2 volumes. xxxvi, 37-799; xli, [1], 43-823 pp. (8vo), brown cloth, spines lettered in gilt, custom boards slipcases (one for each volume). First Edition.

The true first edition; later extended to 4 volumes. With bookplate of Arthur R. Andersen on front pastedowns. Cowan notes it as "the best history of California within reasonable proportions... In the earlier half of his work, Mr. Hittell used very extensively for his sources of history the archives of California, which...were complete destroyed in the great fire of 1906...."- Cowan p. 285; Howes H544; Rocq 16925; Zamorano 80: 43.