A Voyage Around the World With the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 in the Brig Rurik, Captain Otto Von Kotzebue

USA: Univ of Hawaii Press, 1986. First Edition, First Printing. Fine Hardcover in a Near Fine Dust Jacket. Fine Hardcover in a Near Fine Dust Jacket..

Fine in a Near Fine Dust Jacket. Carefully handled, only flaw is previous owner's name on top of front free endpage. First Edition First Printing. 8vo; 375 pages; with chapter notes, bibliography and index. Illustrated endpages; frontispiece map.. In 1836 Adelbert von Chamisso presented an account of the trip around the world he made as botanist on board of a ship that was part of a Russian expedition; undertaken to explore the shortest route from Europe to Asia through the Pacific Ocean.

Also on board of the brig "Rurik", in the capacity of official draftsman and painter, was Ludwig York Choris, a young German-born Russian who later published books illustrated with lithographs in Paris, that made him the greatest drawer and painter that has ever visited the Pacific.

The voyage led Chamisso from Copenhagen over Tenerife, Brazil and Chile to Alaska, San Francisco, Hawaii and the South Pacific islands.

The author with his literary interest in writing and a Romantic's interest in Folkways and folklore brings a narrative which stresses the human side of exploration giving valuable insights into the confrontation between European and Pacific cultures in the early 19th century.