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McGraw-Hill Book Company, Published 1962. Hardcover, 273 pp.; 24 cm; First Edition, fifth printing; The American Trails Series, edited by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.; double-page map endpapers printed in red and black; frontispiece and title page printed on red paper; chapter headpieces by Larry Lurin.
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Burnt-orange cloth-covered boards with copper, silver and red metallic post-rider vignettes on front and silver lettering with copper vignette on spine. Mild shelf and edge wear. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Cream illustrated dust jacket (front: title in red script with post rider, covered bridge, milestone and Bunch of Grapes tavern sign; rear: list of American Trails Series titles with review excerpts; jacket by Larry Lurin) with a few small nicks and tears, light creasing along edges and mild shelf and edge wear. Price ($6.95) intact on front flap. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. History of the first post road in America, the route between Boston and New York that carried the first mail in 1673, and the second volume in McGraw-Hill's American Trails Series. Holbrook, the Vermont-born logger turned Portland, Oregon historian (Holy Old Mackinaw, The Yankee Exodus), follows the Upper, Middle and Lower Roads town by town, from colonial postriders through the stagecoach era, toll turnpikes and the coming of the railroad. Includes chapters on Sarah Kemble Knight's journey of 1704, Levi Pease the "Stagecoach King," the stage driver and express rider Ginery Twichell, wayside taverns and Washington's stops, Scollay Square, Paul Revere's mills at Canton, and New York City in 1789. The endpaper map shows the old roads against the highways and cities of 1962, with insets of Manhattan in 1776 and the town and harbor of Boston in 1775. Contents: How It Began; Time and Change: A Panorama; Mrs. Knight Takes the Road; Levi Pease: The Stagecoach King; Turnpikes; The Stagecoach; The Stage Driver; The Saga of Ginery Twichell; The Taverns in the Towns; Washington Was Here; Scollay Square; Interlude: They Didn't Get the Railroad; The Upper Road: Boston West by the Upper Road; Sudbury to Worcester; Worcester; Worcester to Springfield; Springfield; Springfield to Windsor; The Middle Road: Boston to Hartford; Hartford to New Haven; The Lower Road: Boston to New Haven (By 1st Route); Boston to New Haven (By 2nd Route); Boston to New Haven (By 3rd Route); The Post Road: New Haven to Greenwich; Rye to Kingsbridge; Kingsbridge to the End of the Line; New York City in Post Road Times, 1789; Acknowledgments; Bibliography; Index.