Mount Desert on the Coast of Maine. “Infinite Riches in a Little Room.”

Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon; Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1880. 12mo (7.25” x 5.5”), stiff blue wrapper, title and illustration on front wrapper, illus. ad on rear wrapper. Frontis., 103 pp., [1 blank], [8] pp. of ads, 5 mounted photographs (including frontis.), four being half stereoviews; 1 engraved map, 17” x 13”, laid into linen straps on inside of rear wrapper.

Fifth edition. First issued in 1867, this fine guide-book went through six editions, only four of which (the third through the sixth) were illustrated with photographs. The photos included here are the same as those that appeared in the third and fourth editions, with the exception of the frontispiece, a 4” x 6’ view of Schooner Head substituted for the previous half stereoview photo of the same subject. The remaining four photos are half stereoviews. While no credit is given to the photographer, the photos illustrating Martin’s guide books are known to be the work of Bryant Bradley (1838–1890)—originally from Cornish, Maine, who lived and worked in Bar Harbor in the 1870s and ‘80s. Bradley's work is generally of high quality and the present images are no exception. The views included herein, by title, are as follows: Schooner Head; Great Head; The Devil’s Oven; The Cloisters at high tide; and Valley Cove. Also included in this volume is a crisply engraved folding map entitled “Mt. Desert Island Maine.”

Clara Barnes Martin of Portland, Maine was a respected figure in literary circles of the day who was fluent in Russian and regularly reviewed Continental literature for the New York Evening Post.

A very nice copy in attractive illustrated wrappers.

REFERENCES: Williamson 6315; Thompson, Edward V. Important Maine Maps, Books, Prints and Ephemera. Orono, 2003, #290.

CONDITION: Very good, crease to lower right corner of front wrapper, a few light stains to exterior; contents clean; map very good.