[NATURAL HISTORY]. WALLACE, Alfred Russell (1823-1913). A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural History of the Amazon Valley. London: Reeve & Co., 1853.

8vo. 2pp. and 16pp. publisher's advertisements. Tinted lithographed frontispiece, 8 plates, engraved map, folding letterpress table. (Frontispiece with splits at gutter, title-page reinserted on stub, folding table split in half at fold and laid in, marginal toning.) Late 19th-century half vellum, smooth spine divided into 6 compartments by gilt-fillets, olive morocco lettering-piece gilt in second, top edge gilt (spine centerpieces removed).

FIRST EDITION, describing Wallace's expedition to the Amazon which solidified his reputation as a naturalist. Wallace credits American naturalist William H. Edwards, who explored the lower Amazon as far as Manaus in 1846, for influencing him to explore the same region and collect Natural History samples. On his return to England in 1853, a ship fire destroyed his specimen collections, but his drawings and notes were saved. He used those notes to compile this work, and a work about palm trees in the Amazon, published in the same year.



Property from the Estate of Peter Fortsas