Heading: (Zamorano Select)
Author: Hutchings, J.M.
Title: In the Heart of the Sierras: The Yo Semite Valley, both Historical and Descriptive and Scenes by the Way. Big Tree Groves. The High Sierra with its Magnificent Scenery, Ancient and Modern Glaciers, and other Objects of Interest; with Tables of Distances and Altitudes, Maps, etc.
Place Published: Yo Semite Valley
Publisher:Published at the Old Cabin
Date Published: 1886
Description:

[4], xii, 13-496 pp. Illustrated with 29 inserted plates including frontispiece phototype by Gutekunst of C.D. Robinson's painting "In The Heart of the Sierras"; wood-engraved portrait of Hutchings from a photograph by Houseworth; phototype by Gutekunts of Yo-Semite Valley with no one seated behind the horse; 26 phototypes by Britton & Rey from photographs by George Fiske & others; also, 1 red plate of a snow plant, & 3 wood-engraved plates; 2 maps (1 folding, lithographed by Britton & Rey). (8vo) later full calf, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt; all edges marbled. First Edition, Second Printing.

Hutchings, a pioneer of the tourist industry in Yosemite and one of the first to visit there in winter, was Guardian to the Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove between 1880 and 1884. According to Farquhar, In the Heart of the Sierras was Hutchings' crown publishing achievement and "...contains a great deal more...than an account of Hutchings' personal experiences; it covers more fully than any other work of its day every aspect of Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees that could by considered of general interest to visitors." Cowan p.299; Currey & Kruska 175; Farquhar 18b - Second (or later?) issue; Zamorano Select 50.

Light wear to calf, front joint cracking; hinges tender, binding otherwise solid, pages faintly age-toned, scattered foxing; very good.