Butterflies of the West Coast by William Greenwood Wright. The Whitaker and Ray Company, San Francisco. 1905.
The Butterflies of the West Coast by William Greenwood Wright. The Whitaker and Ray Company, San Francisco. 1905. 8" x 10 1/2" 257 + vii pages index plus 33 photographic plates, cloth bound Hardcover with no dust jacket. Bright gilt lettering on front cover and with gilt lettering on spine faded but still legible. Back cover has sun fading along the leading edge. Previous owner names, gifting and bookplate inside the front cover. Also a label stating that this was a review copy of a book that was going to be for sale for $4.00. This copy was sent to the Literary Editor of 'Out West' Magazine, which gives us a chain of ownership from Charles Amadon Moody, the co-editor of 'Out West' to Ella Ladd Moody, his wife to Graham Blair Moody, his grandson, at which point the book must have left the family. Some light sprays of residue inside the front and back covers on the flyleafs, from the top of the paper. I do not know the source, but it appears not to have effected the structure of the paper. I found some paragraph brackets bracketing, plus one check mark, apparently, all in pencil, in the 'general features' section. I see no other previous owner markings. No tears, folds or creases to pages. Binding is tight with no looseness to pages. Not ex-library, not remaindered and not a facsimile reprint. For sale by Jon Wobber, bookseller since 1978. JD13a
"At the great fire in San Francisco, April 18, 1906, all the items going to make up this book, consisting of everything in the printer's and the binder's hands, and the finished books in the custody of the publishers, all were destroyed. And as the stereotype plates from which the book was printed were lost with the rest, the book cannot be printed anew. Only a few dozen copies of the book were in the Author's hands in another city at the time of the fire and so were not burned" - from a bookseller of the second 1906 edition.
"Illustrated with 940 figures in Color-photography of Butterflies from the West Coast, nearly all of which were captured by the Author, with accurate data for each specimen. With Colored figures and descriptions of many new species and new varieties now published." - the subtitle of the book, telling me this may contain first descriptions of a number of species.
"At the great fire in San Francisco, April 18, 1906, all the items going to make up this book, consisting of everything in the printer's and the binder's hands, and the finished books in the custody of the publishers, all were destroyed. And as the stereotype plates from which the book was printed were lost with the rest, the book cannot be printed anew. Only a few dozen copies of the book were in the Author's hands in another city at the time of the fire and so were not burned" - from a bookseller of the second 1906 edition.
"Illustrated with 940 figures in Color-photography of Butterflies from the West Coast, nearly all of which were captured by the Author, with accurate data for each specimen. With Colored figures and descriptions of many new species and new varieties now published." - the subtitle of the book, telling me this may contain first descriptions of a number of species.
