Author: Zadoc Cramer
Title: The Navigator
Publisher: Zadoc Cramer - Pittsburgh
Printer: Zadoc and Creamer - Pittsburgh
Edition: 1808 6th Edition (Actually the 4th Edition)
Pages: 156
 
"Shortly after the aquisition of Louisiana, the voyage was set on foot by Mr. Jefferson, President of The United States. The party consisted of 45 men, collected prepared for the journey at the mouth of the river Du Bois or Wood River, one mile below the mouth of the Missouri from which place they set out on their intended Voyage of Discovery on Monday the 14th of May 1804, all in health and spirits." (From Gass's Journal - Patrick Gass was one of the men who accompanied Lewis & Clark on their Voyage.)
 
Description: A very good, quite presentable and quite rare copy of The Navigator: Containing directions for navigating the Monangohela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This the 1808 stated sixth edition is the first appearance in book form of an account of Louisiana and of the Missouri and Columbia rivers as discovered under the voyage of Captains Lewis and Clark. The Navigator was the first and most widely use guide to western waters of the U.S. in the early 1800's and it was first published in 1801 as a small pamphlet type guide, and no copies with this date exist today.  This is the stated sixth edition, but actually the fourth after those of 1802,1804 and 1806. Pages 146-156 give a summary of the discoveries of Lewis and Clark with parts taken from both a letter written by William Clark to a brother in Louisville and from Patrick Gass's Journal. Condition: 12mo. 126pp.with 28 full-page wood cut maps. Period marbled boards with a new leather spine, leather spine label and refreshed endpapers. Wear to the edges and corners of the paper boards, pages tanned with foxing to a number of pages throughout. A few pages have been trimmed along the lower edge with a small tear to the lower right corners of pages 71 and 147. A faint imprint of a stamp is visible on the upper copyright page and the bottom of page 156. Overall, a very good copy. The book is complete, and recent restoration should ensure it will be around for another 213 years. 
 
The Navigator eventually would be published in twelve editions with the final edition printed in 1824. These early editions from 1808 and before are becoming quite rare, with only a small handful available in the marketplace. 
 
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