Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest, by Kinzie, Mrs. John J. [Juliette A.]
Inventory #: 01825
Price: $40.00

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Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest, by Kinzie, Mrs. John J. [Juliette A.]. Rand McNally: Chicago, 1901. Edition: First thus (See contents). Hardcover, 5.5 by 7.75 inches, 393, j pages. Edited with notes and Introduction by Eleanor Kinzie Gordon. Green cloth with red and black lettering and decoration on cover and spine. Illustrationed with eight black and white plates, including the frontispiece.

Condition: Very Good. Spine ends and corners bumped and worn; cover very lightly soiled; first free end paper has staple holes from something now removed, and page edges are somewhat darkened. Interior pages show an occasional reading smudge, but are otherwise clean, umnarked, and secure in their bindings. An sound and attrractive copy.

Contents: Juliette Kinzie was the wife of an Indian subagent at Fort Winnebego, Wisconsin in the early 1830's. This is a fascinating account of their time there, the diverse population of the Northwest Territories at the time (French, British, American, and above all, Indians), and the adventures of travel to and from Fort Winnebego to the young village of Chicago. The book contains a great deal of information on the lives of the Mennomonee, Pottowattamies, Senneca, Miami, Fox and many other tribes. Also included are stories of events prior to the book's main time frame, including the Massacre of 1812 at Fort Dearborn and the abduction and adoption of the author's mother-in-law as a child by the Senneca, to be returned to her parents four years later. A well-written and engaging account of times gone by.

There have been several editions of this fascinating record of life in the Northwest Territories in the early 1800's. In June, 1900, Mrs. Eleanor Kinzie Gordon wrote "A Note", which is included as pages i-j of the edition here offered. She states that the book is the third edition, although since new material has clearly been added in the form of her note, and probably the plates, the book qualifies as the first edition in this form. Gordon does not state the source of the plates in the 1901 edition.

... "Waubun," the first edition of which was published by Derby & Jackson (New York) in 1856. Their entire establishment was wiped out by fire a few years later, and all the plates to this edition, including the original illustrations from Mrs. Kinzie's drawings, were destroyed. A smaller edition, without illustrations was issued by J.B. Lippincott & Sons (Philadelphia) after Mrs. Kinzie's death. This was soon exhausted, and copies of either edition are no longer in the market.