ANTIQUE BOOK | “A Sailor’s Log” by Robley D. Evans, 1901 First Edition

A turn-of-the-century naval memoir in original olive-green cloth, published by D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1901. The front board is blind-stamped with a porthole framing a sunrise over open water; the spine carries a single sailor’s-knot device — a quietly handsome piece of period bookbinding.

This is the firsthand account of Rear Admiral Robley D. “Fighting Bob” Evans (1846–1912), who entered the Navy in 1860, was wounded at Fort Fisher in the Civil War, served through the Spanish-American War, and later commanded Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. Subtitled Recollections of Forty Years of Naval Life, complete at ix, 467 pages with photographic plates.

This copy carries a period pencil inscription to the front endpaper: “For Guy, from H. L. Hamilton, U.S. Army — Fort Crook, Neb., May 27, 1902” — a small piece of military provenance from the old Nebraska Army post now known as Offutt Air Force Base.

Honest, well-loved condition. Cloth is rubbed with fraying to the corners and spine ends, light soiling, solid binding, clean text block. A handsome decorative volume for a library shelf, a maritime vignette, or a styling stack.