Three Days on the White Mountains: Being the Perilous Adventure of Dr. B.L. Ball on Mount Washington, During October 25, 26, and 27, 1856

Benjamin Lincoln BALL

Nathaniel Noyes, 1856

[Disaster in the White Mountains] 12mo. Hardcover. Good binding and cover. Clean, unmarked pages. 72 pages. Early signature of "N.R. Preston, Boston, 1857" on front end page. 

"Dr. Ball, a Harvard graduate, went for a hike on a rainy autumn afternoon, up the unfinished Mount Washington carriage road. Though aware of both the late hour and the lateness of the season and having knowledge of the death of Lizzie Bourne from exposure on the mountain the month before, Ball did not turn back when rain turned to sleet and then snow. He endured three days and two nights in a blizzard, protected solely by his umbrella. This was a survival so unparalleled in the past and so unlikely to be repeated in the future as to be worthy of putting into print. Ironically, Ball survived the cold of Mount Washington only to die of the heat in Panama at age 39." - Sotheby's, Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana, 2020. Refs: Bent p. 2; Hammond p. 20; Sabin 2933.