A Friend of the Mormons: The Private Papers and Diary of Thomas Leiper Kane

San Francisco: Gelber-Lilienthal, Inc. [Grabhorn Press], 1937. First Edition, 1/500. 78pp. Octavo [26 cm] 1/4 rust cloth over tan boards with a paper label on the backstrip. Near fine. Prospectus laid in. This edition was limited to 500 copies, printed at the Grabhorn Press and edited with an introduced by Oscar Osburn Winther. Includes a facsimile of an ALS from Brigham Young that is tipped in between pages 60 and 61. The full-page illustration 'Great Salt Lake City in 1853' from Piercy/Linforth between pages 74 and 75. Nicely produced volume from the Grabhorn Press. GB 274.

Although never Mormon himself, Thomas L. Kane (1822-1883) nonetheless was a friend and confidante of Brigham Young. While still a young man he become interested in the Mormon cause, and gave up his practice of law to make a trip west in 1847. During President Buchanan's administration serious trouble arose between the federal government and the Mormons, and in 1857 Kane was appointed special agent to the Mormons. He came west by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in Salt Lake City on February 25, 1858. Through his efforts at mediation, peace was declared on April 24, 1858. His diaries contain "confidential entries for my dear wife," all jotted down on the journey, and consist for the most part of descriptions of things seen on the way, and on the mission to the Mormons.