American Kids' Book on the HMS Bounty
Story of Aleck or Pitcairn's Island. Being a True Account of a Very Singular and Interesting Colony
Notes: A tale written for children about the mutiny on the HMS Bounty and the experiences of Fletcher Christian and "Aleck" or John "Alexander Smith" Adams on Pitcairn Island. The story's moral seems to be "they should have read the Bible."
This is a very scarce American juvenile, with one appearance at auction: the Risvold Collection, in 2010 ($1380). NUC gives the print run as 200 copies (per Goodspeed's catalog vol. 40, no. 2). It was republished in much expanded form as "Aleck, Last of the Mutineers" in 1845 and 1848.
The anonymous author, Nathan Welby Fiske (1798–1847), was a Congregationalist minister and professor at Amherst College. He was the father of Helen Maria Fiske, better known under her pseudonym, Helen Hunt Jackson, the author of Ramona and other books (See Adams, A Dictionary of American Authors, 1901).
18 mo. [2] 54 pages, plus blank endleaves at the front and back.
Edition + Condition: First edition. A very good copy in original wrappers with a quarter-sized stain and insect specks on the front cover. Housed in a folding marbled-paper covered box.
Publication: Amherst, MA: J. S. and C. Adams, 1829.
Item No: #361013
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