A Bibliography of the Colorado & Mojave Deserts,

Including Palms Springs, Desert Hot Springs,

the Coachella Valley & the Salton Sea


A - D | E - K | L - R | S - Z

KING, Clarence. MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA NEVADA. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1872. 8vo, (5), 292pp. Orig. green bevelled cloth boards, very light spotting and wear to spine ends, otherwise very nice. ¶ First Edition. “Considered the greatest book on mountaineering in America, it describes ascents made by Clarence King when he was participating in the Geological Survey of California from 1863 to 1866. The descriptions of the ascent and descent of Mount Tyndall and the story of the vain efforts to reach the summit of Mount Whitney are classics of Mountaineering literature. “King was the first to climb the Sierra Nevada and the first to write of the range extensively in all its moods. He is remembered both by this work and by the beautiful 12,909-foot Sierran peak, Mount Clarence King” (Farquhar, Classics in the Literature of Mountaineering, 61). Less appreciated is King’s early and beautifully written account of his mule journey from La Paz on the Colorado River to San Bernardino across the Colorado Desert and the Coachella Valley, stopping at Palm Springs. Baird & Greenwood 1377. Cowan p.328. Edwards, The Enduring Desert, p.143. Howes K-148. Robinson, High Sierra Classics, 10. Zamorano Eighty 47.


(Kino). BURRUS, Ernesto. KINO AND THE CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTHWESTERN NEW SPAIN. Tucson: Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society, 1965. Folio, (14), 104pp, 17 facsimile maps. Gilt decorated red cloth. ¶ One of 750 copies printed.


KINO, Father Eusebio Francisco. CELESTIAL FAVORS... Experienced in the New Conquests and New Conversions of the New Kingdom of New Navarra of this Unknown North America, and the Land-passage to California in 35 degrees of Latitude, with the New Cosmographic Map of these New and Extensive Lands which Hitherto have been unknown... (English translation in Bolton’s Kino’s Historical Memoir of Primeria Alta, 2 vols, Cleveland 1919). ¶ Kino’s two journeys of 1701 and 1702 in the Colorado Delta are described in Book III, chapters 4-6 and Book IV, chapters 4-5.


(Kino, Father Eusebio Francisco). KINO’S HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF PIMERIA ALTA. A Contemporary Account of the Beginnings of California, Sonora, and Arizona, by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J., Pioneer Missionary, Explorer, Cartographer, and Ranchman, 1683-1711. Published for the first time from the original manuscript in the Archives of Mexico; translated into English, edited and annotated, by Herbert Eugene Bolton Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1919. 2 vols, 379 + 329 pp, frontispiece in both volumes, additional illustrations and maps (1 folding) in text. Bibliography and index in volume II. Original crimson cloth, top edges gilt. ¶ The first publication of Kino’s history in any language, ably translated and annotated by Bolton. Kino’s history is the definitive account of the Spanish borderlands during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Kino made some 40 expeditions into Arizona up to the Gila and Colorado Rivers, with one of his objectives to try to prove that California was not an island. One of 500 sets bound for the publisher (an additional 250 sets were bound in blue cloth for the Univ. of California). Vols. III & IV in the Spain in the West Series. Adams, Herd, 1283. Clark & Brunet II:160. Howes K169: “First publication of the original Jesuit manuscript; of grave value on the early southwest.”


(Kino, Father Eusebio Francisco). KINO’S PLAN for the Development of Pimeria Alta, Arizona & Upper California: A Report to the Mexican Viceroy. Translated and Annotated by Ernest J. Burrus, S.J. [Tucson]: Arizona Pioneers Historical Society 1961.


(Kino, Father Eusebio Francisco). BOLTON, Herbert Eugene. RIM OF CHRISTENDOM: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pacific Coast Pioneer. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1936, 1984.


(Kino, Father Eusebio Francisco). PAYLORE, Patricia, et al. KINO... A Commemoration... Tucson: Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society, 1961. 8vo, 24pp, 22 b/w illus. Orig. cream wrappers, lettered in black with illus. vignette. ¶ First Edition, with illustrations by Ted De Grazia and a bibliography compiled by Donald M. Powell listing 49 works by and about Father Kino published between 1936 and 1960.


(Kino Map). (California Mission Correspondence). LE GOBIEN, Charles (ed.). LETTRES EDIFIANTES ET CURIEUSES, Ecrites des Missions Etrangres, par Quelques Missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jsus V. Recueil. Paris: Chez Nicolas le Clerc..., 1724. Vol. V only, 12mo, a12, i4, A-M12, N2; (30), (2 table), 287, (5 approbation & privilege)pp, folding map. Edges stained red, marbled endpapers, library stamp recto and verso title, faintest toning throughout, 1/2-inch tear at fore-margin D3, 1-inch closed tear, slight chip and 2 insignificant marginal tears at map, otherwise a nearly fine copy, attractively bound to style. ¶ Reprint, first published by Le Clerc at Paris in 1705. Along with three other letters, the present volume contains on pp.248-287 the first translation of Francisco Mara Pcolo’s Informe del Estado de la Nueva Christianidad de California, originally published in Carrasco, Mexico in 1702. “Considered the first printed account of California... it certainly was the first to obtain any circulation, although only through the translations, as the original has always remained a very rare book” (Wagner). ¶ Accompanying Father Pcolo’s report is the oft-reprinted map: Passage par Terre la Californie Decouvert par le Rev. Pere-Eusebe-Francois Kino Jesuite depuis 1698 usqu’a 1701 ou l’on Voit Encore les Nouvelles Missions de PP. de la Compage. de Jesus. Engraved by Inselin and measuring 20.9 x 23.5 cm. with a graphic scale of about 60 miles to the inch, “the map is remarkably accurate, and remained the best map of much of the area until the twentieth century” (Streeter Sale). ¶ A popular collection and important source for the history of Jesuit colonizing and missionary efforts, the first 28 volumes of the Lettres Edifiantes were published between 1702 and 1758. Due to the Jesuit’s troubles in France, followed by the order’s suppression by Parliement in 1762, the final six volumes were not published until 1773-1776. Cf. Howes L299; Sabin 40697; Streeter Sale 2424; Wagner, Spanish Southwest 74A.


KIRK, Ruth E. EXPLORING DEATH VALLEY: A Guide for Tourists. 1956. 8vo, vi, 82pp, 42 plates, 11 maps. ¶ Revised edition.


KNIFFEN, Fred B. THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE COLORADO DELTA. Lower California Studies: IV. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1932. 8vo, 149-244pp. Wrappers, 12 plates, 4 text illus, 1 foldout map.


KNIFFEN, Fred B. THE PRIMITIVE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE COLORADO DELTA. Lower California Studies III. Berkeley: Univeristy of California Press, 1931. 8vo, stapled gray wrappers, some pages uncut. A very good copy.


KNIGHT, Clifford. AFFAIR IN DEATH VALLEY. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940. 8vo, 270pp. Cloth, dust jacket. ¶ First Edition of this Clifford Knight mystery. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p.144: “Aside from being an entertaining yarn, this detective story successfully catches the atmosphere of Death Valley. The book deserves a front row position in any Death Valley collection.”


KNIGHT, Clifford. DARK ABYSS New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1949. 8vo, 222pp. Blue cloth, yellow illustrated dust jacket signed Bill Dove. ¶ First Edition of a thriller set in Palm Springs. Clifford Knight, a successful Los Angeles mystery writer, also wrote The Affair at Palm Springs, The Affair in Death Valley, etc. Baird & Greenwood 1402.


KNIGHT, Clifford. THE AFFAIR AT PALM SPRINGS. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938. 8vo, (8), 303pp. Blue grey cloth, illustrated dust jacket.l ¶ First Edition of the fourth Clifford Knight mystery. Baird & Greenwood 1392. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p.144: “...a wealth of local color... It’s a good yarn; and it captures the feel of its desert setting.”


KOENIG, George. DEATH VALLEY TAILINGS: Rarely Told Tales of Old Death Valley. Morongo Valley: Death Valley ‘49ers, 1986. ¶ First (Deluxe) Edition, limited to 275 copies


KOENIG, George. THE LOST DEATH VALLEY ’49er Journal of Louis Nuxbaumer. Death Valley: Death Valley ’49ers, 1974. 8vo, 80pp, 16 full-page b/w illus, 3pp facsimile manuscript. Brown wrappers, lettered in black. ¶ First Edition. Cf. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p.288


KOLB, E.L. THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON FROM WYOMING TO MEXICO. New York, 1914.


KOLB, E.L. [Ellsworth]. THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON FROM WYOMING TO MEXICO... With a Foreword by Owen Wister... New York: Macmillan, 1928. 8vo, xx, (2), 344pp, color frontispiece, 75 b/w photo-illus. plates, map. Publ. blue cloth, lettered in gilt, color photo-illus. onlay, inscription on front endpapers. ¶ New Edition, inscribed in 1929 by the author’s brother, the photographer Emery Kolb. The Kolb brothers, Ellsworth and Emery, gave lectures and motion pictures from their studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon and their experiences in running the rapids are probably better known than anyone since Powell. First published in 1914. Cf. Farquhar, Colorado River, 53.


KROEBER A.L. BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE MISSION INDIANS.


KROEBER, A.L. Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. [In:] University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 8, no. 2: 29-68. Berkeley: 1908.


KROEBER, A.L. HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1925. 8vo, xviii, 995pp, 83 plates incl. 5 folding maps, 17 tables, 78 illus. Cloth. ¶ First Edition of a classic work, pre-eminent as source material. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78. Reissued Berkeley: California Book Co., 1953. Cowan p.336: “Highly important work.” Edwards, Enduring Desert, p.146. Howes K-268.


KRUTCH, Joseph Wood. THE DESERT YEAR. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1951. 8vo, 270pp. cloth, dust jacket.


KRUTCH, Joseph Wood. THE VOICE OF THE DESERT. A Naturalist’s Interpretation. New York: William Sloane Associates, (1955). 8vo, 223pp, 16 monochrome plates. Publ. two-tone pictorial cloth, dust jacket. ¶ First Edition of the author’s philosophical approach to the desert. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp.146-47.


KUNKEL, Fred. HYDROLOGIC AND GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OF PINTO BASIN, Joshua Tree National Monument, Riverside County, California. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1963. 8vo, iii, 537-561pp, tables throughout, color folding map housed in pocket at rear. Salmon wrappers, lettered in black. ¶ Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1475-O.


KYNE, Peter. THE PARSON OF PANAMINT and Other Stories: As Told by Chuckawalla Bill. New York: Cosmopolitan Book, 1929. 8vo, 177pp. Cloth, dust jacket. ¶ First Edition? of these interesting stories set in the Panamint desert country. Several of Kyne’s stories were made into movies in the first half of the 20th century. The Parson of Panamint was first filmed in 1916 by the notorious 1922 murder victim William Desmond Taylor. Grosset & Dunlap issued a photoplay edition with scenes from the 1941 Paramount version starring Charles Ruggles, Ellen Drew and Phil Terry. Other filmed stories from this collection include The Land Just Over Yonder, A Motion to Adjourn and Salt of the Earth. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p.147(citing this edition).


KYNE, Peter B[ernard]. THE LONG CHANCE...Illustrated by Frank Tenny Johnson. New York: H.K. Fly Co., (1914). 8vo, 313pp, frontis. and 3 color plates. Black cloth, pictorial front cover, gilt lettering. ¶ First Edition of the first book by the prolific San Francisco author who wrote realistic tales of life in California, particularly on the lumber, shipping and ranching businesses. “Early days in California when corrupt men in the state land offices maneuvered to get the best land and water rights for themselves. Good description of the California desert lands.”


KYNE, Peter B[ernard]. THE THREE GODFATHERS. New York: George H. Doran Co., (1913). 95pp, illustrated by Maynard Dixon. Cloth. ¶ First Edition of this novel about three outlaws saddled with a baby set in the Southern California deserts. It has been filmed five times, once by William Wyler (Hell’s Heroes, 1929) and by John Ford in 1948 starring Harry Carey Jr, John Wayne, and Ward Bond.