Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America

1793. IMLAY, Gilbert. A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America...To which Are Added the Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky. And an Essay Towards the Topography, and Natural History of That Important Country...London: Printed for J. Debrett, 1793. 2nd ed. with Considerable Additions. xvi,433,[1],[17, index], [1, errata]pp. plus ?-title. 3 folding maps, folding tables. Orig. marbled boards, recornered and rebacked in light brown morocco, gilt-ruled raised spine bands, compartments in blind, red morocco spine label, all edges marbled. A few library stamps, else very good.HOWES I-12, "aa." Streeter Sale 1523. Sabin 34355. Clark II:41. Thomson 630. Jillson, p. 10. Buck 43. One of the most complete descriptions of the western country, especially Ohio and Kentucky, published in the 18th century, with excellent maps. This is the second edition, revised and expanded over the first. Included is a printing of Filson's Kentucky..., first published in 1784, and the Filson map, which did not appear in the first edition. Besides the map of Kentucky and a chart of the Falls of the Ohio, there is a general map of the northern part of the United States to west of the Mississippi.
Imlay (1754-1828) was an American businessman, diplomat, and author. His 1793 novel, The Emigrants, was, like A Topographical Description, keen to promote settlement in the North American interior. Some have speculated, however, that The Emigrants (or portions of it) is more likely to have been written by Imlay's lover Mary Wollstonecraft, with whom he had a daughter in 1794 while serving as a diplomat in France.