Souvenirs atlantiques. Voyage aux Etats-Unis et au Canada

Second edition, partly original as it is considerably expanded (cf. Sabin 59254, Howes 7805, F. Monaghan 1171).

Half black shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt double fillets and a gilt pastoral motif, a restored tear to the headcap, black paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

Scattered foxing.

Provenance: Copy from the library of Marquis Claude-Emmanuel-Joseph-Pierre de Pastoret (1755–1840), with his heraldic device gilt-stamped at the foot of the spine.

Born in 1811 in Angers, where he died in 1896, Théodore Pavie succeeded Burnouf as professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de France from 1853 to 1857, before teaching Oriental languages at the Catholic Faculty of Letters in Angers.

At the age of 18, he travelled across the United States, for which he developed a deep fascination: “J’y ai passé les plus beaux jours de ma jeunesse,” he wrote in his preface, adding later: “Avant tout j’ai dit la vérité, sauf quelques récits, sinon exacts, du moins probables, et dans le caractère des lieux et des habitans, je me suis astreint à ne rien avancer qui ne s’appuyât sur des fait.” During his travels he visited New York, Albany, Schenectady, Syracuse, Oswego, Rochester, Buffalo, Niagara, Saratoga, Saint Régis, Montreal, Quebec, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, and more.

The account of his stay in Texas occupies pp. 240–248 of volume II.