Presentation Copy
Carolina Sports by Land and Water. Including Incidents of Devil-Fishing, &c.
New York: Trehern & Williamson, Steam Power Printers, 1850.
First edition, later issue with cancel title page (printed: Charleston, 1846). 172 pp. 1 vols. 12mo. Presentation Copy. Publisher’s brown cloth, upper cover titled in gilt. Rubbed, old traces of dampstains. Later doodle of a devil fish on pastedown. Very good Sabin 22286; Westwood & Satchell p. 85 (later eds. only); Phillips p. 111; Wetzel p. 132; Gee, Sportsman’s Library p. 136; Henderson p. 108; Five Centuries of Sport (Maclay Sale) lot 208; Howes E112; Podeschi 176; Litchfield p. 41; Heller 1:480; Biscotti, Six Centuries of Foxhunting, p. 129. Item #333331
Presentation copy with an inscription “Stuart Rhett, from the author, Bay Pt. 1858” on the front paste-down.
William Elliott (1788-3 Feb. 1863) was a third-generation South Carolina planter, writer, and sportsman. He served in the state senate for nearly two decades, and was respected as one of the most gifted planters of the old South producing large crops of rice and sea island cotton. He wrote frequently on agricultural and outdoor topics in newspapers and in the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. The sporting sketches were collected and published as Carolina Sports by Land and Water, Including Incidents of Devil Fishing, Etc. (1846). “The charm of these tales lies in the animation and gusto with which Elliott communicates his experiences. … Theodore Roosevelt, who became fascinated with harpooning the devilfish in later years, paid tribute to Elliott's book: ‘Killing devil-fish with the harpoon and lance had always appealed to me as a fascinating sport, since as a boy I had read Elliott's account of it in his Field Sports of South Carolina’”(ANB).
A resonant South Carolina association. A landmark of American sporting literature and an uncommon antebellum imprint.
Price: $2,000.00 Free International Delivery
