How We Climb to the Stars and the Lick Observatory. A Lecture and Guide Book.

San Francisco: The Bancroft Company Printer, 1887. First edition. Octavo. 39, [1] pp. including the frontispiece of "Mr. Frazer's Proposed Dome" . Three textual illustrations. Contemporary flexible blue cloth with gilt cover lettering. Old duplicate stamp to the margin of the title page else a very good and bright copy.A short lecture by the ever effusive booster, George Wharton James on how Mt. Hamilton was chosen as the home for the Lick Observatory. Two (2) postcards, views of the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton, one showing a snow covered scene, also with handwritten note on front "This looks very natural Feb 19, 1906". George Wharton James (1858-1923), was an author and lecturer on the American Southwest. James preached on the Methodist circuit until 1889, when he left the church and turned to the desert to recover his health. He explored the Grand Canyon, studied the Native Americans, and was made a member of several tribes. In his later years James lectured on the Chautauqua circuit, and wrote many books and articles on the Southwest. He also edited The craftsman (1904-1905) and Out West, formerly called Land of Sunshine (1912-1914). The Lick Observatory is the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The observatory, in a Classical Revival style structure, was constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick of $700,000, equivalent to $22,799,259 in 2022. Lick, originally a carpenter and piano maker, had arrived from Peru in San Francisco, California, in late 1847; after accruing significant wealth he began making various donations in 1873. In his last deed he chose the site atop Mount Hamilton, and was buried there in 1887 under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick".