Picturesque America; or the Land we Live in. [Two Volumes in Six] by Bryant, William Cullen; Bunce, Oliver Bell - 1872

New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1872. Publisher's brick red pebbled cloth stamped in gilt and black. Very good or better copies, wear to a few spine ends, minor edgewear, the odd light foxing else contents about fine. A beautiful set in uncommon issue.. Profusion of plates and illustrations. Folio. "A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, canõns, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country. With illustrations on steel and wood, by eminent American artists." Blanck notes two editions (no priority) this being no. 2 with the statement "edited by William Cullen Bryant" on each title page and the re-written, extended preface bearing Bryant's name at the end. This edition was the one also issued in six volumes. Rare as a six volume set in publisher's cloth (usually seen in two volumes, occasionally four). While Oliver B. Bunce did the main literary work, Bryant edited and reviewed everything to "see that no nonsense crept into the text" (BAL p.355). "This truly superb work consists of a complete description and elaborate pictorial illustration of the greater part of the North American Continent. It portrays the great mountain-ranges, the lakes, the valleys, the grand primitive forests, the cascades, the magnificent rivers, the towns and cities, in brief, all the picturesque aspects of our land from Canada to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. For several years artists were specially employed in visiting different parts of the Union for the purpose of procuring designs for this work. The views, hence, are not only original and trustworthy, but possess the vividness of personal observation, and include the movement and life characteristic of each locality. The volumes are something more than a gallery of landscapes; they exhibit our people in their methods of living and traveling, delineate the picturesque phases of commerce, as well as the sublime forms of our hills, show the often beautiful setting of our cities, and portray the active and brilliant panorama of our bays and rivers. All the marvelously varied phases of our country are set forth with the utmost fullness, so that the work in its completeness forms a splendid pictorial cyclopaedia of American life, scenery, and places. The illustrations of this great work alone cost fully one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The engravings consist of steel and wood. The steel plates are printed on heavy, toned plate-paper; the wood illustrations are of the finest character, and abundantly interspersed through the text, which is printed on heavy, extra- calendered, toned paper; the size imperial quarto," (From the publisher's advertisement in the Gems of the Centennial Exhibition, Phila. 1876). Sabin 62692 (2 vol. issue). BAL 1732.2.