“A Voyage in a Balloon” [in] Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art (January–August, 1852)

Philadelphia: John Sartain & Co, 1852. Hardcover. Fair. First edition. Eight consecutive monthly issues bound together in one volume: Vol. 10 (January – June, 1852; Vol. 11 (July – August, 1852). Octavo. iv, 516; 208pp. Illustrated with engraved plates, including several mezzotint plates. Bound in contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper over boards. The binding is worn, scuffed and torn at the spine, one mezzotint plate neatly detached, else good overall with the usual intermittent toning and foxing, and moderate dampstaining at the front and fore-edge margin. The May issue includes “A Voyage in a Balloon” by Jules Verne, translated from the French by Anne T. Wilbur: the first English translation of a story by Verne. Also included (in the July and August issues), is “The Iron Horse” and “A Poet Buying a Farm,” which were two sections from the yet unpublished *Walden* by Henry David Thoreau. A scarce volume containing the final eight issues of this leading American literary magazine that ceased publication with the August 1852 issue. (Inventory #: 603080)