summary by Greg Tuttle
This little book by Frank Ellison is a very early (1858) account of an excursion into the Maine woods and it is fascinating. The author is purported to be the publisher, printer, binder and the book seller. The story goes that there was no such person as Frank Ellison, it is supposed that this little book was really written by a Charlotte Ellison, who accompanied her big brother James on this trip.
The description of their travel itinerary shows exactly how exhausting it must have been just to get there and back again. It was a two day journey just to get from Massachusetts to Greenville. The purpose of the trip was to hunt moose. They didn’t kill a moose, but bagged plenty of other wildlife.
This account of an early Maine woods adventure is incredibly rare in it’s original form – only three copies are known to exist. The book was printed in miniature form and is recognized as rare by the American Antiquarian Society. Luckily it was reprinted in 1981, but even a copy of that edition is hard to find, since only 200 copies were printed.
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