BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE CATLIN, 1838-1871. 



MR. CATLINGS PUBLICATIONS. 



Mr. Catlin did not publish a book on his travels and observations 

 amongst the North American Indians until after he arrived in England 

 in 1839. 



The material from which he made up his work entitled u Notes of 

 Eight Tears' Travel amongst the North American Indians," was con- 

 tained in the letters which he had written to the Daily Commercial 

 Advertiser, New York City, from the years 1830 to 1839, in a series 

 of fifty-eight letters. The letters were written at the instance of Will- 

 iam L. Stone, esq., its editor, and the " Indian author." 



Mr. Catlin used these, and, in addition, matter from his note-books. 



He found difficulty in finding a publisher in London. He took the 

 manuscript to John Murray, the publisher, who refused it on the score 

 of great expense and large outlay to prepare the plates. Of this Mr. 

 Catlin says, pages 50-51, volume 1, Catlin's Notes in Europe : 



The notes of my Eight Years' Travels amongst forty-eight different tribes of Indians 

 in America, to be illustrated with more than three hundred steel-plate illustrations, 

 1841, were nearly ready to be put to press ; and I called on my good friend John Mur- 

 ray, in Albemarle street, believing that he would be glad to publish them for me. 

 To my surprise he objected to them (but without seeing my manuscript), for two 

 reasons, which he at once alleged : first, because he was afraid of the great number of 

 illustrations to be embodied in the work, and secondly for (certainly) the most un- 

 fashionable reason, that " he loved me too much !" I had brought a letter of intro- 

 duction to him from his old friend Washington Irving ; and from the deep interest 

 Mr. Murray had taken in my collection and the history and prospects of the poor 

 Indians, my rooms (which were near his dwelling-house) were his almost daily re- 

 sort, and I a weekly guest at his hospitable board, where I always met gentlemen of 

 eminence connected with literature and art. Good and generous old man ! he there- 

 fore " loved me too much" to share with me the profits of a work which he said 

 should all belong to me for my hard labor and the risks of my life I had run in pro- 

 curing it, and as the means of enlarging those profits he advised me to publish it 

 myself. " I would advise you," said he, " as one of your best friends, to publish your 

 own book ; and I am sure you will make a handsome profit by it. Being an artist 

 yourself, and able to make the drawings for your three hundred illustrations, which 

 for me would require a very great outlay to artists to produce them, and having in 

 your exhibition room the opportunity of receiving subscriptions for your work, which 

 I could not do, it will be quite an easy thing for you to take names enough to cover 

 all the expenses of getting it up, which at once will place you on safe ground ; and if 

 the work should be well received by Mr. Dilke and others of the critical world, it will 

 insure you a handsome reward for your labors, and exceedingly please your sincere 



friend, John Murray." 



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