Subject:  Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Size:  Slightly over 6x7

Description:  Supremely scarce autograph letter signed by the author-explorer whose classic autobiographical bestseller, The Hasheesh Eater (1857), is regarded as an American counterpart to Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.  He also wrote The Heart of the Continent (1870), which described his travels across the plains and Oregon.  Ludlow, who struggled with substance abuse for most of his adult life, died at age thirty-four in 1870.  Flawed as described below, but one of the very, very few signed items of his in existence.  (Vintage item circa early 1860s)

Condition:  Fair; torn along its two horizontal mailing folds (signature affected) with tape repair on the reverse, but displays well nevertheless