Summer in the Wilderness; Embracing a Canoe Voyage Up the Mississippi and Around Lake Superior by Lanman, Charles

New-York: Appleton, 1847. First edition (208 pp.), small octavo in new three-quarter brown cloth over complimentary marbled paper, gilt titles to spine. This copy was found in the publisher’s original plain paper wraps, yet to be properly bound. Charles Lanman (1819- 1895) “was a Michigan born landscape painter, sportsman, and writer...who published several books about his journeys through the wilderness and newly developing areas of the northern Midwest and Canada. This book shares highlights of his 1846 trip from St. Louis... by way of Lake Winnipeg and Cedar Lake, eventually reaching Lake Superior after travelling along the St. Louis River to Fond du Lac. Lanman writes about nature from a romantic perspective, recreating woodland scenes with plunging cataracts, picturesque bluffs, and sparkling waters. He [describes] various Native American peoples and passes on...legends associated with the places he visited [including the legend of Winona]. The last chapter is a nostalgic recollection of the author’s childhood in an arcadian Michigan...” (LOC). In this last chapter Lanman recalls being taken downstream by a large sturgeon he has just speared, a scene reminiscent of one in A River Runs Through It (another story of a fugitive arcadia). Title page with a small stain and a few wrinkles; otherwise, a fine, bright copy in its first suit of clothes. Quite a scarce book, certainly in this condition.