gordon J. Van De Water

Diamond Bar, California

April 2010

Illustrations

All illustrations are from the collection of Gordon J. Van De Water. For examples of all first edition title pages, see The Zamorano 80, published by Dorothy Sloan Rare Books, Austin, Texas, 2003.

Frontispiece. Drawing (now destroyed) of Agustin Zamorano. Only known self-portrait prepared as a gift for his wife.

Browne, J. Ross, (Zamorano 11) Relacion de los Debates . . . Title page of Spanish language edition. New York, 1851… . Page 62

Clemens, Samuel [Mark Twain], (Zamorano 17) The Celebrated Jumping Frog . . . Title page of first edition. New York, 1867… . Page 88

Costansó, Miguel, (Zamorano 22) Diario Histórico . . . Title page of Edicion Chimalistac, Mexico, 1950… . Page 108

Farnham, Thomas J., (Zamorano 36) Travels in the Californias . . . Title page of first edition. New York, 1844… . Page 173

Farnham, Thomas J., (Zamorano 36) Illustration of a California Indian from the 1844 edition… . Page 176

Figueroa, Jose, (Zamorano 37) Governor Figueroa’s Manifesto . . . Cover of first edition in English. San Francisco, 1855… . Page 179

Harte, Bret, (Zamorano 40) The Luck of Roaring Camp . . . Title page of first Canadian edition. Toronto, 1871… . Page 192

Ide, William B., (Zamorano 45) A Biographical Sketch of William B. Ide . . . Title page of first edition. [Claremont, N. H., 1880] . . . Page 217

La Perouse, Jean-Françoise, (Zamorano 49) A Voyage round the World . . . Title page of first American edition. Boston, 1801… . Page 242

Paloú, Francisco, (Zamorano 59) Relación Histórica . . . Title page of first edition. Mexico, 1787… . Page 294

Robinson, Alfred, (Zamorano 65) Life in California . . . Title page of first edition. New York, 1846… . Page 325

Vancouver, George, (Zamorano 77) A Voyage of Discovery . . . Title page of first edition. London, 1798… . Page 386

Venegas, Miguèl, (Zamorano 78) Noticia de la California . . . Title page of first edition. Madrid, 1757… . Page 392

Preface

I have been surrounded and influenced by books during most of my life on this big blue marble. I enjoy them both for what is inside the covers and for the bindings themselves. When contents match the binding it is a feast for mind and eyes. I found the reading and collecting of travel and history books to be exciting and rewarding.

I have forgotten how initially I came to collect books of Western Americana. It may have been the result of reading early in my life books such as Cowboy Life on the Plains: The Reminiscences of a Ranchman by Edgar Beecher Bronson, a copy of which, when young and impressionable, I bought in a thrift shop for 5¢. Many years later I was able to purchase an inscribed first edition of this work that describes the work-a-day life and adventures of Bronson and includes many illustrations by Maynard Dixon. Perhaps it was the reading of Crazy Weather by Charles L. McNichols, first read as a young teen-ager, and later as an adult, when I realized that this is one of those little known books deserving of critical acclaim. This novel, published in 1944, offers a story filled with the symbolism and superstition of Indian culture and yet the realistic adventures of a white boy and his Mojave Indian friend as they crisscross the Fort Mojave Reservation during four tense days of maddening heat. Or perhaps it was the reading, early in my life, of The Expedition of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis. Here is an enduring classic that can be appreciated and enjoyed by any red-blooded boy thirsting for adventure.

It matters not, I suppose, how I began since I was hooked on books of this type. One day I started to read Lawrence Clark Powell’s 1974 Southwest Classics. When I looked at the contents I realized that I possessed and had read almost all the titles he mentioned. I then turned to Powell’s earlier 1971 publication California Classics to see that I owned most of the thirty-one titles he listed, and that fifteen of those titles were selected from a listing, unknown to me at the time, called The Zamorano 80.

The Zamorano 80: All the books on this listing deal in some way with California history and geography, and are considered to be cornerstone books of that genre. Most books listed are non-fiction. Being what could be called a completist, I knew that I would have to gather all the books listed. I also read another book that confirmed my desire to collect these important California titles. That 1931 book by Phil Townsend Hanna is Libros Californianos, or, Five Feet of California Books. Hanna’s book, later expanded by Lawrence Clark Powell (1958), contains various listings by recognized bibliophiles of books that have a connection to California. Many of the titles listed would eventually be found on The Zamorano 80 list.

And so the chase began. I did have some of the titles on my shelves before starting the hunt in earnest, such as Richard Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast, Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, and McTeague by Frank Norris, but none a first edition.

It did not take long to realize, when I looked over the Internet, that to collect all the titles as first editions would be improbable. The first consideration was scarcity. A few of the titles are very scarce in the original edition; indeed, John Rollin Ridge’s book The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta is known in only two copies, one of those being at Yale’s Beineke Library. Other titles, such as Zenas Leonard’s Narrative of the Adventures . . . and The Emigrant’s Guide, to Oregon and California . . . by Lansford W. Hastings, are known to exist in less than ten copies.

The second consideration, almost as important as scarcity, was the dollar value of first editions. In 1945, Homer Crotty wrote in the foreword to The Zamorano 80, . . . Our emphasis has been on distinguished books, not on books of great rarity. No doubt, some of the books listed are of great rarity, but nearly all of them are within the means of the average collector. That was 1945. However, being on this list of important books (and lists create collectors) started the value of these titles on an upward spiral. As the reader can review on the following pages, prices for most titles have dramatically increased during the past sixty five years.

I suspect that the initial Zamorano 80 first edition to be added to my library was The Splendid Idle Forties by Gertrude Atherton. There are now four copies on my shelves, one almost as fresh as the day it came from the printer, and another signed by Atherton. Joaquin Miller’s Unwritten History: Life Amongst the Modocs, the first American edition, published in 1874 was another early acquisition. It was not until after two years that I was able to procure the first English edition of 1873 with the slightly different title of Life Amongst the Modocs: Unwritten History. The latter edition is now quite scarce; only one copy has been available on the Internet over the past two years. A copy sold for $1495 at the Volkmann Auction in February 2003, some $1095 over the high estimate.

I have been able, at the date of this writing, to accumulate sixty-five first edition Zamorano 80 titles. I continue the hunt, though the point has been reached where dollar values combined with scarcity are starting to exceed my pocketbook. Additions to the collection, I fear, will now be fewer, with much time between acquisitions.

I am pleased, though, with the volumes that are on my shelves. There is a signed copy with dust jacket of Austin’s The Land of Little Rain, as well as the copy from the collection of Henry Clifford that includes two laid-in photographs by Charles Lummis. Also, the complete 39 volume set of Bancroft’s Works. Then there is John H. Brown’s Reminiscences and Incidents of The Early Days of San Francisco, the first edition being quite scarce, and first issues of Samuel Clemens’ The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Roughing It. Also, a first edition, with map, of Palou’s Relación histórica de la vida . . . Junípero Serra.

A signed 1914 edition of the very scarce A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West 1510-1906 by Robert Cowan is also on my shelves, as are three first editions of Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast. I have a signed copy of The Colonial History of the City of San Francisco by J. W. Dwinelle, and the quite rare Reports of the Land Cases by Ogden Hoffman. There is an edition of Edward McGowan’s Narrative in the original printed wrappers. I also have José Figueroa’s The Manifesto, the first edition in English in the original wrappers.

Although I do not have the 1831 first edition of James O. Pattie’s The Personal Narrative, I do have the second edition, also printed in 1831, and identical to the first, except for the title page which was printed in 1833. My copy of Alfred Robinson’s Life in California was once a part of the libraries of two famous collectors, Thomas Streeter and Henry Clifford. I also have A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War by Daniel Tyler, the book signed by Richard W. Young, a grandson of Brigham Young.

A particular favorite of mine is McTeague by Frank Norris. Though I have an attractive copy of the first edition, first issue, I am partial to the second printing that was once owned and signed by California author Charles Warren Stoddard, and includes an inscription signed and dated June 6th, 1900, by Frank Norris.

So there is my story in a nutshell. Collecting is a compelling process, but as important as the gathering of books, is the reading of such books which allows a reader to travel to places unfamiliar and to times unattainable otherwise. Do it—you will never regret taking the plunge!

Introduction

The Zamorano Club was formed in 1928 by a small and select group of Los Angeles area bibliophiles. These were men intensely interested in books and fine printing. The club was named after Agustin Vicente Zamorano (1798-1842), a Mexican army officer who in 1834 took delivery of the first printing press in Alta California. He printed the first book in California in 1835, later to become a Zamorano 80 selection, the Manifiesto á la republica Mejicana . . . by Jose Figueroa.

In May 1945 a book was published by the Club: THE ZAMORANO 80, A SELECTION OF DISTINGUISHED CALIFORNIA BOOKS MADE BY MEMBERS OF THE ZAMORANO CLUB.

The Zamorano 80 is a selection of books essential for an historic appreciation of California. The selection came about when six members, with advice from a seventh and eighth, came together to make a listing of those books important to the understanding of the history and culture of California from the beginnings to the early twentieth century. It was hoped that agreement could be reached on a listing of 100 books, but after much discussion and argument, often with good food and liberal libations, only 80 titles could be agreed upon with unanimity. Thus came about the final listing of the Zamorano 80. Homer D. Crotty, then president of the Zamorano Club, wrote in the foreword, ". . . We do not make any claim that our selection includes the eighty most important books in the field of Californiana. After all, importance is a relative matter. To a collector of Stevenson, Silverado Squatters is of the greatest importance. To another collector, Vancouver’s Voyage might be the desired item. We have kept in mind in our selection those books which we believe should be cornerstones of any real collection of Californiana. Much that passes for Californiana is simply trash and a few books, especially some printed in the last ten years, can be described as meretricious.

In the choice of our eighty titles we are convinced that each one is distinguished in the field of Californiana. Collectors, being what they are, may miss personal favorites unmentioned in our selection, but we stand by our list of eighty…"

In the original edition the eighty titles are listed, with bibliographic information, and concise descriptions written by the men who made the original selections. It is an excellent and irreplaceable little volume.

The rationale for the present volume is to update and augment the original writings. It includes the following:

• Publishing information for first editions, including bibliographic references.

• Market prices of first editions for the sixty-one year period from 1948 to 2009.

• Publishing information for other editions, most of which are currently available at book shops or over the Internet.

• A brief biography of the writers of the books.

• Brief excerpts from each of the eighty titles to give the flavor of the original work. The excerpts reflect the thoughts and style of the author or present the character of the times. Taken as a whole they represent a cultural/social glance of California from approximately 1750 to the early twentieth century.

MARKET PRICES

The retail prices quoted represent ten different years and give the United States dollar value for first editions unless otherwise noted. From catalogue descriptions it has proven difficult to determine the actual overall state of many of the books, such as condition of paper, color of binding, or whether a book is a first edition, first issue, or first edition, later issue.

The prices presented here are intended to give the reader a suggestion of how values have changed over a sixty-one year period. As might be expected there has been a continual upward valuation from 1948 to 2009, with very few books being priced at a lesser amount at a later date.

Four of the price sources come from book catalogues of the day [1948, 1954, 1979 and 1981], and three from important auctions [1968, 1994, and 2003]. The remaining sources give retail prices as shown on the Internet [2002, 2004, and 2009].

RETAIL CATALOGUES—1948, 1954, 1979 and 1981.

• A Descriptive and Priced Catalogue of Books, Pamphlets, and Maps relating directly or indirectly to the history, literature, and printing of California and the Far West. Formerly the collection of Thomas Wayne Norris, Livermore, Calif. The Holmes Book Company, Oakland, California [1948]

• Southwest Books. A priced and indexed book catalogue, compiled by Glen Dawson including a check list of the Zamorano 80 [pages 74 to 84]. Dawson’s Book Shop, 550 So. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, California [1954]

• The Library of Jennie Crocker Henderson.

John Howell—Books

434 Post Street, San Francisco, California 94102 [1979]

[Catalogue 50, Parts 1, 2, & 3]

Part 1 California Spanish Exploration to American Statehood

Part 2 California 1850—to the Twentieth Century A to L

Part 3 California 1850—to the Twentieth Century M to Z

• A FULL HOWES A Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets Listed in the Wright Howes U.S.iana Catalogue 137. The Jenkins Company, Austin, Texas [1981]

AUCTION CATALOGUES—1968, 1994 and 2003

• The Thomas Winthrop Streeter Collection of Americana [1968]

The Streeter auction took place at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York over a period of four years from 1966 to 1969 with four to six auctions each year. There were 4421 lots, and a total of $3,104,982 was realized. The vast majority of the Zamorano 80 items were sold during 1968. Exceptions to this will be indicated by earlier or later dates.

• The Henry H. Clifford Collection—[1994]

The Clifford auction for Zamorano 80 items and other Californiana took place at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, on October 24, 1994. The auction was conducted by Dorothy Sloan—Rare Books, Inc., of Austin, Texas. A total of $603,106.00 (including buyer’s premium of 15%) was realized for the Zamorano 80 items.

• The Daniel G. Volkmann, Jr., Collection—[2003]

The Volkmann auction for Zamorano 80 items took place at The Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco, on February 5, 2003. The auction was conducted by Dorothy Sloan—Rare Books, Inc., of Austin, Texas. A total of $883,609.00 (including buyer’s premium of 15%) was realized.

INTERNET PRICES—2002, 2004, and 2009

While the catalogue and final auction dollar amounts were fixed, prices on the Internet posed a problem. For first edition titles of the Zamorano 80, there might be none available and that information is so noted in this volume. If only one copy was available, then the choice was obvious. However, when two or more first editions were available with varying prices then a decision had to be made. Often, because of the increasing scarcity of first editions of Zamorano 80 titles there were three, four or more copies described in varying condition but offered at approximately the same price. An additional factor affecting pricing concerns the storefront bookseller since some have higher overhead, including rent, expertise, and staffing. The result is often a higher retail price than that of the bookseller selling from a personal residence or one selling a personal collection. The compiler has chosen to select, based on the bookseller’s description, that copy which appeared to be in the best condition. This usually results in the highest retail price and is the amount shown in this volume.

The Internet sites visited include:

• ABEBOOKS.COM

• BOOKFINDER.COM

• ILAB-LILA.COM

• AMAZON.COM

APPENDIXES

Appendixes #1 through #17 list additional prices for Zamorano 80 books. These sources are not less important than those listed in the main body of this work, but rather are supplementary. For instance the Thomas/Paullin auctions of 1929, the American Book Mart Want Lists of 1936 and 1938, the Dawson’s catalogue of 1941-43, and the Soliday catalogues of 1940-45, offer books for sale before the 1945 publication of the Zamorano 80. For the same reason, the Eberstadt catalogues of 1935-56 are not included in the main body of this work, even though some of the catalogues were issued after the Zamorano 80 was published. The Holliday Library auction of 1954 took place during the same year that Dawson’s Southwest Books catalogue was issued. The Dawson catalogue has been selected for the main body of this work since the dollars asked represent what collectors might generally pay at a West Coast antiquarian bookshop.

Two catalogues from 1958 and 1959 illustrate the prices offered for many Zamorano 80 titles at auctions at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York. The Dawson catalogue of 1962, the Howell auction of 1985, the Estelle Doheny auction of 1987 to 1989, and the PBA auction of May 2003 are given to provide price information, even though they offered relatively few items relating to the Zamorano 80. Retail pricing from various catalogues (1990-2002) of the William Reese Company is the subject matter of Appendix 12. The Roger K. Larson auction of 1995-96, which followed closely upon the Clifford auction of 1994, is in Appendix 13. Appendix 14 gives the PBA auction results from 2003. Appendix 15 gives prices from selected American and English auctions mainly during the last decade of the 20th century. Appendixes 16 and 17 offer purchase dates and prices paid, from private libraries of two collectors in Southern California.

A Presentation to the Zamorano Club

at the

University Club, Pasadena

by

Gordon J. Van De Water

November 6, 2002

THE ZAMORANO 80 REVISITED

Thank you for permitting me to speak about my interest in collecting the books listed in The Zamorano 80. Much of what I’ll say may be familiar to those of you who have been collecting this material for many years, so I ask your indulgence as I ramble on. But I expect there are some here who will find of interest the story of the Zamorano 80 and what being on that list has meant for the value of those books—and the headaches and bank account aches that any collector faces today.

By way of introduction I will give a brief description of how The Zamorano 80 came to be, followed by a description of a few of these sought-after volumes from my personal collection. I will then relate market value from 1948 through 2002 for some choice titles, and conclude, time permitting, by reading a couple or three short and revealing excerpts from Zamorano 80 titles that bring before us a sense of what Old California was like.

HOW IT CAME TO BE

How the Zamorano 80 came to be has been written about many times starting with the introduction to The Zamorano 80, printed by the club in 1945. These precious books were considered by those who selected them to be the cornerstones of any real collection of Californiana. Tyrus Harmsen, in his 1961 essay The Zamorano Club, succinctly describes how some of the decisions were made:

Seven members, working independently, prepared lists, but could not reach complete agreement. After several dinner meetings it was found that ‘by elimination of those books which had been published within the last quarter century (excepting the Anza Diaries), the objectionable items would be taken care of.’ The residue was a list of eighty distinguished books. Each entry is annotated by one of the men who put forth its claim to distinction. Annotators were Leslie Bliss, Homer Crotty, Phil Townsend Hanna, J. Gregg Layne, Henry R. Wagner and Robert J. Woods.

Bruce McCallister, the unofficial printer to the Club in its early days, printed 500 copies of The Zamorano 80. Like the books on the list, this too has increased in value. In the early 1950’s it sold for $20.00. In 2002 a copy fetches around $250.00.

When he joined the Zamorano Club, Henry Clifford set his sights on collecting all eighty titles in first edition format. It took him thirty-five years and a good deal of loose change, but he was able to accomplish this feat. The final additions that completed his collection in 1988 were Carrillo’s Exposicion and Costanso’s Diario, purchased from the Estelle Doheny collection at auction for a total of $42,000. Six years later, at the Clifford auction, they sold for $51,750.

Because of the extreme scarcity and rarity of many Zamorano 80 titles as first editions, Clifford’s accomplishment would seem never to be duplicated. However, Dan Volkmann, of San Francisco, has recently succeeded in collecting all the titles, the first collector to do so in the twenty-first century. For several years he owned 79 of the 80 titles in first editions. Oddly enough, the book he lacked to make his collection complete was not the rarest book of the eighty. Indeed, Volkmann owned the greatest rarities, including the Reglamento [California Laws,1784], auctioned in 1994 for almost $98,000, and Ridge’s 1854 The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, which sold for $69,000, both purchased by Volkmann at the Clifford auction. He also had Clappe’s California in 1851 & 1852, better known as The Shirley Letters. The letters were published from January 1854 to December 1855 in San Francisco’s The Pioneer; or, California Monthly Magazine. Volkmann’s original copies from The Pioneer are bound into two volumes.

The one book Volkmann didn’t possess was Thomas J. Farnham’s Travels in the Californias, and Scenes in the Pacific Ocean, published in 1844. The 1994 Clifford catalogue describes this book as a good copy of an uncommon book with an estimated value of between $1000 and $1500. Its auction price was $4,140. As a footnote, this book was recorded as scarce as early as 1881 in the auction catalogue of George Brinley, a noted collector of Americana in the nineteenth century. At that time his copy brought in the munificent sum of 60 cents!

Why, then, didn’t Volkmann purchase this book at the Clifford auction? I posed this question to him some time ago. His answer was simply, I thought I already owned a copy. It was sometime after the Clifford auction that he realized his error. The copy in his library was an 1851 Pictorial Edition!!! Life, Adventures, and Travels in California. He wanted to kick himself, especially since at the time of the auction he could have had the needed volume for probably under $5000. Since copies of it appear on the market quite infrequently this uncommon book is indeed very scarce. At any rate Volkmann continued his search for it with no success, that is, until late April of this year, when a copy was located for him by Dorothy Sloan of Austin, Texas. The price for this item had now risen to $15,000. On May 2, 2002, through the mail, he received this treasure, thus completing probably the last Zamorano 80 first edition collection that will be seen in a personal library.

A LITTLE ON MY COLLECTION

I’ll never have a collection of the caliber of those of Clifford or Volkmann. To assemble those collections required good timing, luck, and a good deal of spendable income. However, in something less than two years I have been able to collect all the titles in printed publisher’s editions. But more to the point I now have fifty-three of the titles in first editions, and I continue to seek out additional firsts as time and pocketbook permit.

Among some of the little treasures I have been able to procure in first editions are Mark Twain’s 1867 The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and a fine copy, in original wraps, of the 1857 Narrative of Edward McGowan. Both copies were purchased from the private collection of a gentleman now focusing his collecting interests on baseball rather than Californiana. I also have Simeon Ide’s A Biographical Sketch of the Life of William B. Ide. Privately printed in 1880 by Simeon Ide so that his brother might not remain a footnote in California history, this little book describes William Ide’s role during the Bear Flag movement.

I have the second edition of James Pattie’s Narrative, published in 1833. This title will be discussed more fully a little later. I also have a copy of the first English translation of Figueroa’s Manifesto, in the rare original wraps. This anonymous translation was published in San Francisco in 1855.

The last publisher’s edition copy to make it to my shelves is a first edition of William Swasey’s The Early Days and Men of California, published in 1891. Since this is one of the titles of the Zamorano 80 never reprinted, it is becoming quite scarce. Quite frequently for almost two years, I would enter this title on the Internet and come up with a blank. I felt as if I were searching for that elusive grand-daddy catfish resting at river bottom. Then one day, there it was… the object of my long fishing expedition! They say good things come to those who wait, and I suppose it is true, at least in this case, because mine is the deluxe edition, inscribed by Swasey.

Owning certain books can also give an acute sense of our own mortality and the provisional nature of all ownership. For example I possess, for the moment, a copy of Alfred Robinson’s 1846 Life in California. This is not an ordinary first edition but one with some pedigree since it once belonged to collectors Thomas Streeter and Henry Clifford, and booksellers Warren Howell and Jeffrey Thomas. All were well-known bookmen and, with the exception of Thomas, are gone. How many ‘owned’ this book before Streeter? It’s an unanswerable question. Streeter purchased this copy from the Cadmus Book Shop in 1925; there’s no way of going further back.

If a person is a real book collector—and by that I mean someone a tad compulsive about collecting, the Zamorano 80 isn’t an end in itself. It’s a beginning. My collecting interests have now burgeoned to include the California Gold Rush era, the California missions, and even overland travel to the West. The bookshelves groan with the hundreds of additions to my library. But that’s another story, and it’s time to talk dollars and cents about the Zamorano 80.

MARKET PRICES

How have market prices changed over the fifty-seven years since the publication of The Zamorano 80 in 1945? To chart these figures over the years I’ve turned to bookstore and auction catalogues. For current prices I’ve clicked on Internet web sites. The catalogues most helpful in ascertaining dollar values have been the 1948 Holmes Book Company’s California and the Far West (this was the former collection of Thomas Wayne Norris), Dawson’s Southwest Books, with prices from 1954, the 1979 John Howell’s The Library of Jennie Crocker Henderson, and A Full Howes, with prices from 1981. Market prices from auction catalogues include the Thomas Streeter Collection, which was so large, some 4500 items, that it took three years (1966-1968) to be described and then auctioned. Most of the Zamorano 80 items from the Streeter Collection were auctioned in 1968. Of course the Henry Clifford Collection, auctioned in 1994, was of prime importance in setting dollar values toward the end of the twentieth century.

During the past several years, because of inflation and other factors, such as Internet listings (where booksellers can see at a glance what a book sells for almost anywhere in the world and can price accordingly), the dollar value in general for antiquarian books has risen on a gentle curve. The titles in The Zamorano 80, perhaps because they are recognized as cornerstone books of California history, combined with the increasing scarcity of first or early editions, have shown some dramatic price increases.

Looking at a few titles should give a good idea of how dollar values have changed over the years. The comparisons are not perfect because values are based not only on scarcity and demand, but also on condition. Nonetheless, I believe the following dollar figures are valid indicators of the dramatically increasing value of Zamorano 80 first editions, even allowing for inflation.

In 1948 Herbert Bolton’s five-volume set of Anza’s California Expeditions, published in 1930, could be bought for $35.00. In 1954 it sold for $40.00. A big jump came in 1969 when it was valued at $110.00, and it almost doubled to $200.00 by 1979. Clifford’s set brought $575.00 at auction in 1994, and it currently (2002) sells in the range of $1000.00 on the Internet.

John W. Dwinelle’s Colonial History of San Francisco was priced at $35.00