ODDMENTS OF ANDEAN DIPLOMACY; AND OTHER ODDMENTS; INCLUDING A PROPOSITION FOR A DOUBLE-TRACK STEEL RAILWAY FROM THE WESTERLY SHORES OF HUDSON BAY TO THE MIDWAY MARGIN OF THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN....
Helper, Hinton Rowan:
St. Louis: W.S. Bryan, 1879. 480pp. Original brown cloth, stamped in blind and gilt. A bit worn at spine ends and corners, hinges weak. Very clean internally. About very good. A very odd and interesting book from a very odd person. Helper, a native of North Carolina, went to California in 1851 and published a book, LAND OF GOLD, in 1855 decrying California as a land of false hopes and no opportunity. Helper gained fame in the late 1850s with the publication of his book, THE IMPENDING CRISIS OF THE SOUTH, which argued for the abolition of slavery. His conclusion was not motivated by any sympathy for blacks; rather, he felt that slave labor held back the economic development of the South and penalized poor whites. In the 1860s he was American consul in Buenos Aires, and during the last thirty years of his life he promoted a railroad linking North and South America, which he hoped would lead to racial purification. Helper proclaimed himself "the new Christopher Columbus," and the present book promotes his railroad scheme, and also gives him a forum to rail against various Latin American governments and institutions that he argued were harming the Americans that he represented as a claims lawyer. "He was a man of keen intellect,with a touch of genius akin to madness" - DAB. ANB 10, pp.542-43. DAB VIII, pp.517-18.
(Item ID: WRCAM39031) $300.00