Perkins, Hayes — Here and There, Volume I, II, III and IV

, Self-published by the family, . Reprint Edition. Hardcover. Size: 4to 11" - 13" tall. Uber-scarce in the trade, there being no additional copies available for purchase on-line currently. Virtually As New condition set of four volumes of the Hayes Perkins memoir, thus absent the fifth and final volume, which remains scarce, too. Bound handsomely in a sparkly brown leatherette over boards, sharp and distinct gilt lettering to spines, a creamy typescript paper and without a publication date or place of publication listed. From a closely-related family member I have learned that these "secondary copies" were made probably in the 1970s and 1980s, but in exceedingly low numbers. Here and There is a "geobiography" of Perkins' life (1878 – 1964) and travels (1893 to 1936), working to pay his way, rarely staying more than a few weeks or months in any one place. The author kept an extensive diary, first hand-written and typed up by others, then written in long-hand and typed up by himself, a diary that ran to almost 2,000 pages! An abbreviated Perkins Family Tree is provided on the family web-site located on-line and with plentiful blog-postings and personal reminiscences provided by all manner of family members. The administrator of one such web-site notes that "Since first reading the diaries in the 1970’s, I’ve wanted to trace 'Uncle” Hayes' wanderings on a globe. The google maps and google earth technology now makes such a 'geo-biography' relatively easy to construct and share. I will publish his 43 year wanderings serially in short segments with ordered place marks indicating places he stayed." His relative then began to publish individual snippets of the full text and that were indexed and linked by H.T.M.L. to Google Earth and Google Maps coordinates. The web-site notes that Perkins was "a self-described 'adventurer' who traveled the world by rail, ship, and on foot for most of his life, kept extensive notes of his wanderings that he later edited, typed, and bound (though never published). Following Perkins’ reconstruction of his childhood in Oregon and Texas, dated entries in the diary begin in 1897 and continue through 1936. After a seventeen-year gap during which Perkins was â€oesettled” in Butler, Pennsylvania and Pacific Grove, California, the diary resumes briefly in 1952 and then again in 1955, says the web-site. Late in life, Perkins is said to have regretted having missed only Russia in his world travels. He never married and apparently produced no children (confirmed his relative to me, Mr. John Martin). He was born the third child and only surviving son of William Morrison Perkins and Malinda Frances Hayes in or near Bandon, Oregon at a confluence of the Coquille river. He "thrilled to tales of Stanley, the Congo Free State, and Emin Pasha, vowing to reach Africa himself to live a life of adventure and daring," says the web-site. What appeared to propel him forward was the severe beatings his father meted out to him upon his declaiming atheism at least with respect to his father's evangelical Methodism. He left Texas for "Sacramento, California, where he arrived at age fifteen with $1.65 in his pocket to begin a lifetime of world travel" (web-site). Family authorities claim that "the bound version was typed between 1959 and 1961," and Perkins himself says that his memoir's earliest entries and ranges were largely reconstructions from perhaps failing memories later in life. He "purchased a portable typewriter in 1924 and learned to type to cut down on the expense of having his notes typed by others" and thus obviated the need to write in longhand and pay another to type up his notes. Five original copies were printed before his death, says Mr. Martin, one copy was donated to a Pacific Grove, California library, a relative donated another one to the Royal Geographic Society, another estate donated yet another copy to the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Library rare books room. He gave two copies to John Donaldson, a first cousin once removed, and a final copy was given by the family to the Oregon Historical Society. These exemplars of Volumes I, II, III and IV appear to be "secondary copies." Here are, as best I can render them, synopses of the four volumes being offered here of Here and There. Volume I (1878-1907): an account of his early life with the family in Oregon and Texas; mining; ranching; farming; etc.: 382 [1] pp. Transcriber's Note, plus eight-page index. Volume II (1907-1914): Odd jobs across Canada; Alaska; Gold Rushes; row-boating; 404 pp. plus an 11-page index of places and names. Volume III: Volume III (1914-1920): travels to and walking throughout Africa including the Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Egypt; travel by boats, trains, planes, automobiles and even submarines; mill work in Coquille, Oregon, travel again to France, the Congo, diamond mining for the Forminiere Company in the Congo: 396 pp. plus 12-page index. Volume IV (1920-1926): Out of the Congo at Boma; travels to West Africa, Antwerp, New York, Australia, Western Samoa, Dar es Salaam, Sailing around South Africa, up the west coast to London, to New York again, Panama Canal to San Francisco, diamond mines in Nigeria, Tahiti, Bandon, Oregon again: 407 pp. then 13-page index.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. . . . Fine