# Is "Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua" by John Russell Bartlett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua by John Russell Bartlett (D. Appleton and Company, 1854) is identified by: Appleton and Company, 1854, two octavo volumes: volume one collates xxii, 506 pages, with six pages of publisher's advertisements; volume two collates xvii, 624 pages.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1854, two octavo volumes: volume one collates xxii, 506 pages, with six pages of publisher's advertisements; volume two collates xvii, 624 pages
- Illustrated with two folding frontispieces, a large folding map of the U.S.-Mexico boundary region, sixteen tinted lithograph plates, and 92 woodcuts
- First-edition sets are bound in dark green cloth, blind-stamped with ruled borders, gilt-lettered spines decorated with a cactus device, blue endpapers, and untrimmed edges
- Bartlett headed the U.S. Boundary Commission that surveyed the line set by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo across the New Mexico and Arizona borderlands in 1850-53, work whose disputed boundary helped prompt the Gadsden Purchase, and Jenkins's Basic Texas Books calls the narrative 'the most scholarly and scientific description of Southwest Texas of its era.'
- Publisher imprint reads D. Appleton and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Russell Bartlett |
| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Year | 1854 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1854, two octavo volumes: volume one collates xxii, 506 pages, with six pages of publisher's… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1854, two octavo volumes: volume one collates xxii, 506 pages, with six pages of publisher's advertisements; volume two collates xvii, 624 pages. Illustrated with two folding frontispieces, a large folding map of the U.S.-Mexico boundary region, sixteen tinted lithograph plates, and 92 woodcuts. First-edition sets are bound in dark green cloth, blind-stamped with ruled borders, gilt-lettered spines decorated with a cactus device, blue endpapers, and untrimmed edges. Bartlett headed the U.S. Boundary Commission that surveyed the line set by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo across the New Mexico and Arizona borderlands in 1850-53, work whose disputed boundary helped prompt the Gadsden Purchase, and Jenkins's Basic Texas Books calls the narrative 'the most scholarly and scientific description of Southwest Texas of its era.'

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua* by John Russell Bartlett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/personal-narrative-of-explorations-and-incidents-in-texas-ne
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.