1365
1365. DA CAMARA, Kathleen. Laredo on the Rio Grande. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. ix [3] [4, photographic plates] 85 [9] [17, ads] pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original blue cloth. Small spot on upper cover, foxing to fore-edges and front free endpapers, otherwise fine in slightly soiled d.j. with a few small voids and minor chips.
First edition. CBC 4667. Laredo was established in 1755, when Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza received permission from José de Escandón to form a new settlement about thirty miles upriver from Nuestra Señora de los Dolores Hacienda, in what is now Zapata County. Laredo, the oldest independent settlement in Texas, was founded on the site of Tomás Sánchez’ ranchería. The raising of livestock—chiefly goats, sheep, and cattle—thus became the principal livelihood of Laredo. In 1757 the population of the town was eighty-five persons and 9,000 head of sheep, goats, and cattle. “Some of the world’s greatest ranches are located within a few miles of Laredo. Of the 2,050,760 acres of county land, over 1,819,000 acres is pasture land” (p. 36). Includes information on problems with Native American rustling and raids in the early decades of the nineteenth century and the Republic era. $125.00
1366. DABNEY, Owen P. The True Story of the Lost Shackle; or, Seven Years with the Indians. [Salem, Oregon: Capital Printing Co., 1897]. [6] 98 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations. 12mo, light original blue pictorial wrappers. Slight spotting and discoloration to wrappers, otherwise very fine.
First edition. Ayer (supp.) 38 (conjectures the work is fictional). Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 116. Flake (supp.) 2641a. Graff 966. Howes (1954) 2527. Rader 1017. Smith 2200. If one is to believe what appears to be lurid fiction, the family of Lillian Ainsley migrated to the Yellowstone Valley in the 1870s, where they established a cattle ranching operation. In the family’s first year in the Valley, Lillian was taken captive by Native Americans. Most of this volume consists of an account of her capture, the time she spent with the tribe, and her eventual rescue. Included is an account of a case of Brigham Young’s wife stealing. $65.00
1367. DABNEY, Owen P. The True Story of the Lost Shackle.... [Salem, Oregon: Capital Printing Co., 1897]. Another copy, 12mo, original red pictorial wrappers. Wrappers with a few minor chips and splits, otherwise fine. $50.00
1368. DACUS, J. A. Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the Noted Western Outlaws. St. Louis: N. D. Thompson & Co.; San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft; Indianapolis: Fred L. Horton & Co., Chicago: J. S. Goodman, 1880. 383 [1, ad for Buel’s biography of Wild Bill Hickok] pp., engraved text illustrations (including “Fight with Mexican Cattle Thieves”). 8vo, original maroon decorative cloth gilt. Worn, faded, shelf-slanted, hinges cracked, lacking free endpapers, title and first few signatures with mild to moderate staining at top corner, some old pencil scrawls on rear pastedown and ad, later gift inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition, the issue with the combined imprint as shown above (no priority established). In this issue, the copyright is to N. D. Thompson & Co., and the final chapter is entitled “Jesse James Still a Free Rover.” Guns 538 (lists this imprint first and mentions the following Indianapolis imprint in his note). Dykes, Rare Western Outlaw Books, pp. 16-17 (listing and illustrating only this combined imprint): “Rare.” Howes D6. The book contains information on the James gang’s run-ins with Mexican cattle thieves, as well as a description of their cattle ranch in South Texas. $350.00
1369. DACUS, J. A. Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the Noted Western Outlaws. Indianapolis: Fred L. Horton & Co., 1880. 383 [1, ad for Buel’s biography of Wild Bill Hickok] pp., engraved text illustrations. 8vo, original maroon decorative cloth gilt. Considerable outer wear, especially at edges and corners (frayed with portions of boards exposed); hinges cracked and very loose; front free endpaper removed; tear to rear free endpaper. In marked contrast to the external condition, the interior is fine, with only a few scattered spots to blank margins in this scarce Indianapolis first edition.
First edition, the Indianapolis issue (same collation as the 1880 combined imprint of St. Louis, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Chicago—see preceding entry; no priority established). In this issue, the copyright is to W. S. Bryan, and the final chapter is entitled “Anecdotes of the Great Outlaws” (however, content is same as in preceding issue). Guns 538n (lists the St. Louis, etc. imprint first and mentions this imprint in note). Dykes, Rare Western Outlaw Books, pp. 16-17n (listing only the combined imprint): “Rare.” Howes D6 (refers to present imprint as another issue, while noting a similar imprint with Chicago publisher only). $350.00
1370. DACUS, J. A. Illustrated Lives and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James and the Younger Brothers.... New York & St. Louis: N. D. Thompson & Co., 1882. 518 [2] pp., including engraved frontispiece, text illustrations. 8vo, original green textured cloth gilt. Shelf-slanted, covers rubbed and worn at edges, corners bumped, hinges cracked, interior shaken, occasional mild staining to text.
Best edition (“most complete edition”—Howes D6). At p. x is “Publisher’s Preface to the New Electrotype Edition” declaring: “The extraordinary demand for this history having worn out the original set of electrotype plates within the first year of its issue, the publishers, at heavy outlay, had the entire work reset and newly electrotyped. Advantage was taken of this opportunity to revise and also to enlarge and greatly improve the work, as befits its character as the standard authority on this important and popular historic subject.” Graff 967. Guns 540: “This edition has forty-two pages on the Youngers not included in the 1880 edition and has different portraits and illustrations.” $150.00
1371. DACUS, J. A. & James W. Buel. A Tour of St. Louis; or, The Inside Life of a Great City. St. Louis: Western Publishing Company, Jones & Griffin, 1878. [4] ix [1] 5-564 pp., engraved frontispiece portrait, numerous text illustrations (some full-page), maps (including Map of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway and Connections, 15.3 x 10 cm). 8vo, original blindstamped brown cloth with gilt lettering on upper cover and spine. Light shelf wear, corners frayed, front hinge starting, interior very fine. Miscellaneous unrelated items laid in: certificate of promotion of Margaret Means of Denver from 1st to 2nd grade, typewritten poem, and two souvenirs.
First edition of a well-illustrated, early history of St. Louis, Gateway to the West. Rader 1021. Contains a full-page plate and section of text on the St. Louis National Stockyards: “Of the numerous institutions built in St. Louis during the past quarter of a century calculated to advance her commercial interests, there are none of such vast importance as the National Stock Yards” (p. 331). Also present are sections on the hide trade, horses and mules, the Texas Land and Immigration Company, etc. Excellent ads, business history, material culture, social history, etc. The lurid side of St. Louis life is not neglected, with disclosure on tramps, grave robbers, “clandestine depravity” (seduction of the innocent), organized prostitution, gamblers, saloons, swindlers, murders, etc. $150.00
1372. DACUS, J. A. & James W. Buel. A Tour of St. Louis; or, The Inside Life of a Great City. St. Louis: Western Publishing, 1878. Another copy. 8vo, original blindstamped blue cloth with gilt lettering on upper cover and spine. Corners and edges worn, spine darkened, front and rear free endpapers not present, covers and spine rubbed, interior fine and bright. $125.00
1373. DAGGETT, Carleen M. Noah McCuistion: Pioneer Texas Cattleman. [Waco: Texian Press, 1975]. vii [1] 308 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original brown cloth. Top edge slightly foxed, otherwise very fine in very fine d.j. Prospectus laid in.
First edition. This biography of pioneer Panhandle rancher and cattleman Noah McCuistion (1857-1937) was taken from old letters, journals, a diary kept by Noah’s sister, and personal papers of members of one of Texas’ early ranch families of Scottish descent. McCuistion also operated ranches in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana.
Included is an account of McCuistion’s 1880s Montana trail drive with 2,636 head of cattle, relating a risky and complex crossing of the hazardous frozen Platte River. “‘It took all hands and the cook’ was an old ranch saying, and this time it brought into play a whole village, but a finer set of people, the cowboys never knew” (p. 202). During the two-month delay waiting for the Platte to freeze hard enough for the cattle to cross, thirty-two-year-old McCuistion took time out to marry Miss Grace Dean of Kansas, who was living at Sheridan, Wyoming. McCuistion and his Texas cowboys never did adjust to the unrelenting cold of Montana; McCuistion would say “I’d like to be in Texas when they round up in the spring.” McCuistion’s words were put to music and became a classic cowboy song. Excellent social history, local history, and good coverage of the McCuistion women, as well as their slaves both before and after the Civil War. $75.00
1374. DAHLQUIST, Laura. “Meet Jim Bridger”: A Brief History of Bridger and His Trading House on Black’s Fork [wrapper title]. N.p., [1948]. 38 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic, including early map of the Wyoming region in charcoal on hide, transcribed by Col. William O. Collins from Bridger’s drawing made in the sand). 8vo, original cream wrappers with photographic illustration of Bridger. Fine.
First edition. This history and description of Fort Bridger mentions Bridger’s establishment of a herd of cattle for supplying overland emigrants (perhaps one of the first cattle operations in Wyoming). Also discussed is Bridger’s assistance with the U.S. Army’s expedition into Utah from Fort Leavenworth in 1857 with a cavalcade of 800 beef cattle, 3,250 oxen, 360 men, 312 wagons, and 48 mules. $40.00
1375. DAKIN, Susanna Bryant. The Lives of William Hartnell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, [1949]. viii [4] 308 pp., frontispiece portrait of Hartnell, 10 plates (photographic and from early prints). 8vo, original orange pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. Herd 628: “Has a chapter on ranching.” Rocq 5660. Hartnell (1798-1854) arrived in Monterey in 1822 as resident manager for an English trading company and married into the prominent Guerra y Noriega family. He spent the remainder of his life in California as a prominent rancher, educator, politician, and diplomat. In 1831 Hartnell acquired former mission lands in the Salinas-Monterey foothills country where he established his rancho with an initial herd of 500 cattle. The ranching chapter includes vivid descriptions of early ranchero life in 1830s California. “A vaquero’s whole fortune was often displayed in [his] trappings, and his devotion to a chosen animal sometimes seemed deeper than to any human being. Actually his horse knew the cattle business, exclusive of buying and selling, as well as he.” $50.00
1376. DAKIN, Susanna Bryant. A Scotch Paisano, Hugo Reid’s Life in California, 1832-1852 Derived from His Correspondence. Berkeley: University of California, 1939. xvii [1] 312 pp., folding map (Spanish and Mexican land grants of old ranchos within the limits of Los Angeles), 2 full-page text illustrations (by Maynard Dixon). 8vo, original orange cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Dixon 49). Hill 408. Rocq 2883. Hugo Reid (1811-1852), a Scottish trader who settled in California in 1832, formed a partnership with Jacob Leese and traded in hides and tallow with Yankee ships. An influential and important figure, Reid served as a delegate to the California Constitutional Convention.
Besides its value for ranching and the hide and tallow trade in California, this book is essential for other areas of study. The work is a primary source for the social history of Pastoral California. Reid’s sympathetic letters on the Los Angeles County Indians (pp. 215-86) must be consulted for any serious study of Native Americans of California. Another value of this work is for women’s history, with biographical information on Reid’s wife, Victoria Bartolomea Reid, the highly cultivated daughter of a Gabrielino chief whose dowry included the two substantial landholdings of Rancho Santa Anita (eventually transferred to her husband’s name) and La Huerta del Cuati, both in present-day Los Angeles. She was one of the few Native Americans to hold a Mexican land grant in Alta California. A useful feature is a register of British and U.S. residents of California prior to 1840. Reid, his family, and lifestyle were the prototypes for Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona. $125.00
Dakota Territory Imprints
1377. [DAKOTA TERRITORY]. House Journal of the Sixth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota, Begun and Held at Yankton...December 3rd, A.D. 1866, and Concluded January 11th, A.D. 1867. Yankton, Dakota Territory: Geo. W. Kingsbury, Public Printer, Union and Dakotaian Office, 1867. 228 pp. 8vo, contemporary three-quarter law sheep over drab blue boards, red leather spine label. Sheep abraded, hinges cracked (but strong), interior very fine.
First edition of an early Dakota Territory imprint, printed by the second territorial printer (see Trienens, Pioneer Imprints from Fifty States). Allen, Dakota Imprints 54 (14 copies located). Printer Kingsbury went west in 1858, arriving at Fort Leavenworth where he intended to be a driver of government ox trains. A portion of an afternoon witnessing the yoking of several hundred oxen and getting them into a train convinced Kingsbury to take a job as a compositor for the Daily Ledger. After printing stints in Kansas (including the first imprint west of Topeka—at that time Colorado), Kingsbury settled in Dakota Territory in 1862, where began the publication of the Weekly Dakotian and created some of the earliest Dakota imprints.
The present journal includes legislation concerning ranching, such as the establishment of a fence law in Union County (“the amendment was adopted”) and an act to restrain unspecified “certain animals” from running at large (“which motion was lost”). $250.00
1378. [DAKOTA TERRITORY]. Public and Private Laws, Memorials and Resolutions of the Territory of Dakota Passed by the Legislative Assembly at the Seventh Session Thereof Begun and Held at Yankton.... December 2d. A.D., 1867, and Concluded January 10th, A.D. 1868.... Yankton, Dakota Territory: [Printed by George W. Kingsbury], 1867-[18]68. 327 pp., printed errata affixed to rear pastedown. 8vo, original sheep, later crude cloth backstrip (original brown gilt-lettered spine label preserved). Binding worn and rubbed, hinges cracked, text fine with occasional pencil notes.
First edition of an early Dakota imprint. Allen, Dakota Imprints 61. See preceding entry for more on pioneer printer Kingsbury, who also printed the first history of Dakota (Armstrong’s History and Resources of Dakota, Montana, and Idaho.... Yankton, 1866) [see Item 137 in Part I of this catalogue]. Laws and legislation regarding construction of wagon roads, Native Americans (removals, citizenship, etc.), land grants, settlers, squatters, fences, suffrage, mines and mining, territorial library, creation of South Dakota, incorporation of cities and counties (e.g., Cheyenne and Laramie), mail, railroads, etc. In the sections on land offices and land grants, the potential for grazing and agriculture in the Red River Valley is extolled, with offerings of land at $1.25 per acre. A wagon road and military post are proposed for the Red River Valley to protect settlers from the Pembina and Red Lake bands of Chippewa and Cree. $300.00
1379. DALE, Edward Everett. The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association...and Charter and By-Laws of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association. Wichita: First National Bank, 1951. [2] 19 [3] pp. 8vo, original terracotta printed wrappers. Very fine.
Facsimile reprint of the exceedingly rare charter and by-laws of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association (first published in 1883), with Dale’s scholarly article (first appeared in the Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the Southwestern Political and Social Science Association, March 24-26, 1924; see Herd 630). Herd 631: “Scarce.” Dale provides an excellent history of ranching in the Cherokee Strip, including formation of the Association and its leasing of lands from the Cherokee Nation and eventual public pressure on the Cherokee to sell the Strip in order to open the area to farming and settlement. Cattle were introduced into the unfenced Cherokee Strip in the early 1870s, and by 1880 the range was well stocked. The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association leased six million acres at $100,000 (less than two cents per acre). $50.00
1380. DALE, Edward Everett. Cow Country. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1942. ix [3] 265 [1] pp., text illustrations (line drawings by Richard G. Underwood). 8vo, original light brown cloth. Very fine in slightly worn d.j. (price-clipped).
First collected edition (this collection of essays first appeared in various periodicals 1917-1942). Campbell, p. 104: “Expert interpretation and history of the land of cattle. Humorous, humane, and nostalgic.” Guns 543. Herd 632. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 18: “Largely an economic history.” Reese, Six Score 27n.
From d.j. blurb by J. Frank Dobie: “Dale has been a top hand for a good while in writing about the range. Cow Country is certainly his climax. It is a delicious...blend of the knowledge mastered by Dale the historian and of an easy intimacy with the subject acquired by Dale the man while he rode horseback over grass, bached in a dugout and owned his own cows. The two chapters ‘Riders of the Range’ and ‘The Humor of the Cowboy’ have more bully anecdotes than any other chapters, with the possible exception of Charlie Russell’s, ever printed. A historian without a sense of humor can’t possibly tell the truth about human beings. Dale’s humor and humanity make him the grass roots historian.”
Dale (1879-1972) grew up in Greer County (then part of Texas, but now several counties in southwest Oklahoma). He witnessed the transition from cattle trail to railroad. After failing in a small ranching operation with his brother, Dale entered the University of Oklahoma when he was almost thirty years old. He studied under Frederick Jackson Turner and did field work with Native Americans for the Brookings Institution, but is best known for writing on cattlemen and ranching history. $100.00
1381. DALE, Edward Everett. The Cow Country in Transition [caption title]. N.p., n.d. (ca. 1937). 3-20 pp. 8vo, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
Separate issue of an address first printed in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review 24:1 (June 1937). Herd 633 (lists a separate printing without imprint but attributed to Torch Press at Cedar Rapids in 1937; same collation as present item, but apparently wrappers were added; Torch Press version is 25.3 cm tall and present offprint is 25 cm tall). This essay appears in Dale’s Cow Country (see preceding entry). $35.00
1382. DALE, Edward Everett. Frontier Ways: Sketches of Life in the Old West. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1959]. xiv, 265 pp., full-page text illustrations by Malcolm Thurgood. 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition. King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 15: “Good view of women’s social activities in the cattle country.” A picture of the lives of the cowboys and pioneers of the Old West, including information on pioneer families, social customs, schools, and cooking. $40.00
1383. DALE, Edward Everett. “History of the Ranch Cattle Industry in Oklahoma,” in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1920. Washington: GPO, 1925. Pp. 307-322. 8vo, original blue cloth. Moderate outer wear and mild staining, corners bumped, internally fine.
First printing. Herd (635) and Rader (1030) list the separate printing of Dale’s article. History of ranching in Oklahoma from its beginning through statehood in 1907, focusing on historical evolution rather than economics. Of the U.S. policy regarding leasing of lands to the Cherokee Live Stock Association in 1883, Dale comments: “[U.S.] policy was little short of absurd. It invited ranchmen to enter the Indian Territory and intrigue with savage tribesmen. It placed a premium upon bribery and corruption [and] could not be enforced.... For more than six years the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association was a great power in the Southwest.” $35.00
1384. DALE, Edward Everett. Indians of the Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. xvi, 283 [2] pp., 32 plates (photographic), 5 maps. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition of author’s best-known book (Lamar, p. 284). Civilization of the American Indian Series 28. Campbell, pp. 113-14: “The author...once served on the Meriam Commission and visited most of the reservations in the West. He is therefore well aware of the various difficulties of the tribes, of the problems of Indian agents caught in a tangle of red tape, with limited funds, inadequate help, and wayward wards.... His solution—to abolish racial prejudice and intolerance—he thinks can be brought about by better education. Scholarly, readable, and enlightened.” Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 64. Paher, Nevada 426n: “A standard source on Indian-federal government relationships, this publication gives the reader a knowledge and understanding of the southwestern tribes by tracing events which created existing conditions.” Wallace, Arizona History XIV:8. Dale includes discussion and photographs of Native American sheep and cattle enterprises. $75.00
1385. DALE, Edward Everett. The Prairie Schooner and Other Poems. Guthrie, Oklahoma: Co-operative Publishing Co., 1929. 85 pp. 8vo, original embossed pictorial leatherette. Other than minor outerwear, very fine. Signed by author. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Campbell, p. 227: “Book of genial and regional verses by one of the most eminent historians of Oklahoma.” Range verse, including “The Poet Lariat,” “The Westerner,” and “The Ballad of Jesse James.” In his introduction, Dale writes, “The cowboy with his boots and spurs, his wide-brimmed hat and trusty forty-five. Full of strange oaths and stranger humors too. Jealous of honor, sudden and quick in quarrel. Pointing the winding herd across the prairies green, joining in the roundup or the dusty toil of noisy branding pen. Seeking his pleasures in the wild night life of roystering cowtowns, and too often closing out an ill-spent life in hectic argument with the town marshal or the county sheriff” (p. 11). $75.00
A Merrill Aristocrat – Dale’s Range Cattle Industry in Dust Jacket
1386. DALE, Edward Everett. The Range Cattle Industry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1930. 216 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, maps, decorated endpapers. 4to, original green cloth. Very fine in d.j. (lightly worn and spotted).
First edition of a Merrill Aristocrat. Campbell, pp. 130, 186. Dobie, p. 101. Herd 639: “Rare.” Howes D20. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 17. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 75: “Important aspects of this study...are the author’s recommendations for the cattle industry to develop more scientific methods of grazing, to effect long-term planning and to work toward the restoration of the range. Equally important are the ‘dot maps,’ photographs, and extensive bibliography.” Rader 1036. Reese, Six Score 27: “A classic study of ranching on the Great Plains from 1865 to 1925.... His writings were pioneering works in the historiography of the range cattle industry.” Saunders 4008. The documentary photographs are excellent. $375.00
1387. DALE, Edward Everett. The Range Cattle Industry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1930. Another copy. Slightly rubbed, otherwise fine. $250.00
1388. DALE, Edward Everett. The Range Cattle Industry: Ranching on the Great Plains from 1865 to 1925. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1960]. xv [1] 207 pp., photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in d.j. with minor wear. Autographed by author.
Second edition, with a new introduction by Dale. $100.00
1389. DALE, Edward Everett & J. Frank Dobie. An Exhibition of Paintings and Bronzes by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell May to October, 1950 [wrapper title]. Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 1950. [37] pp., photographic illustrations. 8vo, original pale orange printed wrappers. Very fine.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Remington 43). McVicker B77. Yost & Renner, Russell II:67. Introductions by Dale (Remington) and J. Frank Dobie (Russell). $35.00
1390. DALE, Kittie. Echoes and Etchings of Early Ellis. [Denver]: Big Mountain Press, [1964]. 224 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original yellow cloth. Very fine in lightly worn, price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Pioneer history of a small Kansas town, including mention of cowboys, early ranching activities of the area, and Ellis’s short stint as a cowtown. From 1875 to 1880, Ellis served as a shipping point for cattle herds driven up from the south. “Because of exceptional railroad facilities, Ellis had a large part in the Texas longhorn cattle trade...and took its turn as a wild rough cowtown, with the open doors of saloons and gambling houses never closing for the trail riders, the buffalo hunters, mule skinners, cowboys, gamblers, and adventurers of all kinds who drifted within its borders” (p. 195).
The author includes material on apprehension of a rustler, the inevitable conflict between trail bosses and the homesteaders whose fields the herds ruined, and the interesting snippet that “when herds of Texan longhorns came to Ellis to be shipped, the bawl of the cattle could be heard for days ahead of their arrival” (p. 203). $50.00
1391. DALE LAND & CATTLE COMPANY. Incorporated under the Laws of the State of Texas. No. 131. ___ Shares. The Dale Land & Cattle Co. Places of Business Bonham & Henrietta, Texas. Headquarter Ranches in Clay County, Texas. Capital Stock, $300,000. 3,000 Shares of $100 Each...Certificate of Stock. [St. Louis, Geo. D. Bernard & Company, ca. 1900]. Lower left: Geo. D. Barnard & Co. St. Louis. Engraved stock certificate measuring 23.2 x 29.5 cm. Very fine, unused.
A handsome stock certificate with illustration of a two men on horseback with a small herd of cattle, cactus in the foreground, and fenced homestead in the background. This stock certificate documents ranching roots in the Texas Panhandle near the Oklahoma border. Henrietta was one of the last areas of Texas to be settled by Anglos. George D. Barnard created prints for other promotional materials for Texas in the late nineteenth century and assisted with creation of the great series of Texas county maps put out by the General Land Office in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. $125.00
1392. DALTON, Emmett & Jack Jungmeyer. When The Daltons Rode. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931. viii, 313 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates (including opening of Cherokee Strip), pictorial endpapers. 8vo, original brown pebble cloth with illustration of a smoking six-shooter. Light ownership ink stamps of Geo. T. Bradley on title and half-title, otherwise fine (text very clean and fresh), in the rare d.j. with illustration by Ross Santee (price-clipped, torn, and lightly soiled).
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Santee 350); Rare Western Outlaw Books, pp. 38-39 (title illustrated): “Of the books about the Oklahoma outlaws, I like Emmett Dalton’s When the Dalton’s Rode and Col. Bailey C. Hanes’s Bill Doolin.” Guns 549: “Scarce.” Howes D39.
This book purports to present the true story of the Dalton gang told by the only survivor of the Coffeyville bank robbery, which effectively put an end to the gang’s forays. “In 1882, the [Dalton family] moved into the Cherokee Nation in what is now Oklahoma. The boys still at home were soon working as cowboys and consorting with a rough crowd that included several men who would later become members of their gang.... In [1889] Oklahoma opened up to settlement, and the Daltons moved into a profitable horse-stealing operation, in spite of the badges they still wore. For a time after the Osage caught on to their activities, they carried on their clandestine operations as officers for the Cherokee. By 1890, however, they were discredited as lawmen and had turned to horse stealing as a full-time enterprise” (Lamar, p. 185).
Emmett Dalton declares at the end: “Vanished was the virgin wild along the Cimarron, the Canadian, and the Red Rivers where we rough-shod young riders had galloped and marauded. Some of the cowboys, shamefaced, were beginning to guide plows. A few of them actually fell so low as to milk a cow!” Handbook of Texas Online: Dalton Gang. $250.00
1393. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires: The Early Life and Experiences as Told by John Edward Dalton, Looking Back over the Years, and Taken Down and Edited by M. P. Wentworth. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1948. 373 pp., color frontispiece, illustrations and pictorial endpapers by Cecil Smith. 8vo, original textured terracotta cloth. Fine, in two dust wrappers, as issued (a plain brown d.j. in fine condition and a moderately worn, chipped, and price-clipped pictorial d.j.).
First edition, limited edition (#556 of 1000, signed by Wentworth). Herd 2471. Here is the fantastic life story of John E. Dalton, who grew up in the Red River area of North Texas in the late 1800s. “He was the prototype of the gay and fearless American cowboy” (from d.j. blurb). Dalton states that his grandfather was from Kilkenny, two of his great-uncles were killed at the Alamo, and in the late 1860s his father dealt in hides and cattle in Texas and sent trail herds to Kansas. Dalton did it all: pioneer Texas ranch kid; rodeo trick rider and roper; hunting wild elephants in India; incarceration in Czarist Russia; hobnobbing with royalty; prize-fighting and rodeoing in Ireland, New Zealand, and elsewhere; joining a circus in France; gambling in Algiers; riding horseback across the Sahara Desert; visiting a ranch (“bullock station”) and participating in a rodeo and kangaroo and dingo hunts in Adelaide, Australia, where he was called a “cow laddie” rather than a cowboy, and more. $75.00
1394. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires.... Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1948. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise very fine in the brown d.j.
First edition, limited edition (#112 of 1,000 copies, signed by Wentworth). $50.00
1395. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires.... Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1948. 373 pp., color frontispiece, illustrations by Cecil Smith. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Light shelf wear, fore-edges foxed, otherwise fine in chipped and lightly foxed pictorial d.j.
First trade edition. Herd 2471. $40.00
1396. DALTON, Kit. Under the Black Flag by Captain Kit Dalton, a Confederate Soldier: A Guerilla Captain under the Fearless Leader Quantrell [sic] and a Border Outlaw for Seventeen Years Following the Surrender of the Confederacy. Associated with the Most Noted Band of Free Booters the World Has Ever Known. [Memphis: Lockard Publishing Co., 1914]. 252 pp., frontispiece (photograph of author and Frank James), text illustrations (mostly photographic). 12mo, original wrappers (illustrated with portrait of author), sewn. Wraps lightly browned and with a bit of minor chipping, interior fine. Difficult to find in decent condition.
First edition. Graff 993. Guns 550 (calling for stiff wrappers, whereas the present copy has thin paper wrappers): “Scarce. One cannot understand why a writer like this one, supposedly writing about his own life, could possibly make the statements he does, unless in his dotage his memory has turned to fantastic hallucinations [see Burs Under the Saddle for more of Adams’ grumbling].” Rader 1048.
The focus is primarily Quantrill, the Civil War, and outlawry, but the author includes a chapter on his stint as a cowpuncher right after the Civil War. Dalton was on the run and decided that being a cowpuncher was a good way to hide his true identity. Dalton was hired for $45 to accompany a drive of four thousand head of cattle from Little Rock to Fort Scott, Kansas (“I passed off as a western cattleman, and as I could talk pretty intelligently about this section of the country [and] they had no occasion to doubt my statements”).
After the stress of the Civil War and outlaw life, Dalton comments on the trail drive as if it was a Zen experience: “In the long, long march across the plains I had heard nothing more thrilling than the crack of whips and the bleating of cattle. Not a gun had been fired for any reason whatsoever. How soothing the sensation, how peaceful appeared the broad extended prairie! It was like paradise to me, and I wished it could endure always.”
Dalton includes a warm chapter on Belle Starr, noted female outlaw and alleged rustler (complete with a portrait of Belle wearing a jaunty feather head-dress and looking more like a gorgeous Cherokee maiden than her usual hatchet-faced incarnation): “As a cattle rustler, she has never had an equal among the stronger sex, and as a horse thief, she has no superiors. To sum up her character in one trite paragraph, I will simply state that Belle was a maroon Diana in the chase, a Venus in beauty, a Minerva in wisdom, a thief, a robber, a murderer, and a generous friend. A more fearless human being never went forth to deeds of bloody mischief nor washed bloodier hands to dance nimbly over the ivory keys of a piano.” $300.00
1397. [DANA, C. W.]. The Garden of the World; or, The Great West: Its History, Its Wealth, Its Natural Advantages.... A Complete Guide to Emigrants, with a Full Description of the Different Routes Westward. By an Old Settler.... Boston: Wentworth and Company, 1856. [8] [13]-396 pp., text engravings (full-page illustrations of state seals). 12mo, original purple blindstamped cloth. Cloth faded, moderate outer wear, rear free endpaper not present, interior fine except for occasional light foxing and spotting. Contemporary ink ownership inscription and library ink stamp on front free endpaper.
First edition. Buck 564. Cowan, p. 155. Flake 2655. Graff 995. Howes (1954) 2571. Plains & Rockies IV:279a:1: “The author describes a number of routes to the West. He also offers instructions for prospective immigrants.” Rader 1051. Smith 2244.
Chapters are devoted to Texas, California, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Washington Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Each state is dealt with in gazetteer-like fashion, and the section entitled “agriculture” gives livestock statistics. The chapter on Texas includes a long letter by Sam Houston extolling the advantages that Texas offers as a field for immigration. The chapter on Kansas includes a section on the “Vegetarian Settlement Company.” $150.00
1398. DANA, C. W. The Great West; or the Garden of the World: Its History, Its Wealth, Its Natural Advantages.... Boston: Wentworth and Co., 1858. [8] [13]-396 [4, ads] pp., engraved text illustrations. 12mo, original brown blindstamped cloth. Worn and faded, occasional mild to moderate foxing to text, light marginal water staining to about the last twenty leaves. Nineteenth-century lending library rules of Union Library of Providence affixed to front free endpaper, remains of library slip and pocket on rear pastedown.
Third edition. Plains & Rockies IV:279a:3. Smith 2246. $75.00
1399. DANA, Julian. Sutter of California, a Biography. New York: Halcyon House, [1938]. xi [3] 423 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic and from old prints) maps, illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth gilt. Very fine in lightly worn, price-clipped d.j. (on d.j.: 1839—Sutter Centennial Edition—1939). Bookseller’s label on lower pastedown.
Halcyon House Centennial edition (first published in 1934). Rocq 6681. A biography of German-Swiss California pioneer John Sutter, on whose early California forted rancho gold was first discovered, triggering the California Gold Rush. In 1839 Governor Alvarado granted Sutter eleven square leagues (nearly 50,000 acres) in the Sacramento Valley and authorized him to represent the establishment of New Helvetia. “New Helvetia prospered far beyond most California ranchos because Sutter diversified his operations to include trapping and agriculture as well as cattle-raising.... The Gold Rush was Sutter’s ruin. His workers abandoned him for the gold fields and squatters and miners...overran his lands, dispersed and slaughtered his herds, and destroyed fields” (Lamar, p. 1152). $30.00
“Best account of the early hide trade of California” (Reese, Six Score)
1400. DANA, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. 483 pp. 16mo, original black cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Wear to extremities, hinges starting, text lightly foxed. Overall a very good copy of a book difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition of author’s first book, first issue (copyright notice—letter “i” in “in” dotted, unbroken running head on p. 9), in BAL binding A. BAL 4434. Bennett, American Book Collecting, pp. 86-87. Cowan, p. 156n: “One of the most widely read books relating to California. The author spent much of the years 1835 and 1836 in various parts of that territory, and his pictures of its life and times are the most brilliant that we possess.” Dobie, p. 101: “The classic of the hide and tallow trade of California.” Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 14; Western High Spots, p. 14n (“Western Movement—Its Literature”); p. 20 (cites the first edition as #1 in “My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West”). Graff 998.
Grolier American Hundred 46: “Our only trustworthy account [of California] before the 1849 gold rush.” Herd 642: “The first state is very difficult to come by.” Hill, pp. 78-79: “[Dana’s] book has become a classic account of the life and adventures of an ordinary seaman in the American merchant service. It concerns his experiences in California in 1835-36, Juan Fernandez Island, Cape Horn, etc., and is invaluable for its descriptions of California ranching and social life in Mexican times, including San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey.” Howell 50, California 53. Howes D49: “This account of California in 1835 and 1836 surpassed in popularity all other books relating to that state.” Johnson, High Spots of American Literature, pp. 26-27. LC, California Centennial 173. Libros Californianos (Hanna list), p. 65. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 8: “While this book deals primarily with life at sea, it probably contains more detailed information on the hide and tallow trade than all other books on the subject combined.... Its importance cannot be overemphasized.” Powell, California Classics, pp. 151-62. Reese, Six Score 28: “This classic of American literature contains the best account of the early hide trade of California.” Zamorano 80 #26. $6,000.00
1401. [DANA, Richard Henry, Jr.]. Two Years before the Mast.... New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. Another copy, binding variant (BAL Binding B, no priority). 16mo, original tan muslin printed in black. Joints neatly mended, a bit of scattered foxing, but a near fine copy in a notoriously fragile binding, much better than most. The muslin binding is more difficult to find than the black cloth binding (see preceding). $6,000.00
1402. DANA, Richard H. Two Years before the Mast.... New York: Heritage Press, [1941]. x, 347 [1] pp., text illustrations (some in color) by Dale Nichols, endpaper maps. 8vo, original blue gilt-pictorial cloth. Spine faded, otherwise fine in publisher’s slipcase. Related copy of the Heritage Club Sandglass (no. 6E) laid in. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
Modern illustrated edition of Dana’s classic work. $30.00
1403. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, Embracing the Executive and Staff, Heads of the Departments, United States Senators and Representatives, Members of the Twentieth Legislature. Austin: Published by L. E. Daniell (at the Press of the City Printing Company), 1887. 317 pp., frontispiece of the State capitol, engraved plates (mostly portraits). 8vo, original brown cloth. Binding worn and faded, front hinge cracked. Old paper spine labels and contemporary ink ownership inscription partially removed.
First edition. Rader 1056. Raines, p. 61. Biographies (many with portraits) of Texans, including many of interest for ranching history, for example, Robert J. Kleberg, C. C. Slaughter, Charles Goodnight, et al. Daniell prepared biographical compilations of legislators and other Texans in 1887, 1889, 1890, and 1892. Each compilation represents the men in service at the time of publication, and although some biographies are repeated in the series, each compilation is a new work in itself. Taken together, Daniell’s compilations are a rich source of history and biography, sometimes providing details not found elsewhere on men, local history, the cattle industry, and the Civil War. $250.00
1404. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State Government, with Sketches of Distinguished Texans.... Austin: Published by L. E. Daniell (at Smith, Hicks & Jones, State Printers), 1889. 436 pp., frontispiece engraving of the State capitol, text illustrations and plates (engraved and photographic portraits). 8vo, original maroon cloth gilt. Moderate outer wear, lower portion of spine missing, covers almost detached, interior fine. Contemporary ink ownership signature of noted collector J. C. Ingram, with his pencil notes on the pages of his ancestor, James M. Ingram.
First edition. Raines, p. 61. Another of Daniell’s compilations (see preceding), including Curran Michael Rogers of South Texas (stock raiser and legislator who served on the special legislative committee on lawlessness in Texas arising from fence cutting); William Frederick Miller of San Antonio (cowboy, farmer, and stock raiser); Blucher H. Erskine (representative for Guadalupe, Uvalde, Kinney, and surrounding counties “engaged in milling and stockraising” in Guadalupe County); Norton Moses of Burnet County (chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Stock Raising); stock raiser Sam Whitted of San Saba County; Edward LeGrand Dunlap of Refugio (ranched in Refugio and Victoria counties); and many more. $125.00
1405. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State Government, with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas. San Antonio: Maverick Printing House, 1892. xvi, 682 pp., frontispiece of Huddle’s painting of the surrender of Santa Anna to Sam Houston at San Jacinto, numerous plates (photographic and engraved portraits—many after Huddle’s paintings). Thick 8vo, original maroon calf stamped in gilt and blind, bevelled edges. Binding worn and spine almost detached, hinges cracked, intermittent browning to text. J. C. Ingram’s signature on front endpaper and pastedown and his card tipped onto front pastedown.
First edition. Raines, p. 62. This compilation includes Richard King (“known wherever the English language is spoken as the greatest individual ranchman and cattle owner in the world”); Charles Schreiner; Santiago Sanchez (“one of the leading citizens of Laredo and principal land and cattle owner in Tamaulipas”); Thomas O’Connor (“a real-live Texas cattle king”); Dennis O’Connor and his wife, Mary Virginia Drake O’Connor; William Kuykendall; and many more. In our opinion, this is the best of the Daniell compilations, much larger, with interesting additions, more women, and higher quality illustrations. $300.00
1406. DANIELS, Helen Sloan (comp.). The Ute Indians of Southwestern Colorado. Durango: Durango Public Library Museum Project, National Youth Administration, 1941. [14] 136 [14, bibliography and index] pp. (mimeographed), illustrations (mostly artifacts, some in color), maps. 4to, original stiff beige pictorial wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Wilcox, p. 36. Wynar 1753. This publication was created as part of the National Youth Administration program. The compiled articles by Anglo and Ute authors include D. H. Wattson (Superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado), Ford C. Frick (on Ute legends), Buckskin Charley (head chief at the Ute Reservation at Ignacio, Colorado), and others.
Adair Wilson, et al., in “The Southern Ute Indians of Colorado” document that the Meeker massacre was due to Ute dissatisfaction with the long, narrow reservation (15 by 110 miles) allotted them in 1874 by the U.S. government. Quoted is an 1878 report by Ute agent F. H. Weaver: “Experience has shown that the shape into which this reservation has been thrown has been very unfortunate. A strip of ground fifteen miles wide with herds of cattle from both sides pouring in upon it, eating up all the grass is no place to keep Indians.” When asked what the Utes expected in a reservation when removal from Colorado to Utah was proposed, Buckskin Charley replied: “We want to go west and get grass land and raise stock.” He testified in 1886 that his people wished to become self-supporting, but could not because of the shape of their reservation, constant encroachments, and Ute stock roaming beyond reservation confines.
Indian Commissioner Atkins testified in 1886 that at the time the pastoral Utes numbered about 983 souls with a herd of over 8,000 head of cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. Included is a map of the reservation. Among the folklore documented is Buckskin Charley’s account of “The Branded Buffalo,” relating a disturbing boyhood buffalo hunt near Spanish Peaks, in which the warriors discovered that each of the buffalo they killed bore a brand on its shoulder. $250.00
1407. DANIELSON, Clarence L. & Ralph W. Danielson. Basalt: Colorado Midland Town. Boulder: Pruett Press, [1965]. xiii [1] 371 pp., frontispiece map, text illustrations (some full-page and/or in color—mostly photographs, including several aerial views and many vintage portraits), brands, maps in back pocket. Large 8vo, original brown buckram. Fine in d.j. with one small spot and neat tape repair on back. Scarce, privately printed local history.
First edition, limited edition (#357 of 1,500 copies signed by the authors). Wynar 902. This local history of Basalt includes a list of early cattlemen in the Roaring Fork and Frying Pan Valleys, along with an illustrated list of early brands. The author describes his boyhood adventures on the Smith Ranch. $75.00
1408. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan: Personal Reminiscences of Work Done in Southwestern Colorado during the “Great San Juan Excitement.” Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. 225 [1] pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of author), photographic plates. 12mo, original grey and blue embossed pictorial cloth. Moderate shelf wear and a few light stains to cloth, a good to very good copy, with author’s signed and dated presentation copy to S. B. Hardy.
First edition. Guns 556: “Scarce.” Wilcox, p. 36. Wynar 9115. In chapter 26 (“Picking Bullets from the Pulpit the Sabbath Following Mob Violence”), Presbyterian minister Darley relates the lynching of the cattle rustlers known as the Lee Roy Brothers: “At Del Norte...we had some men who were not considered good citizens, and the county contained a few more of like character. One in particular was not loved by the ranchmen, because he was accused of counting more cattle for his own than belonged to him.”
A lynch mob gathered on a Saturday but politely waited until Monday to invade the Del Norte courthouse and jail where Darley conducted religious services on Sunday. The head rustler escaped but his accomplice was killed by the mob. Darley sagely observes that “hanging is the only thing that will make some men quit their cussedness” (p. 187). Darley recalls twenty years of ministry among the towns of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, with descriptions of miners and mining, establishing first the churches on the Western Slope, gambling, sporting men and fast women, fatalities from snow slides, Ute horse racing, animosity of Utes toward Anglos (“all they know is they have been robbed and their only desire is for revenge”), etc.
The documentary photographs are wonderful, including “Ouray, Colo., Looking East in 1898,” “Dealing Faro in a San Juan Gambling Hall,” “Wheel of Fortune—Miners at Home in 1877,” “Prospector on His Way to a New Gold Field,” “Four Ute Chief, Agent, and Interpreter,” “Elder James K. Herring and Rev. Geo. M. Darley, D.D. [on skis] Ready for a Swift Run,” etc. $300.00
1409. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan.... Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. Another copy. Binding rubbed and spotted, lower edge stained. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to W. W. Rowan, M.D. $225.00
1410. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan.... Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. Another copy. Slight shelf wear, front upper corner lightly bumped, one spot on upper cover, otherwise fine, tight, and fresh inside. $300.00
Limited Edition of Dary’s Buffalo Book
1411. DARY, David A. The Buffalo Book. Chicago: Sage Books, The Swallow Press, [1974]. [12] 374 pp., plates and text illustrations (photographic and illustrations by Remington, Russell, and others), tables. 8vo, full buffalo hide with embossed swallow on lower cover. Mint in publisher’s slipcase.
First edition, second printing, limited edition (#22 of 50 numbered and signed copies, in the special buffalo hide binding, with note that no animals were killed in order to provide hides for this special edition). Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 68 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #224): “Best of all the buffalo books to date.”
In the chapter titled “In Captivity” there is extensive discussion of riding, roping, and harnessing buffalo, with many photographs of cowboys riding bucking buffalo and perpetuating other rodeo customs upon the hapless and truculent beasts. “Bridles were slipped over their heads and a harness was thrown from a safe distance onto their backs. The tongue of a heavy freight wagon was slowly shoved between the bulls and fixed into a neck-yoke. The traces were fastened to the singletrees with a long hooked iron rod. Then a lariat was fastened around the horns of each bull and held by a mounted cowboy, one on each side of the buffalo, to prevent a general smash-up should the buffalo stampede when turned loose. Seven cowboys climbed aboard the large freight wagon and the buffalo were released. Like the angry animals they were, they broke for open country. The cowboys in the wagon fired their pistols onto the air and the wagon shot across the open country like a dog with tin cans tied to his tail. It was indeed a strange sight” (p. 250).
The book includes material on Charles Goodnight’s attempts to preserve the buffalo, “Buffalo” Jones, cattalo, buffalo in rodeo events, “The American Buffalo as a Symbol,” etc. The appendix contains an article “So You Want to Raise Buffalo!” $400.00
1412. DAUGHTERS OF UTAH PIONEERS. Beneath Ben Lomond’s Peak: A History of Weber County, 1824-1900.... Compiled by Milton R. Hunter. Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1966. xxiv, 606 pp., frontispiece, numerous illustrations (some full-page, many photographic), maps. 8vo, original black cloth. Fine.
Third printing of 1944 edition. Discusses pioneer cattle operations, including mention of Miles Goodyear, “the first cattleman in Weber County” (p. 295). $45.00
1413. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff: The Reminiscences of the Greatest Frontier Sheriff in the History of the Platte Valley, and the Famous Johnson County Invasion of 1892. Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. [2] 361 [5] pp., frontispiece portrait of Campbell, photographic plates, maps, facsimiles, plans. 8vo, original turquoise cloth. An exceptionally fine, bright copy of a book that is usually found in faded covers or with a dull spine. Signed by Sheriff Malcolm Campbell on frontispiece portrait.
First edition, limited edition (350 copies). Dobie, pp. 102: “Much of the ‘Johnson County War’ between cowmen and thieving nesters.” Graff 1012. Guns 557: “Scarce.” Herd 647. Howes D85. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 3.
These are the personal reminiscences of the sheriff at the center of the Johnson County War that erupted after two unusually harsh winters reduced herd numbers drastically, making cattle a prized commodity. The epochal confrontation played out in Wyoming in 1892 between two groups, the small local cattlemen and settlers vs. the “cattle kings” (many of whom were nonresident investor-owned companies) organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. The latter hired Texas gunmen to invade Johnson County, kill suspected rustlers, and exile and intimidate the remaining small ranchers.
Campbell comments (pp. 149-50): “In the spring of 1892, in defiance of the Live Stock Commission and the laws which authorized that body to designate and divide the state into roundup districts, there was held a meeting of small cattlemen and rustlers at Buffalo, the county seat of Johnson County, where they formed a body which they called the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers Association. There they proceeded to arrange roundups to be held on May 1st, a month previous to the date of the legal roundups, which would enable them to collect the mavericks before the wagons and men of the large cattle companies could get on the ground. It was recognized throughout the state that this was the last straw. To allow this aggressive action to proceed unchecked was impossible, and the range expectantly waited for the first move of retaliation from the cattlemen.” $350.00
1414. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff.... Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. Another copy, signed by Malcolm Campbell on frontispiece portrait. A few scratches on covers, which are slightly stained. Contemporary ink notes of L. R. A. Condit of Barnum, Wyoming, and February 1932 ink presentation from T. J. Gatchell. $250.00
1415. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff.... Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. Another copy, author Robert B. David’s signed presentation copy: “Best regard to my old friend ‘Bill’ Raine from Robert B. David (the recipient was William MacLeod Raine, noted English writer on Western subjects; see Thrapp III, pp. 1188-89). Light shelf wear, lower corner of upper cover bumped, spine sunned and small split to cloth on spine, interior is quite fine. $225.00
1416. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff.... Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. Another copy. Spine faded, otherwise fine and bright. Pictorial presentation label pasted onto front free endpaper, “Presented to J. A. Shoemaker by C. A. ‘Chuck’ Bresnahan.” $225.00
1417. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff.... Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. Another copy. Mint. $200.00
1418. DAVIDSON, Harold G. Edward Borein, Cowboy Artist: The Life and Works of John Edward Borein, 1872-1945. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1974. 189 pp., frontispiece, color plates, text illustrations (artwork and photographs). Small folio, original maroon cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First trade edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 62 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #137). First biography and compilation of one of the great artists of the Western range (Borein’s close friend Charles Russell is reputed to have once called him the better artist of the two). Borein (1872-1945) left school at age seventeen and worked with a saddler where he learned about gear and braided riatas. After working at odd jobs on a California ranch, he briefly attended art school in San Francisco and met Maynard Dixon and James G. Swinnerton.
The first sketches Borein sold were printed in the Los Angeles publication, The Land of Sunshine, where he was described as a vaquero on the Jesús María Rancho, Santa Barbara County. The “cowpuncher artist” went on to become one of the most important western genre painters, often working in a seldom-used medium in Western art—etching. $100.00
1419. DAVIDSON, Levette J[ay] (ed.). Poems of the Old West: A Rocky Mountain Anthology. [Denver]: University of Denver Press, [1951]. 240 pp. 8vo, original greyish blue cloth. A few spots to front free endpaper, otherwise very fine in price-clipped d.j. with one small tear (no loss).
First edition. Campbell, p. 221. The section on “Cowboys and Cattle” contains contributions by S. Omar Barker, Frank Benton, E. A. Brininstool, Robert V. Carr, Wallace D. Coburn, Sarah Elizabeth Howard, and others. Each poem is preceded by a short statement about the genesis or background history of the poem.
Wallace D. Coburn remarks on his poem “The Cowboy’s Fate”: “The cowboy has never admitted that he is just another agricultural worker. In the wild days, he could look forward to a death more spectacular than that of Robert Frost’s ‘Hired Man.’” $30.00
1420. DAVIDSON, Levette J[ay] & Forrester Blake (eds.). Rocky Mountain Tales. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947. xiv, 302 pp., text illustrations by Skelly Scholnick. 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in d.j. with slight wear.
First edition. Guns 558. Herd 649. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 19 “The lighter side of life in the Rocky Mountains.” The section entitled “Open Range” presents authentic recollections of cowboys from early twentieth-century periodicals, WPA Writers’ Project interviews, etc.
Adelbert H. Whaite in “Cowpoke” (1912) recalls various tenderfoot mistakes he made, such as camping in an arroyo on the Purgatoire and having his fine new bearskin chaps washed away in a great rush of water in the middle of the night. “Cowpunching was glorious work for me; all day long in the saddle, with some night herding along with it, in all sorts of weather. All days were the same to us—we forgot their names and the calendar was no part of our lives. The work was hard but more or less exciting and the hours were long. We turned in with the chickens and got up with the cows” (p. 193). $35.00
1421. DAVIDSON, Levette J[ay] & Forrester Blake (eds.). Rocky Mountain Tales.... Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947. Another copy. Contemporary gift inscription, otherwise fine, d.j. not present. $15.00
1422. DAVIDSON, Levette Jay & Prudence Bostwick (eds.). The Literature of the Rocky Mountain West, 1803-1903. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1939. 449 pp. 8vo, original red cloth. Exceptionally fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. Campbell, p. 28. Dobie, pp. 24, 72. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 2 (“Introduction—My Sport”). Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 19: “Selections from a large variety of writings of the early period of western literature, many from rare and precious books, chosen for interest and value in showing the history of the region. Biographical sketches and evaluations of the authors quoted.” Smith 2290. Wynar 8215.
Among the authors are Andy Adams (“Celebrating in Frenchman’s Ford,” an excerpt from Log of a Cowboy); Walt Whitman (describing Colorado: “One wants new words in writing about these plains, all the inland American West,—the terms, far, large, vast, &c. are insufficient”); Mark Twain (“Memorable Sights on the Overland Trail”); Isabella Bird’s account of her ascent of Long’s Peak; etc. $75.00
1423. DAVIS, Britton. The Truth about Geronimo. New Haven, London & Oxford: Yale University Press, Humphrey Milford & Oxford University Press, 1929. xvii [1] 253 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of Geronimo), photographic plates, map. 8vo, original grey cloth. An unusually fine copy in fine d.j. (price-clipped, two small, closed tears).
First edition, edited and with introduction by Milo Milton Quaife. Campbell, pp. 39-40. Dobie, p. 33: “Davis helped run Geronimo down.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 428n. Rader 1066. Saunders 719. Wallace, Arizona History XIV: 34. WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 107: “With the exception of Custer’s Last Stand, no incident in the Indian Wars became more clouded in controversy than did the surrender of Geronimo.... None of those writers, however, had credentials superior to those of Britton Davis, one of the promising junior officers selected to serve with the Apache scouts.... A key participant in many of the important events of the last Apache campaigns, Davis writes of them with surprising skill.”
Davis includes material on transborder cattle rustling carried out by Geronimo and his band. In Chapter 7, Davis recounts the 1886 surrender of Geronimo to Davis and his Apache scouts at Sulfur Springs Ranch in Arizona. Geronimo’s entourage of almost one hundred men, women, and children also included a herd of ponies and cattle stolen from Mexican ranches. “I called [Geronimo’s] attention to the cloud of dust that was slowly approaching. ‘Ganado’ he explained, laconically, in Spanish. And cattle they were, 350 head of beeves, cows, and half-grown calves stolen from the Mexican ranches just below the international line. My heart beats went up to a record!” (p. 85). $125.00
1424. DAVIS, Britton. The Truth about Geronimo. New Haven & London: Yale University Press & Oxford University Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Slight abrading to binding, top edge of text-block foxed, overall very good, in worn d.j. with front inner flap missing. $85.00
1425. DAVIS, Britton. The Truth about Geronimo. Chicago: The Lakeside Press & R. R. Donnelley & Sons, 1951. lxxi [1] 379 pp., frontispiece portrait, illustrations. 16mo, original maroon cloth, t.e.g. Very fine.
Second edition, augmented with a new 25-page introduction by M. M. Quaife, improved map, and appendices (“The War in Arizona” by General Crook; “Difficulties of Indian Warfare” by the author; and “Hardships of Army Wives”). $35.00
1426. DAVIS, Carlyle Channing. Olden Times in Colorado. Los Angeles: Phillips Publishing Company, 1916. [16] 448 pp., frontispiece (5 photographic portraits of author at various stages of his life), numerous photographic plates (mostly portraits and scenes in nineteenth-century Colorado and early twentieth-century Southern California). Large, thick 8vo, original limp pictorial gilt morocco, t.e.g. Spine light (as usual), otherwise a very fine, bright, tight, and partially unopened copy of a book difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition, limited edition (#57 of 300 copies, signed by author). Campbell, p. 97. Graff 1014. Howes D105. Wilcox, p. 36. Wynar 334. The emphasis of this work is pioneer Colorado history, especially mining and the author’s newspaper work. In the 1880s Davis owned several newspapers in Leadville and edited the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Times, and other papers; he continued with newspaper work intermittently when he later migrated to Santa Barbara and Southern California. Davis claims to have been the first newspaperman in America to hire a woman reporter.
The present volume is filled with interesting history not found elsewhere, running the gamut from his 1879 arrival in the wide-open “gambling hell” and roost of soiled doves found at Leadville (chapter 27, “First Night amidst Scenes Never Before Witnessed in a Civilized Country”) to refined social reportage with photographs of early Leadville society belles in extravagant Victorian attire.
Davis includes an account of his three-month stint as a sheepherder on the William Batchelder ranch, then the largest ranch in the Cache la Poudre Valley: “My duties, with the aid of a number of those singularly intelligent animals known as shepherd dogs, consisted mainly in keeping the sheep from straying away, and protecting them from the ravages of mountain lions and other beasts of prey. Occasionally they were stampeded at night by those predatory animals, and scattered for miles over the foothills.... When such visitations were coincident with thunder storms, the element of danger in the task was three-fold”). A run-in with a nine-foot-long mountain lion with a lamb in its mouth convinced Davis to return to journalism.
In chapter 20 (“Glimpse of Early Colorado: Progress from Grazing to Gold and Silver Greatness”), Davis observes: “Mining was not a flourishing industry [in 1876]. Cattle and sheep raising were esteemed the more remunerative.” In his later years Davis attempted to engage in ranching in Southern California, but notes: “Ranch life in Southern California is ideal, especially if one has a bank or other profitable business...to compensate for the usual hiatus between income and outgo.... Finally, I hit upon one thing that could be raised with certainty...the price on a Southern California ranch.... Before I was aware of it, I was engaged in the real estate business.” $475.00
1427. DAVIS, Carlyle Channing & William A. Alderson. The True Story of “Ramona”: Its Facts and Fictions, Inspiration and Purpose. New York: Dodge Publishing Company, [1914]. xx, 265 pp., text printed within ornate borders with California mission motifs, frontispiece, numerous photographic plates of California in the 1880s. Large 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth with gilt lettering, t.e.g. Binding faded, worn, upper cover soiled, corners bumped and frayed, hinges cracked, free endpapers missing. Contemporary ink ownership inscription.
First edition. BAL V, p. 116. Cowan, p. 158. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:20. This pleasantly printed book is a study of the people, places, and events that inspired Helen Hunt Jackson’s famous book, Ramona, “[the author’s] finest achievement, a romance of genuine vitality about the tottering Spanish society in California and the Indians victimized by gringo usurpers.” Powell (California Classics, pp. 268-78) designates Ramona “the first novel about Southern California.” See also Zamorano Eighty #46.
Included are extensive materials and illustrations of the Camulos Ranch, home of the real Ramona; other Southern California ranches are mentioned in the work. Jackson’s inspiration for Ramona was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Hunt declared: “If I can do one hundredth part for the Indian that Mrs. Stowe did for the Negro, I will be thankful.” Jackson stated: “Every incident in Ramona...is true.” Davis and Alderson’s book amply documents the authenticity of Jackson’s novel, which she based on research, field investigations, and interviews with Don Antonio Coronel, former mayor of Los Angeles, an authority on early California life, and former inspector of missions for the Mexican government. He described to Jackson the plight of mission Indians after 1833, when secularization policies led to the sale of vast mission lands and ranchos and the dispersal of their residents.
“Many of the original Mexican grants included clauses protecting the Indians on the lands they occupied,” writes Valerie Mathes, author of Helen Hunt Jackson: Official Agent to the California Mission Indians. “When Americans assumed control,” Mathes continues, “they ignored Indian claims to lands, which led to their mass dispossessions. In 1852, there were an estimated 15,000 mission Indians in Southern California, but because of the adverse impact of dispossessions by Americans, they numbered less than 4,000 by the time of Helen’s visit.” $60.00
1428. DAVIS, Duke. Flashlights from Mountain and Plain. Bound Brook, New Jersey: Pentecostal Union (Pillar of Fire), 1911. 266 [5, ads] pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic, plus 4 color and 7 black-and-white plates by Charles M. Russell), text illustrations. 12mo, original light blue gilt-pictorial cloth. Binding lightly stained and worn, endpapers and fore-edges lightly foxed, upper hinge cracked, interior fine. Contemporary ink ownership signature on front free endpaper
First edition. Herd 653: “Scarce.” Howes D108. Rader 1067. Smith 2301. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:20. In 1896 the author left his Kentucky home to become a teenage cowboy on a ranch in Grasshopper Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana, and thereafter juggled cowboying with preaching. Although Davis includes much good firsthand information and valuable documentary photographs on cowboys and ranches in Montana, at times the cowboy-preacher becomes tedious with declarations such as: “Most cowboys become hardened in sin and often drift beyond the reach of the Gospel,” and “Though once having been addicted to these habits [swearing, stealing strays, drinking liquor, etc.] I had long since gained mastery over them and Satan seldom tempted me with these things.”
We found an internet listing of this book on with notes by the Holiness Archives of Hazleton, Pennsylvania that says it all: “This book is important for its western heritage and descriptions of outdoor cowboy life. It is also important to holiness studies for that same reason! Very little was written from holiness sources about the cowboys and western life, but here’s one.” $75.00
1429. DAVIS, Duke. Flashlights from Mountain and Plain. Bound Brook, New Jersey: Pentecostal Union (Pillar of Fire), 1911. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original maroon gilt-pictorial cloth. Light to moderate shelf wear, upper hinge starting, interior fine. $85.00
1430. DAVIS, Duke. Flashlights from Mountain and Plain. Bound Brook, New Jersey: Pentecostal Union (Pillar of Fire), 1911. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original red gilt-pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, upper cover stained, front hinge cracked, interior fine. $75.00
1431. DAVIS, Ellis A. (ed.). Davis’ Commercial Encyclopedia of the Pacific Southwest: California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Berkeley: Ellis A. Davis, [1911]. [28] 196 [70] pp., numerous portraits, photographic illustrations, color maps (including 3 folding maps of the western states). Small folio, original full brown leather gilt. Binding worn and rubbed, overall very good.
First edition. Cowan S128. Paher, Nevada 446n. A copiously illustrated mine of local history, including biographies and descriptions of states, cities, commerce, and trade. Some of the biographies are of men involved in the cattle trade. Ranching and the cattle are discussed in various sections of the book. $250.00
1432. DAVIS, Ellis A. (ed.). Davis’ Commercial Encyclopedia of the Pacific Southwest, California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Berkeley: Ellis A. Davis, [1914]. [31] 396 pp., numerous portraits, photographic illustrations, maps (some folding and in color). Small folio, original full brown leather gilt. Binding worn and extremities rubbed, overall very good.
An enlarged edition of Davis’s valuable compendium (see preceding). Flake 2684n. $250.00
1433. DAVIS, Ellis A. & Edwin H. Grobe. The New Encyclopedia of Texas [pictorial title]. Dallas: Texas Development Bureau, [1922]. [2, pictorial title] [4] 766 [15] + [2, pictorial title] 769-1,504 [13] + [2, pictorial title] 1,505-2,250 [13] + [2, pictorial title] 2,249-3,002 [13] pp., including pictorial titles, hundreds of full-page portraits (photographic, some from prints or paintings), text illustrations (documentary photographs of architecture, city views, industries, attractions, etc.), color maps. 4 vols., large 4to, original black textured cloth, each cover with embossed Lone Star and Texas Capitol in gilt and colors. Light edge wear and mild abrasion to covers, upper hinge cracked on vol. 2, hinges loose on vol. 3, foxing to interior of all volumes (mainly affecting pictorial titles), overall a very good to fine set of work difficult to find complete.
First edition. CBC 4310a, 4375a, 4477a, 4545a, 4671a, 6782a. Dobie, Big Bend Bibliography, p. 6. Rader 1068. A massive Texas mug book, with many portraits of individuals from every walk of life, including cattle barons such as King, Kleberg, Littlefield, Slaughter, et al., along with a host of other ranchers—large and small.
The first 261 pages contain a chronicle of Texas history, culture, prospects, industries (much on oil and photos of gushers), agriculture, etc. Articles on ranching include: “Cattle Raising in Texas” (by E. B. Spiller); “The Cattle Industry” (by H. L. Kokernot); “The Texas Cowboy” (by Tom L. Burnett, with photos of Theodore Roosevelt in Texas); “The Old Trail Drivers” (by Ike T. Pryor); “History of the West Texas Cattle Industry” (by Claude C. Broome); “History of the Texas Sheep and Goat Industry” (by T. A. Kinkaid); and “Texas Cattle Industry” (T. D. Hobart). Many of the regional and local histories contain documentation and photographs relating to ranching, e.g. Kingsville (with photo of “Santa Gertrudis, King Ranch Headquarters, Kingsville, Finest Ranch Home in Texas”), Del Rio (Fawcett Ranch), Kerrville (much on Schreiner). Excellent local and social history (fairly good coverage of women, including photos), with much on businesses and economy, transportation, medicine, laws and legal history, etc. $400.00
1434. DAVIS, Lute L. Blankets on the Sand. [Wichita Falls: Terry Brothers, 1948]. [7] 73 pp., portrait, text illustrations (photographic). 12mo, original stiff brown wrappers printed in terracotta, stapled. Very fine.
First edition. CBC 4733. Herd 655. Authentic firsthand account of pioneer life in Oklahoma, including the land rush, Fort Sill, Native Americans (with a section on their humor), ranching and cowboys, wild horses, the oil boom in Burkburnett, Texas, etc. $100.00
1435. DAVIS, Oscar Ezekiel. Recollections 1872-1951: An Autobiography. El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1951. [4] 61 pp., frontispiece portrait (Davis and family), photographic plates, text illustrations. 8vo, original slate blue printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Very fine in original printed mailing envelope.
First edition, limited edition (200 copies). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 74B. The author gives an account of his pioneering experiences in western Oklahoma at the turn of the nineteenth century. At one point he signed on as a cook with a cattle outfit. “One spring I took the job and made the drive with them. They were always a jolly bunch and kept adding to the number I had to cook for as we continued the drive. The cowboys gathered all horses and cattle as we went, as did other camps. Each cowboy had a mount of from three to five horses and rode a different horse each day. After a few days we had quite a good-sized throng of men and beasts, each day covering about ten miles toward the final goal. Reminded me of Moses and the children of Israel” (p. 22). $175.00
1436. DAVIS, R. B. & R. L. Spicer. Status of the Practice of Brush Control in the Rio Grande Plain. Austin: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Bulletin 46, 1965. 40 pp., photographic text illustrations, tables, map laid in. 8vo, original olive green wrappers. Very fine.
First printing. An agricultural study of the brush country of south Texas, with much on its ranches and rangeland, including the King Ranch. $35.00
1437. DAVIS, Richard Harding. The West from a Car-Window. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. [10] 242 [1] pp., numerous text and full-page illustrations reproduced from photographs and art work by Frederick Remington and others), including frontispiece (“A Bucking Broncho” by Remington). 12mo, original blue cloth with illustration and lettering in silver. Slightly shelf-slanted, stain on lower cover, text lightly age-toned, overall a very good copy, with neat contemporary ink ownership inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition. BAL 4513. Campbell, p. 104. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Remington 507). Guns 566: “Scarce.” Herd 656: “A chapter on Texas ranch life, mostly on the King Ranch.” Rader 1072. Raines, p. 64: “A spicy book.” Wynar 2100.
This account of western travel contains a lively account of the author’s railroad tour through Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma, with chapters: “From San Antonio to Corpus Christi,” “Our Troops on the Border,” “At a New Mining Camp, A Three-Year-Old City,” “Ranch Life in Texas,” “On An Indian Reservation,” “A Civilian at an Army Post,” and “The Heart of the Great Divide.”
In the chapter “Ranch Life in Texas,” Davis writes: “The largest ranch in the United States, and probably in the world, owned by one person, is in Texas, and belongs to Mrs. Richard King.... The ‘Widow’s’ ranch, as the Texans call it, is as carefully organized and moves on as conservative business principles as a bank.” $100.00
1438. DAVIS, Richard Harding. The West from a Car-Window. New York: Harper & Brothers, [1892]. [10] 242 [1] pp., including frontispiece, plates, and text illustrations. 12mo, original blue pictorial cloth. Shelf-worn and slightly cocked, covers lightly abraded, spine darkened, paper lightly age-toned.
First edition, later printing (without 1892 on title). $35.00
Zamorano 80
1439. DAVIS, William Heath. Sixty Years in California: A History of Events and Life in California; Personal, Political and Military, under the Mexican Regime, during the Quasi-Military Government of the Territory by the United States, and after the Admission of the State into the Union, Being a Compilation by a Witness of the Events Described. San Francisco: A. J. Leary, 1889. xxii, 639 pp. 8vo, original purple pebble cloth, spine gilt-lettered, marbled edges. Spine slightly faded, hinges cracked (but strong), otherwise very fine.
First edition. Barrett, Baja California 647. Bradford 1234. Cowan, pp. 160-61. Graff 1020. Herd 659: “A scarce book with chapters on the cattle industry of California.” Hill, pp. 396-97. Howell 50, California 407: “One of the most trustworthy sources for the period before 1850.... There were few people of importance he did not know and his narrative is one of the most interesting and valuable accounts we have.” Howes D136. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 170a. Libros Californianos, pp. 67-68. Rocq 9092. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 55. Zamorano 80 #27.
The firsthand information on the early California cattle trade is quite detailed: “When I was at the port of San Luis Obispo, in the bark ‘Louisa’ in the year 1831, the Mission of that name was wealthy, with sixty thousand head of cattle and thousands of sheep and horses. The great wealth of the Missions, while under Spanish and Mexican control, will be shown by the following enumeration of their live stock...” (p. 591); over the next ten pages Davis lists the holdings of missions as well as “solid men of the department.” $225.00
1440. [DAVIS, WILLIAM HEATH]. The Following Are the Reviews of the San Francisco and Alameda County Newspapers, Favorable As to the Merit of the “Sixty Years in California,” As a History; Also the Actions of the State Board of Education, and the Board of Education of Alameda County, All of Which Is Respectfully Submitted by the Author. [N.p., 1890]. 29 pp. 12mo, original tan printed wrappers. Wraps lightly soiled and foxed, split at spine, and lower corner of upper cover chipped and repaired with tape, internally clean, a very good though fragile copy, with ephemera laid in (review of Rolle’s biography of William Heath Davis with Streeter’s pencil notes indicating source and date of 1957, along with a slip of paper with a Pony Express Green backstamp “Pony Express The Central Overlander California & Pikes Peak Express Company Jan 20 St. Joseph, Mo” with an old typed note of explanation). Scarce Zamorano 80 ephemera.
First separate printing. Cowan p. 160. Among the reviews is one from the San Francisco News Letter, May 25, 1889, stating: “Mr. Davis also gives an insight into the cattle business of the country, and speaks without any comment upon the killing of 2,000 cattle at the Mission San José for their hides and tallow. No one at this time had any idea that California had any agricultural possibilities. All the Californians cared for were horses; and in their bands of fine horses they took great pride. To ride after stock, hunt the bear, and fill up the evening hours with dance and song, was the attitude of the early Californian’s ambition.” $175.00
1441. DAVIS, William Heath. Seventy-Five Years in California: Recollections and Remarks by One Who Visited These Shores in 1831, and Again in 1833, and Except When Absent on Business Was a Resident from 1838 until the End of a Long Life in 1909. San Francisco: [Lawton & Alfred Kennedy for] John Howell-Books, 1967. xi [9] 345 pp., color frontispiece portrait, 19 plates (4 folding, some in color). Large 8vo, original gilt-decorated cloth. Unopened and very fine.
Third edition, edited and corrected from Davis’s own copy of the 1889 original printing, with added illustrations, maps, and reference materials. Howell 50, California 1261: “The definitive edition of the most readable book on 19th century California.” Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 170C. Mohr, The Range Country 658n: “Lots of material on ranching in California.” $100.00
1442. DAVIS, W[illiam] W. H. El Gringo; or, New Mexico and Her People. New York: Harper, 1857. 432 pp., engraved frontispiece, 12 wood-engraved plates (views after original drawings by Brevet Lieut.-Col. Eaton and F. A. Percey). 8vo, original brown blind-embossed cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Light shelf wear, endpapers darkened, occasional mild foxing (mainly confined to first and last leaves), overall very good to fine.
First edition of one of the earliest full-length books on New Mexico in English (the copyright notice on title verso is dated 1856, but this 1857 imprint is the first edition). Campbell, p. 104. Dobie, p. 76: “Excellent on manners and customs.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 12 (“Western Movement—Its Literature”). Graff 1021. Howes D139. Laird, Hopi 536. Larned 2026: “Few narratives of any period are more interestingly written.” Munk (Alliott), p. 63. Plains & Rockies IV:289: “Davis traveled the Santa Fe Trail from Independence to Santa Fe in 1853 and made an excursion to the Navajo country in 1855.” Rader 1073. Raines, p. 64: “Touches somewhat on the early exploration of the Rio Grande region of Texas.” Rittenhouse 153. Saunders 4013. Streeter Sale 437.
Davis, a U.S. Attorney and later acting governor of New Mexico, was one of the first writers to gain access to the archives in Santa Fe. His account of early New Mexico includes much incidental information on sheep grazing and cattle raising across the region, and chapter 8 (“Manners and Customs of the People—Continued”) describes skills and sports of the vaqueros (e.g., el coleo, the lazo, etc.); minute description of costume of the mounted caballero, saddles, horse equipage, horsemanship, brands and branding, etc.; upland grazing grounds (“the pasturage of New Mexico excels every other branch of agriculture”); local practices with cattle, sheep, and goats; etc. Davis describes various ranches he visited on his law circuit, such as the Crabb Ranch near Las Cruces, whose stock had just been stolen by Mescalero Apaches. Davis includes good material on El Paso. At the end is a sixty-word vocabulary of Navajo and English. $350.00
Photogravures of Big Bend
1443. DAVIS MOUNTAIN FEDERATION OF WOMEN’S CLUBS. The Big Bend of Texas [wrapper title]. [Brooklyn: Albertype, ca. 1928]. [80] pp., numerous sepia-tone photogravures. Oblong 16mo, original cream printed wrappers with photograph of Fort Davis on upper wrapper, map on lower wrapper, string tie. Very fine, sealed in original mailing envelope. Very scarce.
First edition. CBC 647 (plus 2 additional entries). Dobie, Big Bend Bibliography, p. 6. According to the preface, the prime mover behind this project was Mrs. O. L. Shipman (see Basic Texas Books 184 and Herd 2062 & 2063). This superb guidebook contains descriptive text and excellent photogravures, including Gage Hotel, Rancho Valle la Cienega (“the first dude ranch ever established in Texas”), Brite Ranch, Jones Ranch, Fort Stockton, Alpine, Presidio-Ojinaga, and other landmarks of the region. A photogravure is a photographic image produced from an engraving plate. The process, which was introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, is rarely used today due to the very high cost. Photogravure prints have the subtlety of a photograph and the art quality of a lithograph. $750.00
1444. DAWDY, Doris Ostrander. Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary. Chicago: Sage Books, The Swallow Press, [1974]. viii, 275 pp. 8vo, original black cloth. Light shelf wear and rubbing, otherwise fine.
First edition. This work lists over 1,300 artists and illustrators born before 1900 who portrayed the West in various media. About 300 of the entries present brief biographical sketches of the artists, analyses of their work, and holdings where their work can be found. The artists include the big guns of cowboy and ranch art (Remington, Russell, Borein, et al.), along with some of our lesser-known favorites, such as Texas artist Mary Bonner. $30.00
1445. DAWSON, Nicholas. Narrative of Nicholas “Cheyenne” Dawson (Overland to California in ’41 & ’49, and Texas in ’51).... Introduction by Charles L. Camp.... San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1933. [12] 100 [7] pp., text illustrations in color by Arvilla Parker. Tall 8vo, original tan linen over brown pictorial boards, printed paper spine label. Corners slightly bumped, endpapers browned, usual light offsetting opposite text illustrations, otherwise fine in plain brown d.j.
Limited edition (500 copies) of the rare original edition printed in Austin around the turn of the century in an edition of 50 copies for private distribution. Grabhorn Press Rare Americana Series 7. Cowan, p. 161n. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 123. Graff 1027n. Herd 661: “The author...was in the first company to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1841.... Some scattered information on cattle of California and Texas.” Howes D159. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 54: “Dawson got his nickname from the time he was caught by Cheyenne Indians, stripped, and robbed of knives and gun.” Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 171: “In 1841, Dawson of Austin, Texas, was a part of the famed Bidwell-Bartleson Party.... His Gold Rush [trip] was organized at Sherman, Texas on March 1, 1849, and aimed at the Southern route.... His fellow pioneer Charles Weber of Stockton tried to coax him into ranching, [but] in 1851, he began the return journey to Texas via the Isthmus.” Mintz, The Trail 118n. Rader 1084n. Vandale 47n.
Dawson’s observations are some of the earliest and least stereotyped writing on the West, and include good content on cattle: description of specific ranches Dawson visited, such as Marsh’s Ranch near Mount Diablo; cult of horsemanship in Mexican California; social history (e.g., attending a fandango at a ranch near San Jose Mission); hide and tallow trade (“cattle are the only source of wealth of this country”); Anglos and other foreigners acquiring ranches by becoming Mexican citizens, marrying Mexican women, or professing Catholicism; rustling by runaway mission Indians; bull and bear fights; etc. Upon his return to Texas, Dawson settled in Austin and engaged in freighting, farming, and stock raising. $100.00
1446. DAWSON, Nicholas. California in ’41, Texas in ’51. Austin & New York: The Pemberton Press, Jenkins Publishing Company, [1969]. [8] 119 [13] pp., frontispiece portrait of Dawson. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in slightly rubbed d.j.
Facsimile of the Streeter copy of the first edition, with added index. $25.00
Dawson & Skiff’s Ute War
1447. DAWSON, Thomas F. & F. J. V. Skiff. The Ute War: A History of the White River Massacre and the Privations and Hardships of the Captive White Women among the Hostiles on Grand River. Denver: Tribune Publishing House, 1879. 184 pp., wood-engravings in text (some full-page; mostly portraits including Chief Ouray and Josie Meeker). 8vo, later dark brown morocco. Without the four leaves of ads at end (we have had this book only once before, and the ads were not present in that copy, nor are they found in the Denver Public Library copy and other copies offered on the market). Minor rubbing to upper edge of front cover of binding, interior fine.
First edition. Ayer (Supp.) 42. Bauer 108. Braislin 572: “Excessively rare and almost unknown Indian captivity, and regarded by Colorado connoisseurs as the rarest book printed in the state.” DPL, Nothing Is Long Ago: A Documentary History of Colorado 1776-1976 #65 (illustrated): “By 1868 most of the Indians of Colorado had been removed.... Only the Utes—some 3,000 of them—remained. A delegation of their leaders was escorted to Washington in 1868 and induced to sign a treaty ceding the San Luis Valley and the eastern portion of their range, but the reservation they retained west of the 107th meridian still comprised one-third of Colorado.... Although temporarily satisfied, white land hunger, particularly for the agricultural regions of the lower Gunnison and Grand (Colorado) river valleys, shortly produced a swelling chorus: ‘Utes must go!’ Events at the White River Agency in 1879 provided the rationalization for Ute removal.”
Flake 2732. Graff 1028. Holliday 277. Howes D161: “After Hollister...the rarest Colorado imprint.” Jones 1601. Littell 257: “An excessively rare and little-known Indian captivity regarded by collectors as the rarest book printed in Colorado.” Streeter Sale 2194: “The famous account of western Indian captivity. It is the story of the Meeker Massacre in which nine white men were killed and three white women carried off to be ravished by the Utes. The incident provided reason for depriving the Utes of the extensive lands in western Colorado.” Wilcox, p. 37. Wynar 1800.
The authors state in chapter 2 that the Ute trouble arose because of the tribe’s discontent with their reservation and their intrusions upon the ranches and settlers in the more desirable grazing land adjacent to their reservation. The Ute perspective was quite different on the second point (see entry above, Helen Sloan Daniels’ The Ute Indians of Southwestern Colorado). Again, two cultures competed for the same land to use for grazing, agriculture, mining, and other pursuits. In this case, the losers were the Utes.
The book lore regarding the rarity of the imprint probably derives in part from Eberstadt (107:117): “Mr. Dawson, co-author of this narrative was, in his latter days, Curator of the Colorado Historical Society. He met his death in an automobile accident on the trail to Lookout Mountain, while escorting President Harding to Cody’s grave. He once told me why his book was so rare. ‘There are,’ he explained, ‘probably not more than a dozen copies in existence. You see, just about the time the book went to press we had another Indian outbreak, cartridge wadding was needed by the troops, and my book—mere paper stock at the time—was used to supply the deficiency.”
Although this work is often referred to as the rarest book printed in Colorado, the number of copies located and offered on the market would seem to suggest otherwise. The book is also interesting for providing details on the Black cavalry troops that fought in the Ute War. $2,000.00
1448. DAY, A. Grove. Coronado’s Quest: The Discovery of the Southwestern States. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1940. xvi [2] 419 pp., large folding map, text illustrations. 8vo, original black cloth. Fine in slightly chipped d.j. (price-clipped). Ink ownership inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition. Saunders 2489n. Tate, Indians of Texas 1724. Wallace, Arizona History III:40. This history of the Coronado expedition is for the general reader, with index, good footnotes, chronology, bibliography, and a large folding map of the region traversed. Coronado’s expedition to the Southwest in 1540 was a cavalcade of noteworthy proportions, during which the indigenous people of the region experienced their first extensive exposure to Europeans. Coronado left Mexico with an entourage of 274 mounted men, 62 foot soldiers, 6 Franciscan padres, 700 slaves, a remuda of 1,000 horses, 600 pack animals, and a walking larder of 1,000 cattle and 4,000 sheep. Coronado introduced horses, cattle, and sheep to the indigenous peoples of the Southwest. Coronado, who is often referred to as the last conquistador, returned to Spain a failure, financially ruined and physically ill, but the legacy he left behind in the form of strayed and stolen Andalusian cattle formed the nucleus for the wild herds of longhorns that transformed the landscape and life of the American Southwest. $65.00
1449. DAY, B. F. Gene Rhodes, Cowboy (Eugene Manlove Rhodes). New York: Julian Messner, [1955]. 192 pp., text illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund. 8vo, original tan pebble cloth. Text browned throughout due to the cheap acidic paper on which it is printed, otherwise fine in slightly worn d.j. with Bjorklund illustration.
Weekly Reader edition (first edition 1954). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 29n). Guns 571n: “Contains some material about the Apache Kid, Billy the Kid, Bill Doolin, and the Dalton gang.” Herd 662n. Biography of Gene Rhodes’ ranching days, written for adolescents. $25.00
1450. DAY, Beth. A Shirttail To Hang To: The Story of Cal Farley and His Boys Ranch. New York: Henry Holt, [1959]. xviii, 232 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original salmon cloth. Endpapers slightly browned, otherwise fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition, second printing. Preface by J. Edgar Hoover. Biography of Farley who reformed truants and delinquents on his orphanage/reform school ranch. Julian Bivins donated an abandoned ranch near Amarillo to Farley to establish a home for “bottom of the barrel” boys. $20.00
1451. DAY, Donald. Big Country: Texas. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, [1947]. x, 326 pp., endpaper maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in slightly chipped d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. American Folkways Series; edited by Erskine Caldwell. Campbell, p. 104: “Manners and customs, history and legends.... A rich, racy variety of interesting materials.” Guns 572. Herd 663. A large portion of the book is devoted to ranching and the related issue of water, including much discussion of longhorns, fencing, mesquite, and railroads. $25.00
1452. DAY, Donald & Beth Day. Will Rogers, the Boy Roper. Boston & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin & Riverside Press, [1950]. [6] 201 pp., text illustrations by William Moyers. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. autographed by both authors.
First edition. Campbell, p. 206. Biography of Will Rogers for children, focusing on his early days and his desire to become the best trick rider and roper in the world. $35.00
1453. DAY, Jack Hays. The Sutton-Taylor Feud. [San Antonio: Privately printed, 1937]. 40 pp., frontispiece portrait of author, 7 photographic plates. 12mo, original white printed wrappers. A few minor stains to wraps, otherwise very fine, signed by author in pencil.
First edition. Guns 573: “This scarce little book tells some of the inside facts of the feud from the Taylor side by one of the participants and a kinsman of the Taylors.” Handbook of Texas Online: Sutton-Taylor Feud: “The Sutton-Taylor Feud, the longest and bloodiest in Texas, grew out of the bad times following the Civil War.... [In 1869] ostensibly in pursuit of horse and cattle thieves, the State Police terrorized a large portion of Southeast Texas.... There was constant pursuing and lying in wait, and deaths were frequent. Sutton moved to Victoria in an adjoining county and finally determined to leave the country. Some say he was going away for good; others believe he was merely following a herd of cattle to a northern market. He had boarded a steamer at Indianola on March 11, 1874, when Jim and Bill Taylor rode up to the dock and killed him and his friend Gabriel Slaughter. The Suttons got even by lynching three Taylors. Kute Tuggle, Jim White, and Scrap Taylor were among a group of cowboys who had engaged to take a herd up the trail for John Wesley Hardin. At Hamilton they were arrested, charged with cattle theft.... On the night of June 20, 1874, they were taken out of the courthouse and hanged, though they were probably innocent of any wrongdoing.” $125.00
1454. DAY, Jack Hays. The Sutton-Taylor Feud. [San Antonio: Privately Printed, 1937]. Another copy. One small closed tear on back wrapper, otherwise fine. $100.00
1455. DAY, James M. Paul Horgan. Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company, [1967]. [4] 44 pp. 12mo, original beige printed wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Southwest Writers Series 8. Includes discussion of Horgan’s classic Pulitzer Prize-winning Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (see Herd 1065 and Item XXX in this catalogue). $15.00
1456. DAY, James M., et al. Soldiers of Texas. Waco: Texian Press, 1973. xiii [1] 160 pp., full-page color illustrations. 4to, original beige and red cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. This illustrated history of the Texas soldier from San Jacinto to World War II includes a chapter on the Rough Riders, the volunteer “cowboy cavalry” of the Spanish American War. “During his self-imposed exile in the Dakotas, [Theodore Roosevelt] developed a genuine appreciation for the people in the West. He believed that the average cowboy groups had riding skills and marksmanship equal to any equestrian force in the world” (pp. 100-101). $45.00
1457. DAYTON, Edson C. Dakota Days: May 1886-August 1898. [Hartford or Clifton Springs, New York]: Privately printed, 1937. [10] 128 pp., frontispiece map, plate. 8vo, original gilt-lettered blue cloth. Superb copy, in original paper box.
First edition, limited edition (#241 of 300 copies). Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 28. Dobie, p. 102: “[Dayton] had spiritual content. His very use of the world intellectual on the second page of his book; his estimate of Milton and Gladstone, adjacent to talk about a frontier saloon; his consciousness of his own inner growth—something no extrovert cowboy ever noticed, usually because he did not have it; his quotation to express harmony with nature...all indicate a refinement that any gambler could safely bet originated in the East and not in Texas or the South.” Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 14. Herd 665: “Scarce.” Howes D165. Reese, Six Score 29: “Dayton had more connection with sheep than with cattle, but he saw a good deal of both. A well educated easterner, he gives an interesting perspective on life in the Dakotas during the hard years of the 1890s.” $500.00
1458. DAYTON, Edson C. Dakota Days.... [Hartford or Clifton Springs, New York]: Privately printed, 1937. Another copy, without box. Very fine. $400.00
1459. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard, Chief of Scouts, U.S.A.... St. Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., [1894]. 545 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of Grouard), plates (mostly photographic). Thick 8vo, original tan gilt-lettered pictorial cloth (rebacked, original spine preserved, new endpapers). Spine faded, binding worn, upper right blank corner of title neatly clipped, occasional marginal browning and chipping to some pages and plates. Tipped in at front is a typed note dated 1953 on engraved stationery of Charles D. Humberd, M.D., of Barnard, Missouri. The note contains a long description of the book (“splendid & unusual with mostly unique full-page plates...these are largely half-tone cuts of otherwise unknown photographic portraits of personages who come in for comment in the text”). Following the book description are biographical notes on Grouard, stating he died of alcoholism at St. Joseph, Missouri, on August 16, 1905, and was a pauper. “The scout’s friends raised funds to pay for his burial.”
First edition. Eberstadt 105:105: “Huntington No. 231: ‘Of the highest importance historically; probably the most thorough and reliable work on scouting on the plains that has ever been written.’ Nearly the entire edition was lost in the St. Joe flood.... The noted scout tells of his journey to Helena in 1865; his capture by the Sioux and his intercourse with Sitting Bull; of Ventres and the Blackfeet War; of his campaigns with Gen. Crook and in the government service; of California Joe; the killing of McGloskey, etc.” Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 124. Flake 2743. Graff 1035. Guns 574: “Rare.... Contains a chapter on Frank and Jesse James.” Holliday 280. Howes D183. Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 70. Jones 1669. Littell 259. Luther, High Spots of Custer 33: “An interwoven western classic.” Rader 1090. Streeter Sale 3090.
According to Finerty, General Crook once said that he would rather lose a third of his command than be deprived of Grouard’s scouting services. Grouard’s minute knowledge of the country and its Native American inhabitants was essential to the U.S. Army in its campaign against tribes in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Nebraska at the critical juncture when the original inhabitants were struggling to retain their lands against the encroachments of miners, ranchers, and settlers.
Grouard was in the unique position of having lived for seven years as a Sioux warrior under Sitting Bull after being taken captive as a teenager. Grouard gives a firsthand account of the 1877 Nez Percé War, which resulted from the government’s double-dealing on the farm and grazing lands of the Lapwai and Wallowa valleys secured by Chief Joseph and his people in 1855. In 1875 disputes regarding stock arose between the Nez Percé and Anglo settlers, and by 1877 the Nez Percé were forced to give up their homes to the Anglos.
In the final chapters, Grouard recounts his participation in quelling the Sioux and Cheyenne uprising in South Dakota in 1890. Grouard was sent to determine why the tribes were stealing and butchering the range stock of the regional cattlemen. He reported that rather than the Ghost Dance being the cause of the trouble, the depredations were due to the government’s litany of broken promises, including not honoring its commitment to provide beef and other provisions to the Pine Ridge Agency. After assisting the Army with the “Indian Problem” in the region, Grouard then turned his attention to thieves and rustlers who infiltrated the area (“It just seemed as if all the thieves in the universe had been turned loose [and] they were, in my opinion, infinitely worse than the Indians ever were.”). $550.00
1460. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... St. Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., [1894]. Another copy, variant binding. Thick 8vo, original blue gilt-lettered pictorial cloth. Binding worn, book block almost detached (first few signatures detached), text with mild marginal browning. Ink date on front free endpaper (January, 1895). Laid in is an original typed letter signed from Albert W. Johnson (Historic Research Pioneer Life, Trails, and Indian War History, Marine-On-St. Croix, Minn.), dated October 14, 1931, to Logan’s Book and Curio Store in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with information about the book, including: “I stopped off at St. Joseph, Mo. and made some inquiries there about Frank Grouard’s book...and found that it was scarce now. Mr. Bundy the City Librarian had some copies two or three ye[a]rs ago which he offered for about $30.00, this being the lowest price I have had mentioned to me. The Librarian at Kansas City who had originally had the plates was asking $100.00. As you know the plates were destroyed by accident. I was told by a man in St. Joseph who knew Frank Grouard well in St Joseph, and was informed of his latter days, that the book had no sale when published and that blocks of it were turned over to the Grocery stores who advertised it as prizes in connection with sales.” $600.00
1461. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... St. Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., [1894]. Another copy, variant binding. Thick 8vo, original green gilt-lettered pictorial cloth. Mild to moderate outer wear and soiling, hinges cracked, text with mild marginal browning. Contemporary ink ownership stamp of Joseph S. Browne of St. Joseph, Mo. on front pastedown. $550.00
1462. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... St. Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., [1894]. Another copy, variant binding. Thick 8vo, original red gilt-lettered pictorial cloth. Binding worn, snagged, and stained, text with very mild marginal browning, front hinge cracked. $450.00
1463. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... Buffalo, Wyoming: Buffalo Bulletin, n.d. [1930s?]. [2] 326 pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Light outer wear and short, clean short tear at top of front cover adjacent to spine, interior fine. Ink ownership stamps of noted historian Grace Raymond Hebard on cover and title.
Second edition. Reprinted by the Buffalo Bulletin, without the illustrations that appeared in the first edition. $100.00
1464. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... Buffalo, Wyoming: Buffalo Bulletin, n.d. [1930s?]. Another copy. Thick 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly worn and a few minor chips, otherwise fine. $85.00
1465. DE BARTHE, Joe. The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard.... Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1958]. xxvii [1] 268 pp., illustrated title, frontispiece, 7 photographic plates, maps, illustrations. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Fine in slightly worn d.j.
Third edition, first printing of the University of Oklahoma Press edition, edited and with introduction by Edgar I. Stewart, who describes the work as “one of the greatest classics of the history of the American frontier, especially as relates to the wars against the Indian tribes of the Northern Plains.” $65.00
Author’s Presentation Copy to Commodore Moore of Republic of Texas Navy Fame
1466. DE CORDOVA, Jacob. Texas: Her Resources and Her Public Men. A Companion for J. De Cordova’s New and Correct Map of the State of Texas...First Edition. Philadelphia: E. Crozet, 1858. 371 [1, calendar] pp. 8vo, original embossed green cloth, title in gilt on spine. Green cloth faded (especially at spine), light outer staining and shelf wear, interior with light scattered foxing, front free endpaper with small strip clipped at top, generally very good. Signed ink presentation from E. W. Moore. Title page with author’s ink note: “Com E. W. Moore with the respects of The Author.” Moore was named commander of the Republic of Texas Navy in 1839 (see Handbook of Texas Online: Moore, Edwin Ward).
First edition, first issue. A persistent bibliographical tradition, dating back to at least Howes, describes this book as 371 pp. but implies it does not have the index, here present on pp. 365-371. Despite that confusion, this would appear to be the genuine first edition. This issue may be readily distinguished by the facts that the page number on p. 67 is battered, p. 351 is misnumbered 251, p. 369 is misnumbered, and signature 8, on pp. 188-190, has a discussion entitled “Slave and Free Labor.” The sheets bulk 2.3 cm.
Basic Texas Books 38: “The first attempt at an encyclopedia of Texas, this work contains a wealth of still-useful material.... DeCordova, a native of Jamaica [and] one of the earliest Jewish settlers in Texas...did some of the first genuine scholarly research ever done in Texas while compiling the book, interviewing leading men, researching newspaper files, searching county court records.... The volume includes biographies, land laws, climatology, statistics, articles on railroads, the cotton industry, sheep raising, geology, schools, farming, slavery, churches, cattle, the lumber industry, gambling, and other subjects.” Bradford 1262: “A cyclopædia of Texas.” Dykes, Western High Spots (“Western Movement—Its Literature”), pp. 12-13. Howes D201. Rader 1098. Raines, p. 68. Sabin 16775.
De Cordova includes numerous references and discussions about the rise in value of livestock in the state, and p. 54 has a general discussion on “Texas Cattle” concluding: “One fact that always attracts the attention of graziers from the older States is the early maturity of our cattle and the immense size and power of our oxen.” Cattle raising and its prospect are covered in most all of the essays on the individual Texas counties. Goliad, Harris, and San Saba counties are especially highly praised as livestock raising areas. Regarding the latter, De Cordova remarks on p. 256: “Texas is emphatically a grazing-country, and it would be invidious in us to designate any one spot as presenting superior advantages over the rest of the State for stock-raising; yet we must acknowledge that the region of country watered by the San Saba and Upper Colorado River and her tributaries is pre-eminently adapted to this business. The cattle appear to grow larger and fatter, and come to maturity at least one year sooner, than they do in the southern counties.” On p. 257 the author sets out the difference between the outlay necessary for stock in Connecticut and Texas. $1,000.00
1467. DE CORDOVA, Jacob. Texas: Her Resources and Her Public Men. A Companion for J. De Cordova’s New and Correct Map of the State of Texas...First Edition. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1858. 375 pp. 8vo, original blind-stamped plum cloth, spine gilt lettered. Binding mostly faded to brown, spine light, minor chipping at extremities and some light shelf wear, endpapers browned, scattered mild to moderate foxing to text, generally a very good copy. Ink ownership inscription of Benj. F. French on title (likely historian Benjamin Franklin French, 1799-1877, who moved to New Orleans in 1830. Contemporary ink notes on wealth of Texas on front free endpaper. Laid in are several contemporary news clippings relating to Texas.
First edition, second issue. This issue may be readily distinguished by the fact that p. 200 is misnumbered 00, p. 330 is misnumbered 30, and signature 8 has been partially reset so that pp. 187-190 now have a biography of James Pinckney Henderson. The discussion of “Slave and Free Labor” has been moved to pp. 351-354. Everything after p. 350 is a new setting of type, and the sheets bulk to 3.3 cm. This copy is printed on thick paper. Basic Texas Books 38A. Dykes, Western High Spots (“Western Movement—Its Literature”), pp. 12-13: “Another emigration pitch. De Corcova owned much land script that he was anxious to market—despite the obvious profit motive, it is a good book.” Howes D201. Rader 1097. Raines, p. 68. $650.00
1468. DE MÉZIÈRES, Athanase. Athanase de Mézières and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780.... New York: Kraus Reprint Company, 1970. 351 [1]; 392 pp., large folding map. 2 vols. in one, 8vo, original red buckram. Fine.
Facsimile of the original edition (Arthur H. Clark Co., 1914; edited and annotated by Herbert Eugene Bolton). Spain in the West, a Series of Original Documents from Foreign Archives, volume 1. Basic Texas Books 41A: “Provides the best insight into the Indians of Texas during the period, and into the Spanish and French activities among them.” Howes B584n. Rader 392n. Rittenhouse 66n. Saunders 2469n. Tate, Indians of Texas 1686n. Tyler, Big Bend, p. 240. The author’s valuable report discusses friction between cattle ranchers and Native Americans and provides information on the early cattle trade in Texas and Louisiana (a somewhat neglected subject). $125.00
1469. DE SHIELDS, J. T. Border Wars of Texas: Being an Authentic and Popular Account, in Chronological Order, of the Long and Bitter Conflict Waged between Savage Indian Tribes and the Pioneer Settlers of Texas. Wresting of a Fair Land from Savage Rule; A Red Record of Fierce Strife.... Tioga, Texas: Matt Bradley, Herald Company, 1912. 400 pp., 40 plates (some photographic) and maps, including frontispiece, text illustrations. 8vo, original three-quarter leather over brown gilt-lettered cloth. Light outer wear, otherwise very fine (much better than usually found).
First edition. Agatha, p. 61. Campbell, p. 177. Eberstadt 110:251: “De Shields spent more than thirty years in assembling the material for this book, and collected a host of facts from pioneers who took part in the events described.” Graff 1063. Howes D277. Rader 1125. Tate, Indians of Texas 2362: “An encyclopedia of Indian atrocity stories as revealed directly by pioneers and nineteenth-century newspapers.”
The time period covered in this Anglocentric compilation is 1819-1845. In addition to captivities and massacres, many of the depredations involved theft of horses and cattle, particularly that of pioneer stock raisers and farmers living in remote, virtually unsettled areas. De Shields discusses the problems of German stock raisers in the Fisher and Miller Grant in the area drained by the Pedernales, Llano, San Saba, and lower Concho Rivers. The book includes much on Jack Hays and other Texas Rangers. $300.00
1470. DE SHIELDS, J. T. Border Wars of Texas.... Tioga, Texas: Matt Bradley, Herald Company, 1912. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth stamped in red and purple. Slight shelf wear, front hinge weak, back hinge cracked, interior very fine. $225.00
1471. DE SHIELDS, J. T. Border Wars of Texas.... Tioga, Texas: Herald, 1912. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original grey pictorial cloth stamped in red and brown. Light ex-library with call numbers neatly inked on spine and dedication page. Covers slightly soiled, otherwise very fine. $200.00
1472. DEAREN, Patrick. A Cowboy of the Pecos. [Plano:] Republic of Texas Press, 1997. v [1] 266 pp., text illustrations, map. 8vo, original pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
First edition. Description of cowboy life on the Pecos, from the first Goodnight-Loving trail drive to the advent of barbed wire and cattle trucks. $15.00
1473. DEBO, Angie. Prairie City: The Story of an American Community. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. xiv, 245 [1] viii [1] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in slightly worn and price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 121: “Story of a typical town in western Oklahoma, from its founding. A social study. Authentic and interpretive.” Guns 575. Herd 668. Historical fiction on the Oklahoma land rush and the Cherokee Strip, with excellent documentary photographs and much information on ranching through the years (cowboys of the Cherokee Strip, cattle ranching during World War I, etc.).
Angie Debo (1890-1988), historian and pioneer, traveled with her family by covered wagon to Manhattan, Kansas, in 1895, and to Marshall, Oklahoma, in 1899. Her invaluable documentary history And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes proved too incendiary for the University of Oklahoma to publish, but after several years Princeton University Press published the book, albeit with some names excised to avert possible libel suits (see Thrapp IV, p. 131). $40.00
1474. DECKER, Peter. The Diaries of Peter Decker: Overland to California in 1849 and Life in the Mines, 1850-1851. Georgetown, California: The Talisman Press, 1966. 338 pp., frontispiece, foldout facsimile maps. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Very fine, in publisher’s red board pull-off case within green board slipcase with printed paper label on spine.
Limited edition (#72 of 100 copies, signed by editor Helen S. Giffen). Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 174: “Decker was one of the first to arrive in the remote Trinity mining district. From there, the gold seeker went on to work the South Fork of the Yuba River and tells of the rigors of everyday mining life including the building of a diversion dam. Decker devoted the last part of the diary to his experiences as a storekeeper in Nevada City. He became mayor of Marysville in 1858.” Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 422: “Decker was ‘overpowered’ by the scenic splendor of Independence Rock and Devil’s Gate, and called South Pass ‘the backbone of America.’.... This account is outstanding for its wealth of detail and unique literary quality.... Packed with data on fauna, flora, fellow emigrants, Indians, scenery, and the author’s own thoughts.” Mintz 120. Rocq S2492.
Decker describes California cattle: “In my rambles after mules met a lot of Spanish or Wild Cattle which is herds on the plains on the west side of the Sacramento where the Spaniards go & ‘lasso’ them, bring them here & some sell for beef & other times for milk cows & work oxen. This cattle is the finest in the world. Is easily known by the wild staring look.... Have very large horns very thick & high hump, full quarters and look very round bodied.... Have seen Mexicans lassoo Spanish Cattle which they do on horseback where they delight to be with a Lassoo.” Decker provides details on ranches he visited, such as those of William Brown Ide, Joseph P. Chiles, John Lawson, John Bidwell, and others. $200.00
1475. DELANO, A[lonzo]. Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, Being Scenes and Adventures of an Overland Journey to California: With Particular Incidents of the Route, Mistakes and Sufferings of the Emigrants, the Indian Tribes, the Present and the Future of the Great West. New York: C. M. Saxton, Barker, & Co., 1861. 384 pp., engraved frontispiece and plates by Frederick M. Coffin (engraved by N. Orr). 12mo, original black blindstamped cloth, gilt-lettered spine with gilt-stamped illustration of encampment with tents. Outer wear (spinal extremities chipped, one-inch split of cloth in upper joint, corners frayed); interior fine except for moderate foxing to first few leaves. Two small old pencil notations to front endpapers, two bookshop stamps on back pastedown.
Reprint of first edition (first published at Auburn in 1854). Bradford 1281n. Cowan, p. 163n. Flake 2752n. Graff 1042n. Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 504. Howes D230. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 177f: “While providing what has become one of the great classics of the Overland Trail, Delano also wrote in detail about his adventures in the mines and the general conditions of newly arrived emigrants, miners, and Indians.” Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 423: “An overland classic...among the earliest published...admired for being both lively and abundantly detailed.” Mintz, The Trail 121n: “This may be the most interesting of early California overland books.” Paher, Nevada 463n: “Recounts the mistakes and sufferings of the immigrants, Mexican muleteers and Indian tribes and discusses the present and future of the great West.” Plains & Rockies IV:238:6. Smith 2381. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 57n.
Though primarily an overland and Gold Rush account, the author briefly delves into matters relating to cattle and ranching. Besides accounts of ranches visited (Nye, Nichols, etc.), Delano provides details on the wretched state of former mission Native Americans working on California ranches and the increase of cattle rustling in the Sacramento Valley in 1850. $100.00
1476. DELANO, Alonzo. Across the Plains and among the Diggings. New York: Wilson-Erickson, 1936. xviii [2] 192 pp., text illustrations (photographs by Louis Palenske). Small folio, original red moiré cloth. Adhesive remains from book plate on front pastedown, otherwise fine in the scarce d.j. (some marginal chipping and dust-soiling).
Reprint of the first edition, with numerous modern photographs of the sites referred to in Delano’s text. Foreword and epilogue by Rufus Rockwell Wilson. Rocq 6042. $60.00
1477. DELAVAN, James. Notes on California and the Placers, How to Get There, and What to Do Afterwards. Oakland: Biobooks, 1956. xv [1] 156 [1] pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original blue cloth. Fine.
Limited edition (700 copies); the first edition was published at New York in 1850. California Relations 44. Foreword by Joseph A. Sullivan. Cowan, p. 164n. Eberstadt 104:38n: “This is one of the earliest diaries kept by an actual Gold Hunter and gives an unusually frank and detailed account of daily life at the diggings.” Graff 1044n. Hill, p. 400n. Howes D237. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 183b. Libros Californianos, p. 26n. Rocq 15773n. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 58n.
Delavan notes the large number of hide houses for the hide and tallow trade in San Diego (“the principal exports of the country, until gold became the staple”) and describes large herds of horses and cattle (“a most agreeable and interesting spectacle”), branding, roundup, superb horsemanship of the Californians, California spurs and saddles, rustling of horses and cattle, and various ranches (Leidesdorff, Williams, etc.). $40.00
1478. DELLENBAUGH, Frederick S. Breaking the Wilderness: The Story of the Conquest of the Far West from the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway.... New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & The Knickerbocker Press, 1905. [1] xxiii [1] 360 [1] [6, ads] pp., color frontispiece (illustration of Dellenbaugh painting), text illustrations (documentary photographs by Dellenbaugh, J. K. Hillers, C. R. Savage, et al., vintage prints, maps), text vignettes and pictorial chapter headings by Dellenbaugh. 8vo, original tan decorative cloth stamped in brown, black, and terracotta, t.e.g. (designed by Dellenbaugh). Fine. Calling card of Lucius Montrose Cuthbert and ad for this book at front.
First edition. Flake 2757: “Much of Chapter XVI is devoted to the history of the Mormons.” Paher, Nevada 464. Saunders 2493. We include this book because Dellenbaugh contends that it is easy to domesticate buffalo and discusses cross-breeding buffalo with cattle. This handsomely printed and designed book includes much information and iconography on the buffalo (Osage use of buffalo wool in weaving blankets; López de Gómara’s contention that a tribe in northwestern Mexico domesticated buffalo before the arrival of Europeans, etc.). There is also occasional general material on cattle and sheep (especially New Mexico and Navajo weaving with wool).
For more on artist-photographer-explorer Dellenbaugh, see Samuels, Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. Dellenbaugh accompanied Powell’s second voyage down the Colorado River (1871-1872). $125.00
1479. DELLENBAUGH, Frederick S. Breaking the Wilderness.... New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & The Knickerbocker Press, [1905]. [1] xxiii [1] 360 [1] [6, ads] pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (photos, prints, maps), 2 folding maps, text vignettes and pictorial chapter headings. 8vo, original navy blue cloth, spine gilt. Very fine in original chipped glassine d.j.
First edition, second issue, with two added folding maps and illustration, list of illustrations and a few pages reset, imprint undated, in plain undecorated blue cloth binding (rather than Dellenbaugh’s pictorial design). $125.00
1480. DELLENBAUGH, Frederick S. Frémont and ’49: The Story of a Remarkable Career and Its Relation to the Exploration and Development of our Western Territory, Especially of California.... New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & The Knickerbocker Press, 1914. [1] xiv, 547 [7, ads] pp., color frontispiece (illustration of Dellenbaugh painting), plates (photographs and vintage prints), maps (some folding), text vignettes and pictorial chapter headings. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth decorated in brown and blue, t.e.g. Light to moderate shelf wear, otherwise fine.
First edition. Cowan, p. 164. Flake 2759: “Numerous, but scattered references to Mormon settlements in Utah, Brigham Young, Mormon battalion, etc.” Paher, Nevada 466: “Reproduces maps showing the routes of all five of Fremont’s western expeditions. He crossed and recrossed Nevada during 1844-1853.” Rocq 16817.
This handsome biography includes material on Frémont’s Mariposa estate, the Mexican grant which “The Pathfinder” bought before American occupation and the discovery of gold. This grant turned out to be in a rich gold-bearing district and caused Frémont untold difficulty. According to Dellenbaugh, Frémont’s daughter stated that Mariposa was bought in lieu of a mission farm and that at the time of purchase it was a cattle range considered of small value. “The price paid was $3,000. It was a grant of land suitable for grazing purposes lying in the basin of the Mariposa River, but like so many similar grants, ‘the boundaries were not fixed, and the grantee had the right of locating the claim on any land within a large area.’.... [Frémont] had provided a large amount of machinery and supplies based on the development of Mariposa as a cattle ranch, but the new turn of affairs made it inexpedient to proceed in that way.” $125.00
1481. DELLENBAUGH, Frederick S. Frémont and ’49.... New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & The Knickerbocker Press, 1914. Another copy, variant binding (not pictorial). 8vo, original royal blue cloth. Fine and bright. $100.00
1482. DELLENBAUGH, Frederick S. Frémont and n49.... New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & The Knickerbocker Press, 1914. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Light wear and mild staining to binding, interior fine. $90.00
Rare Ranger Account—Trail Drives & Rustlers
1483. DELONY, Lewis S. Forty Years a Peace Officer: A True Story of Lawlessness and Adventure in the Early Days in Southwest Texas [wrapper title]. [Abilene, 1907]. [4] 61 pp. (printed in double column), photographic portrait of author. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Exceptionally fine. Rare.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:107. Guns 580: “This interesting and little-known book contains material on the Taylor-Sutton feud, the hanging of Bill Longley, and the capture and killing of John Wesley Hardin, as well as many other crimes in Texas.” Howes D246.
Texas Ranger Delony (born in DeWitt County, Texas, in 1857) describes several cattle drives he made, the last being when he was twenty-two years old (1879), herding five thousand yearlings from Goliad, Texas, to Dodge City, Kansas: “When we arrived within about forty miles of Dodge City...we had a heavy hail storm and a great deal of lightning. A bolt of lightning would strike in the herd and kill two or three head and the cattle would stampede. Then it would take an hour or two to get them quiet again. After one of these stampedes, we were sitting [on] our horses singing to the cattle, when a bolt of lightning struck a cow boy in the head. It burnt the cord in two on his hat, went through his body, and split his boots from top to bottom, killed his horse as well as himself. He was within about twenty feet of me, I felt the shock.... We laid him on his back and closed his eyelids, that was all we could do for him. In the meantime the cattle had run off and the other boys did not know that he was killed. Jim Summers told me to stay there with the corpse, and he would go and help with the cattle. It was about two hours before day light, and I was left alone with that dead body in the night without any light, except flashes of lightning. The wolves would howl and come up close to me. I would shoot at them and they would run off.”
The author narrates several episodes of apprehending cattle rustlers on the Slaughter, Runge, Weldon, King, and other ranches. This section contains excellent material on how rustlers changed brands. Delony also rode as a Texas Ranger under Captains Lee Hall and Leander H. McNelly, and served as Special Ranger under Governor Oran M. Roberts (1882). $850.00
1484. DELONY, Lewis S. Forty Years A Peace Officer.... [Abilene, 1907]. Another copy, variant wrappers. 8vo, original beige printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Upper wrapper lightly browned along left edge, otherwise fine. $750.00
1485. DeMARCO, Mario. Tim McCoy: The Last Plainsman [wrapper title]. N.p., [after 1978]. 100 pp., profusely illustrated (movie and circus show bills, personal photographs, studio shots, stills from films, etc.). 4to, original pictorial wrappers with photograph of McCoy. Some loose pages at rear, a few ink notations in blank margins, otherwise fine.
First edition. McCoy (1891-1978) was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where as a youngster he was spellbound by cowboys who brought their horses from the west to sell. While in college in Chicago, the turning point of his life came when he attended a performance of the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show. He promptly dropped out of college and headed west, where he worked rounding up wild horses and as a cowboy on ranches in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains, finally settling on a ranch in Wyoming. McCoy came to Hollywood to assist with technical details on the film “The Covered Wagon” (1923), serving as interface between the production crew and Native American participants, since he was able to converse with them by sign language. He and William S. Hart were among the few early Western film stars who actually were real cowboys. $30.00
Roosevelt in the Bunk House
1486. DEMING, William Chapin. Roosevelt in the Bunk House: Visits of the Great Rough Rider to Wyoming in 1903 and 1910. N.p., n.d. [2] 38 pp., text illustrations (some full-page, mostly photographic). 8vo, original brown printed wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Herd does not mention this edition, but he cites the second edition (see next entry), which was expanded to 80 pages. Theodore Roosevelt first went west in 1883; after a week in the Dakota Badlands, he decided to go into ranching himself and established two ranches. Roosevelt never ceased to cherish his memories of cowboy life and had the deepest respect for western ways, as this rare pamphlet documents. Author William Chapin Deming, publisher of the Wyoming Tribune-Leader, chronicles Roosevelt’s visits to the Wyoming cattle country, including accounts by various individuals (such as John Clay) and many excellent documentary photographs.
Deming describes the “real” Roosevelt at ease in the range country: “Gathered in groups about the room were ex-cabinet officers, senators, newspaper men and magazine writers, governors, city officials, chauffeurs, and ranchmen. The cowboys, sheep herders, and ranch hands...came and went...now and then lingering to catch a word from the old cowman whose range was the universe.... In the midst of the smoke and babel of tongues sat Roosevelt, surrounded by eager listeners.... He is a veritable torrent of conversation, an overflowing reservoir of experience, a restless, rolling sea of thought. He talks like a whirlwind, shows his teeth like a bull pup, shakes his head like a buffalo, and threshes around with his arms and legs like his unconquered bucking prototype.” $750.00
1487. DEMING, William Chapin. Roosevelt in the Bunk House and Other Sketches: Visits of the Great Rough Rider to Wyoming in 1900, 1903, and 1910. Second Edition. Laramie: Laramie Printing, [1927]. [4] 80 pp., photographic illustrations (some full-page). 8vo, original blue printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Wrappers with a bit of very mild staining, otherwise very fine. Author’s signed presentation inscription below his portrait: “For Dr. A. R. Butler, With best wishes from William C. Deming.” Butler’s small ink ownership inscription on upper wrapper. Roosevelt-related newspaper clipping (1934) laid in.
Second edition, revised and enlarged. Herd 674 (not mentioning the wrappers issue): “Scarce.” $500.00
1488. DEMING, William Chapin. Roosevelt in the Bunk House.... Laramie: Laramie Printing, [1927]. Another copy. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers. Very fine, armorial bookplate of Langdon Hardy Larwill inside front wrap. $400.00
1489. DENHARDT, Robert Moorman. The Horse of the Americas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948. xvii [1] 286 pp., photographic plates, text illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine in price-clipped d.j. with slight wear.
Second printing. Campbell, p. 130: “A book on an appealing subject written by one who is thoroughly familiar with his theme. As former editor of The Western Horseman magazine he is an unquestioned authority.... Horses of the Spanish conquerors were cherished, since they frightened the enemy ‘and after God, to them belonged the victory.’ A thorough job destined to be a classic in horse literature.... Well illustrated and handsomely turned out.” Dobie, p. 132. Herd 675. McVicker B65. Mohr, The Range Country 814. Foreword by J. Frank Dobie. $30.00
1490. DENHARDT, Robert Moorman. The King Ranch Quarter Horses and Something of the Ranch and the Men That Bred Them. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1970]. xiv, 256 [2] pp., photographic plates, tables, map. Large 8vo, original tan cloth with “Running W.” Minor spotting to binding, else very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #65: “Some ranch history and much on the men who guided the remarkable breeding and selection programs that brought about a superior race of sturdy and fleet cow horses.” $150.00
1491. DENHARDT, Robert Moorman. Quarter Horses: A Story of Two Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1969]. xiv, 192 [2] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
Second printing (first printing 1967). See Herd 676-77 for two related works by the same author. $45.00
1492. DENTON, B. E. (“Cyclone”). A Two-Gun Cyclone: A True Story. Dallas: B. E. Denton, [1927]. viii [4] 145 pp., frontispiece portrait, 7 plates (one in color—a 1926 invitation to “The Last Buffalo Hunt in America” at Antelope Island in Salt Lake), cartoons by Jack Patton (of Texas History Movies fame). 12mo, original orange pictorial cloth stamped in dark green. Signed by author in ink on front free endpaper. Spine a bit light, small snag on spine, corners bumped, interior fine.
First edition. Guns 583: “Scarce.” Herd 678: “A little book of reminiscences written by an old-time cowboy after he had reached his seventies. He was a typical old-time Texas cowboy, uneducated and big hearted. I knew him well.” The author, who was born on Hog Creek in Brazos County, Texas, cowboyed and herded in Texas, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory (he participated in the Run). In his later years, he performed in Cody’s Wild West Show.
Denton lit out for the West at age sixteen and drifted to Arizona, where he worked on a ranch on the Gila River. Denton remarks in the chapter on “Buffalo Huntin’” that the extermination of the buffalo “was pretty bad at the time, but if they was still there on the plains in the same numbers they was before, there would be no big cow ranches, no farms, no people livin’ out there and nothin’ but a wild country with buffalo herds and Indians and bad men.”
Denton’s first cattle drive was for the XIX outfit, from Colorado City, Texas, to the Cherokee Strip. Because of his raw youth and perceived greenness, he was given an outlaw horse that had already killed two men, but he won the respect of the trail boss and other cowboys by taming the beast on his first ride. Near the Wichita Mountains, rustlers shot off one of Denton’s fingers. Denton describes a stampede: “Cattle, hosses and men were often killed in the stampedes. You can hear a stampede comin’ for miles, with a roarin’ and a clickin’ of horns, it sounds like a storm. The cow critters when a stampede is goin’ on, will run over anything or into anything.... Herds of cows has lots of heat and they draws litenin’, and it was nothing unusual to see flashes of fire playin’ over their horns and backs.” Denton laconically sums up this drive: “It shore was a kinder tame sort of drive.” $200.00
1493. DENTON, B. E. (“Cyclone”). A Two-Gun Cyclone: A True Story. Dallas: B. E. Denton, [1927]. Another copy. Other than mild dust-soiling to binding, a very fine copy. $125.00
1494. DERBY, George Horatio. The Topographical Reports of Lieutenant George H. Derby. With Introduction and Notes by Francis P. Farquhar. [San Francisco]: California Historical Society, [1933]. [2] 81 pp., frontispiece portrait of Derby (from a portrait by F. B. Carpenter), maps (two of which are large and folding), text illustrations. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers bound in dark green buckram. Very fine.
First edition (most of the reports originally appeared in government documents: San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley report: HRED 17, 1850, pp. 941-43; SED 47, 1850, pp. 2-16; SED 110, 1852, pp. 1-17; Colorado River and Gulf of California report: SED 81, 1852, pp. 1-28; Oregon military roads: SED 1, 1855, 502-03; Derby’s previously unpublished report from San Diego is from the archives of the U.S. Army Engineers). The present work consists of reprints from the Quarterly of the California Historical Society 11:2-4, with additional material (CHS Special Publication 6). Barrett, Baja California 680. Farquhar, The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon 15b. Graff 1058n: “First reconnaissance of the Colorado River.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 457n. Rocq 16819. Wheat, Maps of the California Gold Region 79n; Transmississippi West 668 & III, pp. 212-13 (citing Colorado River–Gulf of California map): “The basis for cartography of the singular area until the Ives map appeared in 1860.”
Although best known for his humorous writings under the pseudonyms of John “Phoenix” and “Squibob,” Derby served with distinction as a topographical engineer with the U.S. Army, creating an important map of the California gold regions and performing the first reconnaissance of the Colorado River (see Thrapp I, p. 394). The emphasis of the present work is Derby’s topographical surveys, but also present are interesting comments on various ranches in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley region. Even in this bureaucratic report, Derby’s sensitive intelligence and keen wit shine through. Describing Nicholaus Altgeier’s rancho, Derby comments: “He...owns a large adobe house of two stories in height, which presents quite an imposing appearance in this country of log-huts and Indian rancherias. About 100 wretched Indians, playfully termed Christian, live in the vicinity upon the bank of the Feather river.... The more intelligent and docile of these creatures are taken and brought up on the farm, where in time they become excellent vaqueros, or herdsmen, and where they are content to remain, receiving in return for their services such food and clothing as it may suit the interest or inclination of its owner to bestow upon them.” $100.00
1495. DESPREZ, Frank. Lasca: The Story of a Texas Cowboy—Down by the Rio Grande [wrapper title]. Waco: [Privately printed by Roger N. Conger at Davis Brothers Publishing], 1980. [8] pp., text illustrations by Wilfred Stedman. 8vo, original white printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Light marginal browning to wraps, otherwise very fine.
Limited edition (#175 of 300 copies, signed by Roger N. Conger; type and illustrations photographically reproduced from the 1931 edition by the Rein Company). The poem Lasca first appeared in a London periodical in 1882. Campbell, p. 227: “An Englishman from Bristol, who went to Texas and probably up the Chisholm Trail, as his reference to Kansas seems to show.... There is scarcely any early poem so generally known in Texas, or one which lends itself so well to declamation.”
Desprez (1853-1916), of French descent but born in England, was a playwright, essayist, poet, jeweler, and silversmith who moved to Texas in his teens and worked three years on a Texas ranch. “His best known work...is ‘Lasca,’ about a Mexican girl and her cowboy sweetheart caught in a cattle stampede ‘in Texas down by the Rio Grande.’ The ballad-like poem...has often been reprinted...and recited in the English-speaking world” (Handbook of Texas Online: Frank Desprez). $40.00
1496. DEVINNY, V. The Story of a Pioneer: An Historical Sketch in Which Is Depicted Some of the Struggles and Exciting Incidents Pertaining to the Early Settlement of Colorado. Denver: Reed Publishing Co., 1904. 164 pp., frontispiece photographic portrait of author, 6 photographic plates, illustrations. 12mo, original green pictorial cloth stamped in black and red. Light shelf wear, but generally fine.
First edition. Introduction by Buffalo Bill Cody (one of the plates is a portrait of Cody, and the text includes an heroic account of fifteen-year-old Cody halting a stampede of buffalo during the author’s overland trek). Eberstadt 138:204. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 131. Howes D294.
This work is primarily an overland and Colorado gold rush account of 1860 centering on pioneer Neal Norton and his family, but the final chapter (pp. 136-64) “Minta Abel, the Cow-Herder Girl” chronicles the unusual life of young bookworm Minta at the well-stocked ranch outside Denver belonging to her mother and cruel stepfather. “Most of her time was occupied in herding the cows on the prairies, often five or more miles from her home. She naturally thus became a skillful rider, could ride a horse bareback sideways or otherwise, with a wondrous grace and security. And, as she thus did a ‘cowboy’s’ work, she was named ‘the cowboy-girl.’” At the age of thirteen, Minta was named best young lady rider at the Colorado Agricultural Fair held in Denver, winning a purse of three hundred dollars in gold, which she used to obtain her education in Denver. After many hardships, Minta received her law degree from an eastern university and practiced law in Helena, Montana. The author imbues this account with a breathless air of fiction, but the authorities seem to agree that the work is nonfiction. $250.00
1497. DEVINNY, V. The Story of a Pioneer.... Denver: Reed Publishing Co., 1904. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original beige pictorial cloth stamped in tan and red. Slight shelf wear, but generally fine. $250.00
1498. DEVOE, Caryl. In Borderland: A Story of Frontier Life in the Early Eighties. N.p., n.d. [1920s or 1930s]. 36 pp. 8vo, original red pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued). Two-inch clean diagonal cut to upper wrapper and first few leaves, wraps and a few leaves slightly stained. With J. Frank Dobie’s signed and dated ink note: “Very strange that such as this should be printed as it is printed. Yet it is no worse than most of the picture shows—just as convincing. J. Frank Dobie 11/4/38.” No locations cited by OCLC or RLIN.
First edition? Lively novella about a band of rowdy Texas cowboys, set in a cowtown named Coltsville, with dialogue along these dreadful lines: “Now, Pap, them cow punchers ain’t done nothin’ onlawful, an’ what’s more, if they’re treated right, they ain’t goin’ to. There’s no better hearted man livin’ than th’ average cowboy, ’f he does shoot up the town once in a while.” The author also wrote nonfiction, including Legends of the Kaw: The Folk-Lore of the Indians of Kansas River Valley (Kansas, 1904). $35.00
1499. DEVOL, George H. Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi: A Cabin Boy in 1839; Could Steal Cards and Cheat the Boys at Eleven; Stock a Deck at Fourteen; Bested Soldiers on the Rio Grande during the Mexican War; Won Hundreds of Thousands from Paymasters, Bottom Buyers, Defaulters, and Thieves; Fought More Rough-and-Tumble Fights Than Any Man in America, and Was the Most Daring Gambler in the World. Austin: Steck-Vaughn, [1967]. [16] 300 pp., portrait, plates. 8vo, original maroon cloth gilt with gilt illustration of a hand holding three playing cards. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase. Christmas card from Steck-Vaughn laid in.
Facsimile of the first edition (Cincinnati, 1887). Introduction by John O. West. Graff 1071n. Howes D295n. In the introduction, editor West discusses the strange coincidence of two orphan runaways both on board the steamer Corvette on the Rio Grande during the Mexican-American War. One was George H. Devol, and the other was Richard King, who went on to found the King Ranch. West also reveals that early in his gambling career, Devol played roulette alongside Juan Cortinas, the noted Mexican bandit and cattle rustler. Among Devol’s anecdotes are some relating to cowboys, a favorite target of gamblers of the day. In “Rattlesnake Jack” Devol tells of cleverly extracting several thousand dollars from “Rattlesnake Jack” (Jackson McGee) in a game of three-card monte. In an ironic twist, “Rattlesnake Jack” had told Devol that he was on his way to Texas and intended to utilize three-card monte to win the money of Texas cowboys. In “The Cattle Buyer” Devol tells of “getting a nice slice” ($4,700) from a good-natured, cool-headed Texas cattle buyer in a game of euchre. In “The Green Cow Boy” Devol used the old reliable game of euchre to sucker $10,000 from an El Paso cowboy. $75.00
1500. DeVOTO, Bernard. Across the Wide Missouri, with an Account of the Discovery of the Miller Collection by Mae Reed Porter. Boston & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company & Riverside Press, 1947. xxvii [1] 483 pp., 81 plates (16 in color) after artwork by Bodmer, Catlin, Miller, et al., endpaper maps. Large 8vo, original red pictorial gilt cloth, t.e.g. Exceptionally fine in original glassine d.j. and publisher’s slipcase with very minor wear.
First edition, limited edition (#161 of 265 copies, signed by author) of DeVoto’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history; best edition (“Although since reprinted by others, this original Houghton Mifflin edition is by far the best because of its rich art”—Orlan Sawey, DeVoto’s biographer). Dobie, pp. 72, 85. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 54 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #69). Harvard Guide to American History, p. 366. Howes D296. Malone, Wyomingiana, pp. 19-20: “Centering his account around the hunting trips of Captain William Drummond Stewart and his painter, Alfred Jacob Miller, DeVoto presents a picture of the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains, 1832-38, describing it not as chronological history but as a business and a manner of life.” Plains & Rockies IV:125n. Smith 2430. Tweney, Washington 89 #9.
DeVoto includes material on Richard Henry Dana and the California hide and tallow trade. In a section on Joseph Reddeford Walker, DeVoto masterfully depicts California rancho life: “If not for the mission Indians (whose lot may be too easily pitied), it was for white men one of the most delightful ways of life the world has ever known. These Californians were a feckless, indolent people: their habitat permitted them to be. None except the Indian peons worked hard, they contrived not to exhaust themselves, and few others had to work at all. They lived outdoors and on horseback.... Almost uncountable herds of horses and cattle increased geometrically with only the most casual supervision. One of the first lessons Walker’s men learned was that persons who had taken their horses—always punishable with death on the American frontier—had not stolen them. There were horses for everyone: take what you want. They helped their new friends break horses (in a manner of speaking), butcher cattle for the hide and tallow trade, ride after and slaughter some absconding Indians. They joined the continuous fiestas and competed with their hosts, easily besting them at marksmanship and taking an equally offhand beating at every form of horsemanship.” $350.00
1501. DEWEES, W. B. Letters from an Early Settler of Texas.... Compiled by Cara Cardelle. Louisville: Hull & Brother, Printers, 1854. 312 pp. 8vo, original blindstamped red cloth (spine crudely reinforced with black cloth and endpapers replaced at an early date). Front pastedown damaged where a label was removed, back free endpaper and blanks absent, interior fine. Early ownership inscriptions on front free endpaper.
Second edition (the rare first edition, published at Louisville in 1852, was limited to 250 copies). Bradford 1311n. Clark, Old South III:298n: “The preface states that the compiler, Cara Cardelle, pseudonym for Emmaretta C. Kimball, chanced to find among a friend’s papers a large stack of Texas letters with much information on the events of Texas history from 1819-1852. The letters were written by William B. DeWees to a friend in Kentucky...over a period of about 33 years.... Unembellished pictures of the journey to Texas, personal incidents, and facts and events in Texas development.” Eberstadt, Texas 162:251. Field 422: “The adventures of a ranger in the border wars of Texas, against the Comanches and other tribes of the plains, are here narrated with spirit and apparent truthfulness.” Graff 1073n: “DeWees traveled from Nashville to Arkansas in 1819 and describes buffalo hunting.” Herd 671 (citing only the first edition). Howes D299. Rader 1131n. Raines, p. 67n. Tate, Indians of Texas 2039.
Dewees (1799-1878), one of Austin’s Old Three Hundred, first visited Texas in 1819 during a keelboat excursion up the Red River and served as a public official in Colorado County during the Republic era and early statehood. Included are primary letters and documents relating to the Revolution and Republic (Travis’s letter from the Alamo, Declaration of Independence, etc.).
Dewees describes hunting wild cattle and the suitability of Texas for stock raising: “The most profitable business which a person can follow in this country is stock-raising; especially if he has but a small force. A poor man can probably make a living here more easily than in any other country; but still if he would turn his attention to stock-raising he would find it far more profitable.” $250.00
1502. D’HAMEL, E. B. The Adventures of a Tenderfoot, History of 2nd Regt. Mounted Rifles and Co. G, 33 Regt. and Capt Coopwood’s Spy Co. and 2nd Texas in Texas and New Mexico. Waco: W. M. Morrison, [1965]. [4] 24 pp., photographic portrait of author in uniform. 8vo, original goldenrod printed wrappers. Fine.
Limited edition (175 copies), facsimile of the rare 1914 edition. In 1858, at the age of twenty-three, the author left Cuba for New Orleans and ended up a flat-broke miner in the Pikes Peak gold rush. He next hired on as a Spanish interpreter for New York Herald correspondent W. A. Buffom, but was fired for shooting quail with Buffom’s gun. D’Hamel began a lonely tramp to El Paso with only the clothing he wore and a Bowie knife, when Kit Carson happened along and gave him a ride to his ranch at Taos (“beautifully situated with rich lands and cattle”).
Traveling onward, he describes “Dead Man’s Desert” and the hospitality shown him at New Mexico ranches: “The activity of the Indians made travelling dangerous. The country from Albuquerque was lined with frontier ranches, plenty of cattle, sheep and goats; all the ranchmen had their own adobe houses well white-washed and beautiful. Every night I was invited to enjoy their hospitality, a good supper, generally consisting of pig or kid roasted, tortillas, frijoles, asaderas, and a good woolen mattress to sleep on.”
In El Paso, D’Hamel worked at Simon Hart’s flour mills until the Civil War broke out. He enlisted as a Volunteer with the San Elisario Spies and Guides (“all of the members of the company were Texas backwoodsmen, ranchers and cowboys who knew the country”). He also saw service with the Texas Mounted Rifles under Rip Ford and John Baylor (wonderful Civil War content). After the war, D’Hamel served as Provost Marshall in San Antonio, but the Vigilance Committee forced him to flee and take refuge at the ranches of Antonio Navarro (his wife’s uncle), Sam Stewart, and Santos Benavides. $75.00
1503. DICK, Everett. The Sod-House Frontier, 1854-1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. xviii [2] 550 pp., photographic plates (documentary photos and vintage prints), illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original gray pictorial linen stamped in terracotta. Mild staining along gutter between front flyleaf and half-title, otherwise fine in near fine d.j. (slightly chipped and price-clipped).
First edition, first printing, with figure “(I)” at end of index. Campbell, p. 105: “This book deals with the states of the Great Plains.... Detailed treatment of a most interesting phase of culture on the Plains—a wonderful place to study cultures, as they pass rapidly over the open country like cloud shadows, leaving little trace.” Dobie, pp. 50-51. Guns 589: “Contains a chapter...on the homesteader-cattleman war of the early frontier.” Herd 685. Howes D315.
This standard includes excellent social history with much on women (“one of the first frontier historians to place a special emphasis on the social life of western settlers”—Lamar, Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West, p. 302). Many of the excellent documentary photographs are by Solomon Butcher (see item 745 in Part I of this catalogue). Chapter 7 is devoted to one of the few scholarly studies of road ranches, whose proprietors often were the first permanent settlers in the West. Although universally called ranches, these isolated posts were more in the nature of primitive trading and dining establishments for trail herders, buffalo hunters, emigrants, and miners rushing to California, Colorado, and the Black Hills. $75.00
1504. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier: A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Earliest White Contacts to the Coming of the Homemaker. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. xvi [2] 574 pp., frontispiece portrait of Jim Baker (after a painting by Waldo Love), plates (vintage prints and documentary photographs, some by W. H. Jackson), endpaper maps. 8vo, original beige pictorial linen stamped in black, gilt lettering on upper cover and spine. Very fine in very good price-clipped d.j. with a few short tears.
First edition, first printing, with figure “(I)” at end of index. Dobie, pp. 50-51. Guns 590: “Another extensive work by this author, touching upon, among many other subjects, vigilantes and the Johnson County War.” Herd 686. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 21: “Descriptive of the work and manner of life of the frontiersmen of the region.... Extensive bibliography. Somewhat disillusioning.” Smith 2442. $75.00
1505. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier.... New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original grey pictorial cloth with lettering in black. Very fine in very good d.j. (lightly soiled, a few short tears, and price-clipped). $50.00
1506. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier.... New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in chipped and price-clipped d.j. $50.00
1507. DICKEY, Roland F. New Mexico Village Arts. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949. xii, 266 pp., color illustrations from drawings by Lloyd Lozes Goff, text illustrations, calligraphy by Robert Stanford Wallace. Large 8vo, original grey cloth decorated in red. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 134: “All about Spanish-American handicrafts, villages, houses, and furnishings, their creation and use. A large, handsome volume.” Powell, Southwest Century 20. Among the ranching subjects covered are branding and ranchero equipage: “Every man took pride in his horsemanship and his accuracy with the lasso. Rancheros invested small fortunes in elaborate tooled leather saddles and bridles, shining with silver ornaments. Severe curb bits were preferred by the Spaniards, and as one American officer remarked, ‘with their large, cruel bits, they harass their horses.... ’ Apaches and the poorer Spaniards shod their horses and mules with rawhide shoes instead of metal. The ownership of horses, and all other animals, was determined by a brand burnt in the hip.... These brands were large curlicues resembling rubrics. Under Spanish law, the fierro was the brand of the original owner. When the animal was sold, a second brand, called the venta or buyer’s brand, obliterated the first. Illegal branding seems to have been no less common then than it came to be in the heyday of American cattle ranching” (pp. 13-14).
This book also contains details on santos branded onto leather; sheep and sheep-rustling by Navajo and Apache; weaving and textiles (including discussion of armas de pelo—or chaps—of the professional vaquero). $125.00
1508. DICKINSON, Donald C., et al. (eds.). Voices from the Southwest: A Gathering in Honor of Lawrence Clark Powell. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1976. xv [1] 159 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait of Powell, text illustrations (one by Cisneros), photographic text illustrations (including some by Ansel Adams). 8vo, original dark grey cloth. Small spot on fore-edge, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. Laid in is a publisher’s prospectus addressed to Carl Hertzog. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. A collection of Southwest studies honoring Lawrence Clark Powell on his seventieth birthday. Contributors include Ansel Adams, Paul Horgan, Al Lowman, Ward Ritchie, José Cisneros, William Everson, Harwood P. Hinton, Frank Waters, and Jake Zeitlin. The appendix includes a bibliography of Powell keepsakes and published works. In her essay “Voices from the Southwest,” Sarah Bouquet discusses women in the Southwest, including some ladies of the cattle country (Alice Marriott, Mary Rak, and Eulalia Bourne).
Bernard L. Fontana in “The Faces and Forces of Pimería Alta” gives fascinating details on the introduction of cattle to the northernmost reaches of the Sonoran Desert. The Pima of Remedios told Kino in 1687 they did not want a priest because he would waste their time making them sow crops and pasturing cattle would cause their waterholes to go dry. At first the Pima hunted the cattle just as they would deer or antelope, but over time, hunting territories became cattle ranges. Fontana comments: “With man as an ally, livestock are given an unfair advantage over the plants and other animals in an arid environment. But the advantage may well be short-termed. Over centuries, if not decades, human beings appear to husband domestic livestock in deserts to eventual forced removal or utter extinction” (p. 51). $75.00
1509. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days: A Journey across the Plains in the Sixties, and Pioneer Days in the Northwest; from the Private Journals of.... Edited by Arthur Jerome Dickson. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929. 287 pp., frontispiece (photograph of the sun dance of the Shoshones), plates (mostly documentary photographs), folding map, illustrations. 8vo, original light blue cloth, t.e.g. Very fine.
First edition, first issue (printed and bound in 1929, in either dark or light blue cloth). Clark & Brunet 62: “Albert Dickson’s journals include an overland trip from Wisconsin into the northern Plains and finally to Virginia City, Montana Territory. An accessible and detailed account of wagon train life, it includes information of the vigilantes of Montana.” Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 135. Flake 2833. Graff 1082. Guns 591. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1941. Mintz, The Trail 126: “One of the best overland narratives.... Tells, perhaps more poignantly than any other journal, how much any small dose of entertainment meant to those travelling the plains month after month; and just how it felt to be there by the night time fire enjoying the diversion.... Dickson was a young boy when he wrote this.” Smith 2445.
On pages 121-29, Dickson gives an account and journal of an unusual trail drive by Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield across the Lander Trail from Nebraska City to Sacramento in 1861: “The people of California were just beginning to turn their attention to agriculture and there began a demand for pure-bred stock to replace the old Spanish stock. Mr. Butterfield was a member of a party who drove a herd of pure-bred stock (seventy Shorthorn and Devon cattle and six hundred Merino sheep) to California in 1861, for John D. Patterson, [who] had been...shipping them by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Steamer freights were very high and he conceived the idea of driving a large number overland.” Butterfield reported that only a fourth of the sheep were lost and characterizes the drive as “one of the most remarkable trains that crossed the country up to 1870, and perhaps no other just like it ever made the whole distance from Wisconsin to Sacramento.... It was a daring undertaking and only a peaceable Indian situation made it possible.”
Also present is material on Crow stock raids, Jack Slade, the Montana Vigilantes, mountain men along the trail dealing in stock, etc. $200.00
1510. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929. Another copy. 8vo, original navy blue cloth, t.e.g. Very fine. $200.00
1511. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929 [1938]. 8vo, original maroon cloth, t.e.g. Very fine, in publisher’s plain d.j.
First edition, second issue, reissued by Clark in 1938. $150.00
1512. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929 [1938]. Another copy in maroon cloth, without publisher’s plain d.j. Very fine. $125.00
1513. DIEKER, Leo E. A Brief Historical Sketch: Hollenberg Ranch, Pony Express Station, Hanover, Kansas. [Hanover]: The Hanover News, n.d. [7] pp., photographic plate of the Hollenberg Ranch. 8vo, original stiff blue printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine. Uncommon.
First edition. Herd 687. A brief history of the Hollenberg Ranch, which German pioneer G. H. Hollenberg (1823-1874) established in 1857 as a waypoint on the Pony Express route, as well as a post office, working cattle ranch, and stage stop for emigrants. Emigrants needed cattle for food, and horses and oxen were required to replace animals that fell by the wayside in the grueling westward trek. The house on the Hollenberg Ranch was the first home constructed in Washington County, Kansas, and today it is the only remaining original and unaltered Pony Express station still standing in its original location. In the early days, the Ranch was known as Cottonwood Station. $45.00
1514. DILLON, Richard H. J. Ross Browne, Confidential Agent in Old California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1965]. xix [1] 218 [2] pp., plates (photographs and vintage prints, some by Browne). 8vo, original brown cloth. Corners slightly bumped, otherwise a fine copy in lightly rubbed and price-clipped d.j. Autographed by author.
First edition. Rocq S2499. J. Ross Browne (Thrapp I, pp. 180-81) led a double life as government employee and humorist-artist-travel writer (see item 672-675 in Part I of this catalogue). In 1853 the U.S. Treasury Department appointed him to the post of “confidential government agent of the Treasury Department and quasi-minister without portfolio of both the General Land Office and the Office of Indian Affairs.” Armed with this long and mysterious title, he set out to inspect, observe, and muckrake the various far-flung branches of the bourgeoning federal bureaucracy. He investigated trail herding into post-gold rush California, thus shedding light on a scarcely explored area of the cattle industry. After scrutinizing practices of U.S. Customs, Browne recommended that Mexican cattle be duty-free (a measure eventually approved by Congress). $40.00
1515. DILS, Lenore. Horny Toad Man. [El Paso]: Boots and Saddle Press, [1966]. [6] 190 pp., photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original maroon cloth decorated in gilt. Very fine, with two versions of d.j., one of which bears the author’s printed label. Presentation copy to Carl Hertzog, signed by author. Hertzog bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional manuscript corrections by author.
First edition. Guns 595: “There is mention of such gunmen and outlaws as Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson, George Scarborough, Dallas Stoudenmire, Jeff Milton, J. B. Gillett, Billy the Kid, Bass Outlaw, and John Wesley Hardin.” The Horny Toad Division of the Santa Fe Railway (established 1881) ran from Albuquerque to El Paso, with branch lines to Deming, Silver City, Santa Rita, and other points west. The line was christened the Horny Toad Division because of the large number of now-endangered horned lizards that covered the tracks.
The Horny Toad line assisted ranchers and cattlemen in the transition from trail driving to shipping by rail. Weeks were saved, and cattle did not lose weight as they did on long trail drives. Burt Mossman and others rounded up wild horses, broke them at Engle, shipped them on the Horny Toad line, and sold them for a dollar a head. Engle, the half-way point on the line, became a stomping ground for cattlemen and cowboys. The chapter on Engle includes material on Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Burt Mossman, Bo Harkness, and many other ranchers and cowboys.
This book is filled with a great deal of local history and unusual material not found elsewhere. For instance, we learn that Western showman and poet-scout Captain Jack Crawford (see items 1214-1219 in Part I of this Catalogue) lived on a ranch at Fort Craig near the Horny Toad line and that his wife never approved of his fancy fringed buckskin suit, long flowing locks, and extravagant facial hair. When Captain Jack would emerge from his room all decked out, he would ask his wife how he looked. Invariably she would reply, “Silly.” $300.00
The Code of the West
1516. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana; or, Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains: Being a Correct and Impartial Narrative of the Chase, Trial, Capture, and Execution of Henry Plummer’s Notorious Road Agent Band, Together with Accounts of the Lives and Crimes of Many of the Robbers and Desperadoes, the Whole Being Interspersed with Sketches of Life in the Mining Camps of the “Far West.” Virginia City, Montana: D. W. Tilton, 1882. 241 pp. 12mo, original grey printed upper wrapper (neatly rebacked, spine and lower wrap supplied in sympathetic grey paper). Fragile upper wrapper lightly chipped and stained. Tear on upper wrap and title neatly reinforced with tape on inside wrap and title verso (no losses). Interior fine, overall a very good, presentable copy.
Second edition (the first edition, printed at Virginia City, Montana, in 1866, is exceedingly rare). Adams, One-Fifty 48n: “All editions [were] issued by different publishers except the second.... The original edition is said to be the first book produced by a printing press in Montana. Perhaps no book excels Dimsdale’s in presenting the lawless condition that characterized the mining camps of the Rocky Mountain country. The author was editor of the Virginia City Montana Post and a participant in the extraordinary campaign against lawlessness.” Guns 596n. Graff 1088n. Howes D345: “Textually the most important book ever printed in Montana.” Smith 2458. Streeter, Americana Beginnings 72n (citing first edition): “One of the best accounts of the action of the Vigilance Committee, the institution that brought justice to the western frontier.”
Dimsdale’s classic book is a cornerstone in the literature of the Code of the West, setting out the cardinal principles of extra-legal justice as a means to justify an end. With great verve, Oxford-educated Englishman Dimsdale chronicles one of the most successful lynch-law campaigns in American history. The events described in the book took place in the Montana cattle country in 1863 and 1864, with many of the pivotal events of the tragic drama played out on area ranches. The turning point for Plummer’s gang, who called themselves the Innocents, occurred at Dempsey’s Cottonwood Ranche, when quasi-Innocent George W. Brown spilled the beans to the Vigilantes. Once the veil of secrecy of the Innocents had been pierced by Brown, captured gang member Erastus “Red” Yager got the coup de grace rolling by disclosing inside information on the gang—its members, hierarchy, secret codes, passwords, and nefarious methods. After that, the Innocent game was up, except for the “hempen neckties” (Dimsdale’s euphemistic term for hanging).
The Innocents and their ruthless crimes exercised a profound and baleful effect on the area ranchers, as Dimsdale points out: “The owner [of Cottonwood Ranche] knew the character of the robbers, but had no connection with them; in those days a man’s life would not have been worth fifteen minutes purchase, if the possessor had been foolish enough even to hint at his knowledge of their doings.... All along the route, the ranchmen knew the road agents, but the certainty of instant death in case they revealed what they knew enforced their silence, even when they were really desirous of giving information or warning.”
Often a book is fascinating for what it says, but occasionally a book intrigues by what the author does not say. Dimsdale’s Vigilantes fits both categories. We find it interesting that assiduous chronicler Dimsdale does not mention Granville Stuart, an active member of the Vigilance Committee that ended the reign of Plummer and his Innocents. Stuart’s vigilante activities are considered by some historians to be the most notorious in American history. Stuart was in western Montana by the 1860s and is often credited with starting the Montana gold rush when he discovered gold at Deer Lodge Valley. He began as a road rancher in Montana, eventually becoming a legendary cattle baron. Recent scholarship has challenged Dimsdale’s account as one of the most successful cases of spin-doctoring in history. $1,000.00
1517. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Butte: W. F. Bartlett, 1915. 276 pp. 12mo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Blank right lower corner of upper wrap missing, otherwise fine. Very scarce.
“Third printing” (same text as first and second edition, but with added introduction by John F. Davies, Librarian, Butte Free Public Library; Davies refers to the 1882 printing as a second impression and states that 10,000 copies sold). Smith 2460. WLA, Literary History of the American West, pp. 830-31: “Long before the end of the frontier era, the Rocky Mountains had generated a considerable historical literature of an informal and polemic nature. A notable specimen is Thomas J. Dimsdale’s The Vigilantes of Montana.... Dimsdale served as Montana Territory’s first superintendent of public instruction and edited Virginia City’s Montana Post. Dimsdale’s book narrates the effective but controversial vigilante campaign against Henry Plummer, who had doubled as elected sheriff and leader of road agents preying upon travelers between Montana’s isolated mining camps.... Dimsdale argues that frontier vigilante justice was a necessary step toward a civilized state of law and order.” $150.00
1518. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Helena: State Publishing Co., [1915]. 290 pp., frontispiece portrait of Dimsdale, photographic plates (mostly portraits and early views of Montana). 8vo, original green pictorial cloth stamped and lettered in white. Light shelf wear, hinges loose, back free endpaper not present, overall very good and bright. Autographed by editor A. J. Noyes.
Third edition (with additional material on Southern Montana). Howes refers to this edition as the best. Adams, One-Fifty 48n: “The third edition in 1915 was issued by Al Noyes with footnotes and illustrations and with an appended history of Southern Montana.” Graff 1089. Smith 2459. The additional 90 pages following Dimsdale’s book contain excellent documentary history and firsthand accounts by pioneer ranchers, miners, settlers, and legislators in southern Montana. This appendix is filled with fugitive information, such as mining laws of various districts; Jack Slade—his two ranches, his fabulous wife, probate of his estate; the first beer brewed with hops in Montana by Charles Beehrer (as a youth Beehrer almost joined a large gang led by Texans, who were later arrested, to “procure” cattle); buffalo currency; the Flour Riot; good material on women (list of women residing in Bannack in 1862; first woman miner, Annette Stanley, who bought a claim on Geary’s Bar for $20 in 1862; etc.). $125.00
1519. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Helena: State Publishing Co., [ca. 1915 or after]. 290 pp., frontispiece photographic view of Virginia City, plates. 8vo, original olive pictorial cloth gilt. Minor shelf wear, lower hinge loose, occasional pencil notations to blank margins, overall very good to fine, a bright copy.
“Fourth edition” (another edition of preceding, with slight rearrangement of material). Dimsdale, who spices his brilliant and bloody account with quotations from Cato, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, et al., states: “It is not pleasant to write of blasphemous and indecent language, or to record foul and horrible crimes; but, as the anatomist must not shrink from the corpse, which taints the air as he investigates the symptoms and examines the results of disease, so, the historian must either tell the truth for the instruction of mankind, or sink to the level of a mercenary banterer, who writes, not to inform the people, but to enrich himself.” $125.00
1520. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Butte: McKee Printing Co., 1929. 269 pp., photographic plates. 12mo, original white pictorial wrappers colored in red and black, upper cover with headline: A Vivid and Truthful Tale of the Old West, and printed statement: From the P.O. News Stand, 25 W. Park St., Butte, Mont. Wholesale and Retail Booksellers, Newsdealers and Stationers. Fragile wrappers with light wear and last gathering browned, otherwise fine.
“Seventh printing” (reprint of the first edition). Smith 2463. The appeal of this book is perennial, as evidenced by this and the following popular reprint editions. WLA, Literary History of the American West, pp. 69-70: “Literary works of the middle ground provide strong evidence of the value to the literary historian of studying western works that might not be classified as belles-lettres. Even so early a western book as Mark Twain’s Roughing It (1872) relies on even earlier books such as The Vigilantes of Montana (1866) by Thomas Dimsdale.” $75.00
1521. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Butte: McKee Printing Co., 1945. 269 pp., photographic plates. 12mo, original maroon cloth. Fine.
“Tenth printing” (reprint of the first edition). “Charles Dickens is reported to have said: ‘This is the most interesting book I ever read in my life’” (The Collector’s Journal, 3:6, April-June 1933, p. 367). $35.00
1522. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Butte: McKee Printing Co., 1949. 269 pp., photographic plates. 12mo, original beige pictorial wrappers colored in red and black, upper cover with headline: A Truthful and Colorful Record of the Triumph of Law and Order in Montana. Fine.
“Eleventh printing” (reprint of the first edition). $35.00
1523. DIMSDALE, Tho[ma]s J[osiah]. Vigilantes of Montana.... Butte: McKee Printing Co., 1949. Another copy of preceding, variant binding. 12mo, original green and black faux marbled cloth. Fine. $35.00
The Battle of Adobe Walls
1524. DIXON, [William] “Billy” [& Olive Dixon]. Life and Adventures of “Billy” Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas Panhandle: A Narrative in Which Is Described Many Things Relating to the Early Southwest, with an Account of the Fight between Indians and Buffalo Hunters at Adobe Walls, and the Desperate Engagement at Buffalo Wallow.... Compiled by Frederick Barde. Guthrie: [Co-operative Publishing, 1914]. 320 pp., frontispiece (reproduction of Gwynfred Jones’s painting of “The Fight at Adobe Walls”), text illustrations (photographic, some full-page, including Quanah Parker). 8vo, original gilt-lettered slate blue cloth. Light wear and staining to binding, but a bright, tight copy, interior very fine. Very scarce (book lore maintains that many copies of the first edition were burned in a fire).
First edition. Anderson Sale 1642:156: “Privately issued by the widow, after Dixon’s death, from the manuscript narrative of his adventures dictated to her by Gen. Miles’ noted scout. Exceedingly rare.” Braislin 606. Campbell, p. 62. Dobie, p. 159. Eberstadt, Texas 162:53: “An important narrative of early days in the Southwest, taken chiefly from Dixon’s own statements. The preface includes a letter from Bat Masterson, recalling his services with Dixon at Adobe Walls in June 1875.” Graff 183. Herd 204: “Scarce.” Howes B135. Tate, Indians of Texas 3112.
This book, a classic of the buffalo hunter as a type, contains much on early ranching in the Panhandle (Charles Goodnight, XIT, JA, Hansford, etc.). “After the Indians had been swept from the South Plains, and when the buffalo herds existed only in men’s minds, Billy Dixon settled down to relive his past on paper, and these reminiscences, collected and edited by his wife [Olive Dixon] shortly after his death were published in 1914” (McLoughlin, Wild & Woolly, pp. 110-11). “Dixon, scout and buffalo hunter (1850-1913)...was one of the first hunters to work south of the Canadian in Comanche country and by 1874 was in the Panhandle.... In 1883 Dixon quitted the army payroll and, since the buffalo were gone from the South Plains, ranched, homesteaded, built a residence at the site of Adobe Walls” (Thrapp I, pp. 406-07). Dixon comments on his buffalo hunting (pp. 183-84): “No mercy was shown the buffaloes.... I killed as many as my three men could handle, working them as hard as they were willing to work. This was a deadly business, without sentiment; it was dollars against tender-heartedness, and dollars won.”
For women’s history, it should be noted that a lone woman (Mrs. William Olds) was among the twenty-eight persons under siege during the second Battle of Adobe Walls (1874), an attack of approximately a thousand Comanche, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors, led by Quanah Parker. Only four of the Adobe Walls men were killed (including Mrs. Olds’ husband). Dixon’s comments on the presence of Mrs. Olds at the Battle of Adobe Walls reveal gender attitudes on the frontier: “The anxiety of [our men] was increased by the presence of a woman.... If the latter fact should be learned by the Indians, there was no telling what they might attempt, and a determined attack by the Indians would have meant death for everybody...for none would have suffered themselves to be taken alive nor permitted Mrs. Olds to be captured.... Mrs. Olds was as brave as the bravest. She knew only too well how horrible her fate would be if she should fall into the hands of the Indians, and under such circumstances it would have caused no surprise had she gone into the wildest hysterics.... When the hand of death seemed to be reaching from every direction, this pioneer woman was cool and composed and lent a helping hand in every emergency.”
For perspective, it should be noted that the Adobe Walls stockade where Dixon and his companions were setting up their village was in territory previously guaranteed by treaty to Native Americans. $750.00
1525. DIXON, [William] “Billy” [& Olive Dixon]. Life and Adventures of “Billy” Dixon.... Guthrie: [Co-operative Publishing, 1914]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original gilt-lettered green cloth. Binding worn, stained, and frayed, spine defective (split at lower front joint, small piece of cloth missing from upper spine affecting gilt rule and few letters of title) and hinges cracked. In marked contrast to the outside, the text is clean and bright. $500.00
1526. DIXON, [William] “Billy” [& Olive Dixon]. Life and Adventures of “Billy” Dixon.... Guthrie: [Co-operative Publishing, 1914]. Another copy. 8vo, rebound in later black cloth, marbled endpapers. Fine, exceptionally clean and fresh text. $400.00
1527. DIXON, [William] “Billy” & Olive Dixon. Life of “Billy” Dixon, Plainsman, Scout and Pioneer.... Dallas: P. L. Turner, [1927]. xviii, 251 pp., frontispiece portrait (photograph of Dixon in his prime), plates (photographic). 8vo, original dark green cloth. Fine in the scarce pictorial d.j. (fine with only slight wear). Bookplate of William MacLeod Raine, noted English writer on Western subjects (see Thrapp III, pp. 1188-89).
Second edition, revised. Tate, Indians of Texas 3123: “Although written as a work of praise by a loving wife for her celebrated husband, this book remains very valuable to researchers interested in an insider’s view of the buffalo hide trade of the Texas Panhandle and the Red River War. Dixon’s legendary exploits at Adobe Walls and the Buffalo Wallow Fight are fully detailed in this account, as are the facts of the gradual surrender of various Comanche, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne bands during 1874 and 1875.” $300.00
1528. DIXON, [William] “Billy” & Olive Dixon. Life of “Billy” Dixon.... Dallas: P. L. Turner, [1927]. Another copy. Long diagonal strip of pp. 33-34 missing, with loss of about a third of text (Xerox copy supplied), occasional mild foxing, generally very good in the rare d.j. (lightly soiled, spine darkened). $75.00
1529. DIXON, Sam Houston. The Men Who Made Texas Free: The Signers of the Declaration of Independence—Sketches of Their Lives and Patriotic Services to the Republic and State with a Facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. Houston: Texas Historical Publishing Company, [1924]. 345 pp., text illustrations (facsimiles and full-page portraits of signers). 8vo, original gilt-lettered brown cloth. Light shelf wear, front hinge cracked, back hinge separated, otherwise very good, interior clean and bright.
First edition. Compiled biographical work, including details on signers engaged in stock raising: Samuel Augustus Maverick (linguistic source of the term “maverick” for an unbranded cow), John W. Bunton (originator of the famous “Turkey Foot” brand and credited for the bill that established the Texas Rangers), Francisco Ruiz, et al. $50.00
1530. DIXON, William H. White Conquest. London: Chatto and Windus, 1876. viii, 356 [32, ads] + vi, 373 [2] pp. 2 vols., 8vo, original blindstamped green cloth. Very worn ex-library copy, titles with ink stamp of Young Folks’ Library, La Junta, Colorado, old paper spine labels with ink call numbers, library slips removed (some damage to endpapers), lower corner of free endpaper in vol. 1 torn away, hinges broken (some signatures loose). The outward appearance of the set is fairly wretched, but the text is clean.
First edition. Clark, New South I:61. Cowan, p. 176. Cowan & Dunlap, Bibliography of the Chinese Question 174: “`Our yellow Brothers,’ `Mongol Migration,’ `Chinese labor,’ and other articles.” Flake 2849. Guns 598. Norris 975. Raines, p. 68.
Dixon, historian, traveller, and former editor of the London Athenaeum, wrote an entertaining and thoughtful account, with an emphasis on race relations. The four chapters on desperado Tiburcio Vásquez include information on his rustling activities. Dixon devotes several chapters to Oklahoma and Texas, with good observations on ranching and the cattle trade: “From Denison to Hearne, from Hearne to Galveston, the plains of Texan are dotted with cattle.... A Texan builds no cattle-sheds. Once he has turned his herds into the grazing lands, he lets them run wild, and stay out all the year.”
Dixon obtained a unique firsthand perspective on the history and plight of formerly missionized Native Americans in California when he encountered at Carmel 125-year-old Native American “Captain Carlos.” This wizened patriarch claimed to Dixon he witnessed the arrival of Father Serra and Don José Rivera in Monterey in 1770 and personally experienced the transition from tribal ways to mission life to dismemberment of the missions to the shift of sovereignty from Spain to Mexico and from Mexico to the U.S. Dixon met a similar patriarch at Santa Clara, Marcella, who was a child when the cloister at Santa Clara was constructed, and who over the decades saw himself reduced from prince to pauper.
Dixon’s descriptions of California ranch life are lively and articulate. Dixon attended a cascarón ball at the rancho of Mariano Vallejo. At Salinas, Dixon noted that the British had effectively taken the region from “the drovers and herdsmen...of the Bedouin type, half-naked savages, tawny of skin and black of eye, with curly beards and golden earrings; nomads as wild and reckless as the bulls they chased and slew.”
Dixon’s chapter on Salt Lake City (“Red Mormonism”) compares the belief systems of Mormons and Native Americans and discusses polygamy. $200.00
1531. DOBIE, Bertha M. The Pleasure Frank Dobie Took in Grass. [College Station: Friends of the Texas A&M University Library, 1972]. [19] pp., text illustrations of range grasses by Thomas Rowell. 4to, original beige pictorial wrappers. Fine. From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition, limited edition (500 copies). Keepsake 2. “A Talk given by Mrs. J. Frank Dobie on the presentation of ‘My Dobie Collection’ by Jeff Dykes and Martha Dykes Goldsmith to the University Library, Texas A&M University.” Introduction by Dykes, who describes the restoration of the range on the 17,000-acre Flat Top Ranch (Bosque County, Texas), where his father ran some cows in the 1880s. In this little keepsake, Dykes acknowledges Bertha McKee Dobie’s excellent contributions to and influence on J. Frank Dobie’s writings. $45.00
1532. DOBIE, Bertha M., et al. Growing Up in Texas, Recollections of Childhood.... Austin: Encino Press, 1972. [6] 153 pp., woodcut illustrations by Barbara Whitehead. 8vo, original red pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Whaley, Wittliff 89. This pleasantly designed and printed book includes nostalgic recollections by Bertha McKee Dobie, Joe B. Frantz, John Graves, A. C. Greene, and others. Bertha describes the scene of driving her cow home in the evenings: “The Velasco prairie...was unfenced grazing ground well into the twentieth century, long after most open range was a thing of the past. During my childhood and girlhood herds of beef cattle as well as the townspeople’s milch cows fed there. They watered from ditches and from the River, in which it was not uncommon for an animal to bog.... Mosquitoes were a scourge to cattle and people alike.”
Some of the other memoirs contain ranching material, and a personal favorite of ours is John Graves’ contribution about growing up in cow-town Fort Worth and summers as a greenhorn kid on a South Texas stock farm trying to keep up with “gnarled Mexicans” speedily digging postholes. $40.00
1533. DOBIE, Bertha M., et al. Growing Up in Texas. Austin: Encino Press, 1972. Another copy. Very fine, d.j. not present. From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate. $20.00
1534. DOBIE, Dudley R. A Brief History of Hays County and San Marcos Texas. San Marcos: Privately printed, 1948. 71 pp. 8vo, original beige wrappers. Fine.
First edition. CBC 2362. Includes interviews with and accounts of old-timers who went up the cattle trail. $40.00
1535. [DOBIE, DUDLEY R.]. LOWMAN, Al. Remembering Dudley Dobie: The First Bookseller to Enrich My Life and Empty My Pockets. Austin: [Designed by William R. Holman and printed by David Holman at Wind River for] Dorothy Sloan–Books, 1993. [4] 33 [1] pp., including photographic frontispiece of Dudley R. Dobie. 8vo, original brown cloth over beige boards with woodcut illustration by Barbara Whitehead. Very fine, in plain white d.j.
First edition, limited edition (50 copies). Al Lowman’s warm personal memoir of Dudley, with some good book lore relating to cowmen Jack Thorp, James F. Hinkle, “Colonel” Jack Potter, and others. $50.00
J. Frank Dobie
Note: The following essay is quoted with permission from Henry L. Alsmeyer, Jr. “J. F. Dobie” in A Literary History of the American West (Fort Worth: TCU, 1987, pp. 535-543).
T
he writings of J. Frank Dobie appeal strongly to readers who appreciate good tales, students of the southwestern land, and all who value freedom and the natural order. Known to a generation of admirers as “Mr. Texas,” Pancho Dobie inhabited a world that was never limited by the borders of his native region. The man who knows all there is to know about longhorns, to paraphrase the Latin citation accompanying an honorary degree conferred during his year of teaching at Cambridge University, became a man whose works were increasingly concerned with exploring the universal principle of freedom and the relationships of humans and the physical world around them. Like Robert Frost, Dobie became a realmist rather than a regionalist.
The author’s decades of writing yielded varied and voluminous publications. These works reflect Dobie’s skills as a storyteller, chronicler, folklorist, and historian of sorts. They also reflect his deep love for the land and its people, combined with an equally deep affection for classic literature in the English language. Love for literature, particularly English literature, and for the natural world began to grow in Dobie almost from the time of his birth in 1888 on a ranch in Live Oak County, deep in South Texas. However, he was in his forties before his first major work, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, appeared in 1929. Publication of Coronado’s Children shortly thereafter brought national attention. Dobie’s desire to chronicle the life of his region never waned, although his interests eventually transported him far beyond the bounds of the cattle kingdom of his birth. In 1952, in The Mustangs, Pancho Dobie noted proudly that searching out the stories for that book had carried him out of the confines of his native region, across centuries and geographical boundaries.
The roots of any writer’s growth are complex. Dobie’s early years included ample time for riding and working on his father’s ranch; there was also time for considerable reading and attending a country school. The first crucial turn in the author’s life came while he was enrolled at Southwestern University, a Methodist college in Georgetown, Texas: it was there that thoughts of studying for the bar changed to a desire to teach literature. Dobie indeed became a teacher, principally at the University of Texas at Austin, until he and the school’s administrators parted company in 1947 in a widely publicized dispute. On the surface the matter concerned Dobie’s request for an extension of a leave of absence; the request was denied, and Dobie subsequently declined to report for classes as he had been ordered to do. The grounds for the conflict were actually highly political. Dobie had made no bones about being dissatisfied with what he perceived as a “fascist” mentality dominating the university’s board of regents.
Dobie’s years at Southwestern University, in any case, engendered in him a love of literature and an early commitment to teaching. They were also the time when he met Bertha McKee, an undergraduate at Southwestern and a student of language, literature, and the Southwest in her own right. Frank and Bertha Dobie were married in 1916 after a six-year “courtship.” The author’s life for more than a decade after he left Southwestern in 1910 was a series of comings and goings. He taught and served as highschool principal in the Big Bend country of West Texas, and there met John Young, whose story became the subject of his first book. He was briefly on the staffs of several Texas newspapers and thought, fleetingly, of becoming a fulltime reporter. In 1912 he returned to Southwestern University as a special assistant and teacher of English. Enrollment as a graduate student at Columbia University in 1913 led to a deeper commitment to English literature and also expanded Dobie’s world in other ways. That academic year marked his first extended visit to a major city, New York, where he learned to appreciate the theatre and the pleasures of out-of-the-way bookshops. The antipodal pulls of city and ranch country were to remain a strong internal conflict in Dobie throughout his life.
Completing the Master of Arts degree in mid-1914, Dobie in the fall joined the English faculty of the University of Texas. Among the most important of the author’s early friendships was a lasting one with the great folklorist Stith Thompson. At Thompson’s urging, Dobie became a member of the Texas Folklore Society, an organization Dobie was to rejuvenate in the 1920s. With America’s entry into World War I, Dobie volunteered for military service, even though he was by then married, and was awarded a commission as lieutenant in the field artillery. He served overseas with a battery of horse-drawn field pieces, but saw no combat. He became acquainted with France during the war, but was not to visit the England he loved through its literature until he went to Cambridge University in the midst of World War II. His army service and his stint at Cambridge are joined in a sense for, as Dobie wrote in the 1940s, the interval spent learning how to fire artillery and his stay at Cambridge studying and teaching American history were the times he had “gained more brain power” than he had in any other periods of his life.
Dobie returned to Texas in 1919. For the next year he managed his Uncle Jim Dobie’s ranch on the Nueces River south of San Antonio. It was on his uncle’s ranch that Dobie befriended a vaquero named Santos Cortez, and as a result finally established a goal for his life. He listened with fascination as Santos spun stories through the long South Texas nights. As Dobie wrote in his newspaper column of November 17, 1957:
While Santos talked, while Uncle Jim and other cow men talked or stayed silent, while the coyotes sang their songs, and the sandhill cranes honked their lonely music I seemed to be seeing a great painting of something I’d known all my life. I seemed to be listening to a great epic of something that had been commonplace in my youth but now took on meanings. I was familiar with John A. Lomax’s Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. Indeed, I knew John Lomax himself very well. One day it came to me that I would collect and tell the legendary tales of Texas as Lomax had collected the old-time songs and ballads of Texas and the frontier.
While this passage is perhaps filtered through the well-known Dobie romanticism, the decision to collect and to tell the folk stories of his native region was firm, and the vision recounted in the passage remained with the author throughout his life. In the early 1920s disastrous financial conditions for cowmen, including Jim Dobie, hastened Pancho’s return to the University of Texas, where he remained, except for a brief period spent as head of the English Department at what is now Oklahoma State University, until 1947.
In the 1920s and 1930s Dobie’s life was increasingly active with teaching, public appearances, and writing. Establishing himself in the 1920s as a well-paid author of magazine articles for national publications, he also became a steady contributor to the Southwest Review, an excellent regional journal. Opening another channel of communication as the decade closed, he developed his “Life and Literature of the Southwest” course at the University of Texas; the class, one of the most popular offered at the University during the 1930s, demonstrated Dobie’s knowledge of the land, people, and literature of the Southwest, as well as his great vitality as a teacher. A brief mimeographed reading list prepared as the course was organized in 1929 evolved into the renowned Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest (1942; revised edition, 1952). As late as 1979, James K. Folsom, writing in The Western: A Collection of Critical Essays, adjudged the Guide “the most useful single bibliography of Western Americana.”
In the 1920s Dobie commenced interviewing scores of trail drivers, cowmen, treasure hunters, and other oldtimers likely to have good tales to tell. He traveled countless miles to secure these interviews, placing the tales in his growing files for use and reuse; it is not an exaggeration to say that Dobie practiced oral history of a sort long before tape recorders were invented. He loved the open road, and he enjoyed getting away from campus to refresh his mind and spirits in the countryside. Still his primary responsibilities were academic and urban in setting.
Much of Dobie’s scholarly work in the 1920s was associated with the Texas Folklore Society, which he was largely responsible for reorganizing in the early part of the decade. Dobie edited the Society’s annual publication from 1922 to 1943. His literary reputation was finally and firmly established with the publication of A Vaquero of the Brush Country ( 1929) and Coronado’s Children (1930), the latter title chosen as a Literary Guild selection. These works reflect the methods of assembling materials and of writing that Dobie was to employ for the remainder of his career. He gathered the tales, wrote short articles for the Texas Folklore Society annual or for magazines, then rewrote the shorter pieces for book publication. The books themselves are a blend of narrative, short lyrical passages, history, folklore, and natural history. In Vaquero, Dobie used autobiographical materials provided by John Young, an old cowman who had once trailed cattle from Texas northward toward Canada before fences ended the trail-driving epoch. Dobie was later to claim, in a list he made of outstanding range country books, that A Vaquero of the Brush Country, along with The Longhorns (1941), supplies “a fairly full and accurate account of the beginnings and early development of ranching in Texas.”
If Vaquero is a story of the open range, Coronado’s Children takes as its theme the quest for lost treasure. “These tales are not creations of mine,” Dobie writes in introducing Coronado’s Children. “They belong to the soil and to the people of the soil.” He then says the book is a collection of “just tales.” The reader familiar with Dobie’s work will note characteristic touches here. The author often pointedly identifies himself with the soil and its people. He also often injects a disclaimer, such as the “just tales” phrase, to avoid being labeled a folklorist or historian or scientist of any kind. As Vaquero was followed some years later by The Longhorns, so the treasure tales published in 1930 were followed in 1939 by Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. The latter was the first of many of his works to be brought out by Little, Brown and Company; the author dealt with five publishers during the 1930s before establishing a permanent relationship with the Boston company.
Dobie had grown up among Spanish-speaking people and was always interested in their folk culture. During the early 1930s he traveled extensively in Mexico, adventures funded in part by a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. The literary result of his travels was Tongues of the Monte (1935), reprinted as The Mexico I Like (1942). Francis E. Abernethy, in his excellent pamphlet J. Frank Dobie (1967), notes that this book on Mexico, while never a big seller, has become for many readers their favorite Dobie volume. Cast as a picaresque novel, Tongues of the Monte features Don Federico as its central character; the extent to which Don Federico is also Frank Dobie remains vague. The protagonist, in any event, rides through five separate episodes in northwestern Mexico. The geography of the narrative is never clearly mapped out, but it seems to be set in the dry brush country east of the Sierra Madre and south of the Texas Big Bend and New Mexico. A highlight of the work is the tale of Juan Oso, son of a bear and of a woman (a variant, of course, of the Bear’s Son Tale, an archetypal story that appears in the folklore of many cultures). Tongues of the Monte does not go very far in developing the character of Don Federico, and is therefore not a good novel; the book is successful, however, in vividly showing “the life of the Mexican earth” and its people.
The Longhorns, published in 1941, represents Dobie at the peak of his powers. The author begins the book with a statement that the longhorns belong to history, “a past so remote and irrevocable that sometimes it seems as if it might never have been.” He advises readers “who object to facts” to begin with chapter four “and then merely to skim all the others.” The work is a rewarding mixture of fact, lore, and history. Entertaining tales, such as that of Sancho, the steer who returned, on instinct, to his native Texas range after being trailed to Wyoming, enliven the text. “Sundown,” the twelfth and final chapter of The Longhorns, carries a double meaning, one imposed by history, for as this work appeared World War II was about to become a global conflict with Americans involved directly. Dobie closes the book with praise for the longhorns for their great strength, vitality, endurance, and nobility.
Within three years of finishing The Longhorns, the writer would be admiring the English people for some of these same qualities. Dobie went to England during the war to serve as a visiting professor at Cambridge University. It was there that he became “contemporary with myself,” as he expressed it, a transformation that can best be seen by following the Sunday newspaper column he began in September, 1939 and produced without fail until his death. “My Texas” was the original title of the column which was published in several newspapers, notably the Houston Post and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In An American Original: The Life of J. Frank Dobie (1978), Lon Tinkle cites a note found in one of Dobie’s “Autobiographical” files, a note in which the author wrote of becoming unconsciously contemporary with the world at “about the time World War II arrived.” He could not, he said, be aware of the “Nazis bombing English civilization out of existence and...go on tall-taling about Texas as if all were right with the world.” He concluded by speaking of “the Fascist spirit asserting itself at home.”
Dobie’s responsibility at Cambridge was to lecture on American history from 1774 to the 1940s, a responsibility that set him to cramming like a college freshman before an exam. The Dobie who long had loved English literature, especially Shakespeare and the Romantics, found in England a civility and civilized freedom, a serenity and a sense of harmony that moved him deeply. He had not planned to write of his experiences in England, but an article about Cambridge for the Saturday Evening Post and notes jotted down for the Sunday column became, with rewriting, a book unique to his long list of publications, A Texan in England (1944). In a notable chapter, “The Lark at Heaven’s Gate,” he writes as a Wordsworthian Romantic preparing to go out onto Grantchester Meadows to hear the skylarks of which such poets as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shelley had written; but in the same chapter he poignantly and realistically describes the longing for liberty that he had seen in two golden eagles in the London zoo, creatures that remind him of a caged eagle observed years earlier on an Oklahoma ranch. “What England Did to Me,” the final chapter, reveals a man very different from the creator of The Longhorns, a book written just a few years previously. As Tinkle noted in An American Original (p. 185): “The year at Cambridge crystallized many points of view for Dobie, ideas that had invigorated and enlarged him in the past but that had never dominated his thought.” Among the ideas were the relationship of the universal and the provincial, a growing attachment to the metaphor of “the earth,” and increased respect for imagination as contrasted with illusion. Notable also is the strengthening of Dobie’s affection for England.
The break with the University of Texas in 1947, the involved details of which need not be of concern here, freed Dobie to devote his entire time and energy to writing. The files of materials he had collected, earlier publications in magazines and newspapers, and memories stored over the years formed the basis for several important works published in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Voice of the Coyote (1949), like his other animal books, blends folklore with natural and cultural history. How humans perceive the coyote is at least as important in the book as factual information and description. The author is forceful in his opposition to the frontier tradition of killing for the sake of killing. A hunter from boyhood, Dobie in The Voice of the Coyote expresses anger at those who slaughter coyotes for no good reason.
As opposed to the traditional Anglo attitude, Dobie was attracted to the Indian view of nature, a view which stresses living in harmony with one’s natural environment. The author seemed to see such a view reflected in the career of the old hunter Ben Lilly, who had begun on the eastern fringes of the Southwest and eventually moved across Texas into the mountains of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. Lilly was in his seventies when Dobie first met him in New Mexico in 1928, and the file of materials on Lilly gathered over the years finally evolved into The Ben Lilly Legend (1950). Lilly was a paradoxical man, impossible in human relationships because of his devotion to hunting and moving on. Dobie was fascinated with Lilly’s primitive knowledge of forest and mountain range, with his energy, vitality, strength, and love of freedom. Old Ben Lilly was a son of the natural world that Dobie adored, but it is interesting that the writer gives only a few words in his Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest to the Lilly book, fewer words in fact than to any of his other works.
The Mustangs, published in 1952, may well prove to be the most enduring of Dobie’s books. The English Romantic, the lover of the open range, and the critic of contemporary society merge into the marvelously elegiac opening lines of the volume: “Like the wild West Wind that Shelley yearned to be, the mustangs, the best ones at least, were `tameless, and swift, and proud.’ “ The author says that he has chosen to write about the mustangs “at a time when so many proclaimers of liberty are strangling it.” The reference is to the McCarthyism of the early 1950s, an “ism” that Dobie deplored because of the fears and the tightening of freedoms that it engendered. Pancho Dobie was often more direct in his political commentary, such as in the newspaper column in which he compared a prominent Texas politician unfavorably with a rattlesnake, but in The Mustangs he wrote obliquely of the spiritual truth of freedom, a value he believed the wild horses and their world embodied. Such a principle, of course, had been defined by Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the few American writers to significantly influence Dobie. The tales and facts collected in the book, however, have a vital tang of actual experience that transcends the abstract message.
Years of collecting notes and of reading about the horses of the West preceded the writing of The Mustangs. Prior to composing the book the author also did concentrated research under a grant from the Huntington Library in California; Dobie later said the research conducted at the Huntington was equal to that required for the writing of a doctoral dissertation. Pride in the resulting work is apparent in the lengthy annotation found in Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest (revised edition). Dobie explains in the annotation that the volume “incorporates” an earlier, briefer work, as well as “a large part” of the Texas Folklore Society annual of 1940. The first third of The Mustangs traces the Arabian progenitors of the Spanish horse, the horses brought to the New World by Spaniards, and the horse strains developed by the western Indians. Later there is room for legends and tales of Anglo mustangers. “Probably a million range horses,” Dobie notes, left Texas during the time of the longhorn drives, and by the end of the nineteenth century the last herds of mustangs had been reduced to scrub stock. In The Mustangs Dobie largely avoids sentiment, something he was not always able to do in previous works. The concluding prose hymn to the mustangs, once free upon a vast range and now “free of all confines of time and flesh,” seems noble and fitting rather than sentimental. Tales of Old-Time Texas (1955) continued to mine the familiar lode, as did I’ll Tell You a Tale (1960), a selection of some of the best of Dobie’s previously published stories. The tales in the latter volume were chosen by Isabel Gaddis, herself from the range country and a former student of Dobie’s. The stories are gathered under such headings as “The Longhorn Breed” and “Characters and Happenings of Long Ago,” and they represent Dobie at his best in doing what he did with artistry–telling a tale. An advance copy of Cow People was in Dobie’s hands only days before his peaceful death in September, 1964. The book summarizes and distils all the vast knowledge of cattlemen that Dobie had acquired over a lifetime of personal experiences and reading. Lon Tinkle claims that Dobie became a better, more realistic writer during his final years. Cow People bears out that judgment. The portraits of cattlemen in Cow People are expertly drawn, sometimes with humor, always with canny understanding.
Following Dobie’s death several posthumous volumes–most notably Rattlesnakes (1965), Some Part of Myself (1967), Out of the Old Rock (1972), and Prefaces (1975)–were sewn together and published. The lengthy bibliography compiled in 1968 by Mary Louise McVicker shows, through its more than 700 entries (excluding newspaper columns), how voluminously Dobie wrote. Tinkle’s “A Bibliographical Note” at the close of An American Original nicely supplements McVicker’s essential bibliography and summarizes well the significant body of writings by and about Dobie as of the late 1970s. That Dobie was a literary son of the cattle kingdom is known widely; less well known are the extent and variety of his writings. As McVicker’s bibliography demonstrates, he not only wrote extensively for periodicals, but also contributed 134 items to books by varied hands.
Pancho Dobie could ride the range and treat cattle infected with screwworms, but he was also a literate writer firmly grounded in the best standards of English literature. At times late in his life Dobie worried that he was perceived by the public only as a colorful yarn-spinner. Tinkle ponders the question of whether or not Dobie became “trapped” in the image he so carefully cultivated early in his career. In the final chapter of An American Original, “A Joy to Him and a Joy to Hear,” Tinkle concludes that indeed Dobie found himself entrapped “within his loyalties and his public role,” but that Dobie the man “never stopped growing.” Pancho Dobie was in general a beloved figure in his native Texas and Southwest, and his long life spanned a period of remarkable transitions within the region. His life, if not his works, reflects many of those transitions.
How will Dobie’s reputation fare in the future? Students of literature know that judging a writer’s accomplishments is usually a lengthy process; reputations must be sifted. A single doctoral dissertation devoted solely to Dobie and a few worthwhile undergraduate papers cited by Tinkle suggest that there has not been an excessive amount of scholarly interest in the author. Larry McMurtry, the Texas novelist, offers strong, generally negative criticism of Dobie (and of the writer’s friends, historian Walter Prescott Webb and naturalist Roy Bedichek) in a piece included in In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas (1968). Dobie and his colleagues, McMurtry writes, “revered Nature,” but were never able to resolve their ambivalent passions: love for the range and love for “the library.” McMurtry asserts that Dobie is at his best in Tongues of the Monte and in the “terse opinionated annotations” of the Guide. Only time will test the validity of McMurtry’s belief that Dobie’s audience “will probably not outlive him much more than a generation.” Another Texas writer, Larry Goodwyn, concludes in his essay “The Frontier Myth and Southwestern Literature” that Dobie was “the most significant...of the interpreters of the oral tradition,” but while he “described a way of life,” he never found a way “to describe its meaning.”
Perhaps the best judgment of Dobie now possible is suggested by the opening sentences of Francis Abernethy’s pamphlet J. Frank Dobie. Abernethy begins with a story Dobie relates in A Vaquero of the Brush Country. A thirsty, bored cowboy rides into Dogtown, and after a visit to the saloon mounts his horse, spurs it, and whoops for a while to “express the buoyancy of his unconquerable spirit.” Dobie, Abernethy says, “decided to whoop us into consciousness of what we had and what we have, and of the tremendous life and vitality of things of which we are a part.” Chronicler of the cattle kingdom and teller of tales, folklorist, historian, bibliographer, man of letters, teacher, lover of freedom and of nature and of life, and a well-loved figure–Dobie was all of these. Future generations of readers will no doubt confirm that he wrote at least a handful of enduring books about his native region and its animals and people. At times, in addition, he did a lot of whooping and stirring the dust.
***
Joe Frantz remarked that Dobie was “Texas’ first liberated mind to achieve a wide audience and the first truly professional writer produced by the state” (Third Coast, 1983). Many Texas writers have credited Dobie with inspiring them not only to be a writer but to feel comfortable using their home state as a subject. Billy Lee Brammer admitted, “It never occurred to me—ever—until I read Frank Dobie, that I could be a writer. There simply were no writers in Texas” (Texas Observer 21). Fred Gipson confided that he had never realized it was possible to live in Texas and be a writer until Dobie set the example (Austin American Statesman B5). Publisher and screenwriter Bill Wittliff acknowledged that “Dobie was the prime moving force of my life.”
Note: Please contact our firm if you desire other titles by or about J. Frank Dobie not present in this catalogue.
Tom Lea’s Presentation Copy to Carl Hertzog
1536. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1939. xvii [1] 366 pp., color frontispiece, color plates, and text illustrations by Tom Lea. 8vo, original half brown cloth over beige boards, silver paper spine label. Light shelf wear and slightly faded, front hinge cracked (but strong), otherwise very fine in publisher’s black slipcase with pink printed label; additional envelope of plates of Lea’s paintings for the book included (as issued, but often lacking). Publisher’s plain glassine d.j. not present. Wonderful presentation copy—with artist Tom Lea’s signed note to “Carl Hertzog, whose imprint would have improved this work, Tom, March 1939.”
First edition, Sierra Madre edition (#259 of 265 copies signed by Dobie and Lea). Basic Texas Books 45n. Cook 29. Dobie, p. 40. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 126); Kid 266; My Dobie Collection, p. 8 (#6 on his rarities list); Western High Spots, p. 52 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #59). Guns 599. Hinshaw & Lovelace, Lea 30F. McVicker A7a(1). One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 6. Paher, Nevada 482. Powell, Heart of the Southwest 29: “Illuminated by the alchemical magic of Dobie’s feeling for places and people of the Southwest.” Saunders 4030. Sloan, Auction 9 (quoting Pingenot): “A sequel to Coronado’s Children, focusing on New Mexico, Arizona, and Sonora.... It is the handsomest collaboration between the two men and one of Dobie’s most enjoyable books.”
Unusual nuggets of ranching history may be mined from this unlikely source: “Not the Will of God” (related by Tomás, pastor for a border rancher in Chihuahua); “The Man Who Was Not Dead” (cowboy-trapper-prospector Ammon Tenney’s account of John Brewer’s 1888 search for lost treasure on Windmill Ranch in Arizona); “Hound Hunters” (“Numerous otherwise level-headed forest rangers, cowmen, barkeeps and sheepherders...become loco with the Adams Diggings and leave their firesides, campfires, cattle, coin counters, sheep and families to take up the search”); “Can You Read Shadder Writing?” (search for Tayopa treasure by John Williams, range foreman of William Randolph Hearst’s hacienda, La Babícora: “He was on the Babícora when it was unfenced and maverick bulls and cows of the longhorn breed would run for thirty miles, once they got a good scare from men”); and more. $1,000.00
1537. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1939. Another copy. A few minor chips to paper spine label, otherwise a very fine copy in publisher’s slipcase, and with the additional envelope of Lea’s paintings for the book included, as issued. Limited edition (#259 of 265 copies). $750.00
1538. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1943. xvii [1] 366 pp., color frontispiece, color plates, and text illustrations by Tom Lea. 8vo, original brown cloth. Fine in moderately worn d.j. (price-clipped). Signed by author.
First edition, third printing. $25.00
1539. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1945. xvii [1] 366 pp., text illustrations (some full-page) by Tom Lea. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Fore-edges foxed, else fine in d.j. Signed by author.
World War II edition (reprinted from original plates in slightly reduced format, thinner paper, color plates omitted, d.j. illustration altered, back d.j. text with JFD’s plea to Americans to buy war bonds). McVicker A7a(3). $25.00
1540. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. New York: Bantam Books, [1951]. [12] 212 pp. 16mo, original multicolor pictorial wraps by Tom Lea. Remarkably fine, especially for a popular paperback of this vintage. This one is from Dudley R. Dobie’s library and looks so fresh that it must have been immediately stashed with his other treasures.
First paperback edition (unabridged). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 128) McVicker A7b. Dobie for the masses, with histrionic advertising blurb on half-title: “Fabulous wealth and incredibly savagery.... The REAL Southwest. Out of the turbulent history of the Southwest comes this record of blood and treasure. Here are the arrogant Spaniards sweltering in armor and encased in fear. Here is the twang of an Apache arrow, the flat crack of a rifle, the rattle of pistol fire. And here is also silence—the shimmering, heat-cracked silence of the vast Southwest.” $25.00
1541. DOBIE, J. Frank. As the Moving Finger Writ. [Austin]: Privately printed, [1955]. 12 pp. Large 8vo, original salmon printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from Southwest Review (Autumn 1955). McVicker D53. Mohr, The Range Country 664. Christmas greeting from the Dobies, containing an essay on the Texas Review and its successor, the Southwest Review, with references to Edward Gosse (including his barbed criticism of an article on cowboy songs), Walter Prescott Webb, John Lomax, Henry Nash Smith, William Faulkner, et al. $25.00
1542. DOBIE, J. Frank. Babícora. N.p., [1954]. 8 pp., map. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers. Very fine, signed by author.
First separate printing, offprint from American Hereford Journal (January 1, 1954). Cook 52. Dykes, My Dobie Collection, p. 9: “Among the scarce and rare Dobie booklets” (#17 on his rarities list). McVicker D51. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 18. JFD’s account of his 1953 visit to William Randolph Hearst’s vast Babícora Ranch in Chihuahua, “where thousands of commercial Herefords were raised each year over a long period. The breaking up of this property last year marked the end of an era.” $75.00
1543. DOBIE, J. Frank. Babícora. N.p., [1954]. Another copy, not signed. Very fine. $65.00
1544. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Ben Lilly Legend. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950. [vi] [2, inserted autograph leaf] [vii-xv] [3] 237 pp., color frontispiece portrait by Tom Lea, plates (photographic and reproductions of drawings by Lilly and Dunton). 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Slight foxing to fore-edges, otherwise very fine in d.j. with Lea illustration. Signed by J. Frank Dobie.
First edition, signed issue, with signed leaf bound in after title. This special signed issue was not noted by McVicker. Campbell, p. 59: “Story of that eccentric Ben Lilly, mighty hunter of bears and panthers, who spent most of his life hunting big game.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Dunton 41), (Lea 143).
“[Dobie’s] biography of Ben Lilly...is an excellent book on a man no one but Dobie could have got to” (McMurtry, In a Narrow Grave, p. 48). Among his many muy-macho activities, Lilly was a cattle trader and trail driver (one of his clients was Zack Miller’s 101 Ranch); chief huntsman for Theodore Roosevelt (1907); bounty-hunter for stock-killers (bears, lions, wolves) on New Mexico ranches for the federal government (1914); and “surpassed all other men in horn-blowing, cow-calling, and whip-popping.” The book contains much on the GOS Ranch in New Mexico, whose owner Victor Culberson introduced Lilly to JFD.
Our favorite story in this book is how one of Lilly’s interminable perverse pranks back-fired on Lilly himself. When leading a herd of about a hundred and fifty cattle, Lilly encountered a circus caravan and got the bright idea that it would be fun to stampede the circus animals. Lilly headed his cattle toward the caravan, but when his cattle saw the elephant, they were the ones to stampede. It took Lilly a week to regather his cattle. $400.00
1545. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Ben Lilly Legend. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950. xv [3] 237 pp., color frontispiece portrait by Tom Lea, plates (photographic and reproductions of drawings by Lilly and Dunton). 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Slight foxing to fore-edges, otherwise very fine in d.j. illustrated by Lea.
First trade edition. $60.00
“First item to bear the Encino Press device” (Whaley)
1546. DOBIE, J. Frank. Bob More: Man and Bird Man. Dallas: Encino Press, 1965. vii [1] 27 [2] pp., title and text illustrations by William Wittliff. Square 8vo, original tan cloth, printed paper label on upper cover. Superb condition, in publisher’s brown slipcase with printed paper spine label. Inscribed and signed by publisher-printer William Wittliff: “Con mucho gusto.” Laid in is an Encino Press invoice for $7.65, with Wittliff’s ink note to purchaser: “This includes a dinner with us some evening soon.”
First edition, limited edition (#453 of 550 copies), originally printed in Southwest Review 27:1 (Autumn 1941), with added introduction containing Wittliff’s touching tribute to JFD and a terrific description of Bill’s first visit with “The Man of Texas Letters.” Cook 70. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 34: “A month before his death, Dobie granted Wittliff permission to reprint his Bob More essay. This reprint was the first book published by Encino Press.... Scarce.” Whaley, Wittliff 8.
An excellent essay on Robert Lee More (1873-1941), ornithologist and ranch manager-partner with William T. Waggoner on the vast Three D Ranch, where More often carried out his ornithological research. Bob More considered the Waggoner Ranch along Beaver Creek and the Wichita River to be the greatest bird preserve in Texas. He assembled, organized, and scientifically marked a collection of some 12,000 to 15,000 bird eggs from 750 species (including the rare California condor). More’s collection is “considered the finest west of the Mississippi River and the outstanding private collection of the world” (Handbook of Texas Online: Robert Lee More).
Bob More, a pioneer conservationist both in his ornithological and ranching activities, insisted on light stocking and extra tanks to bring native grasses back to the pristine lushness that would benefit land, cattle, birds, and man. JFD tells us that Bob More’s standing order to the Three D Ranch harvesters was to leave a patch of grain around every wild turkey nest discovered in the field.
According to JFD, Bob More often said: “Birds are man’s best friends. If they were suddenly destroyed, insects would within a short time destroy the vegetation on which the human race is dependent.” JFD interviewed Bob More three times and wrote this essay to document his contributions to ranching and zoology. Amidst the field of JFD’s cornerstone works, little gems like this one make us realize the great legacy JFD left us by taking the time to interview people and preserve fugitive history that might otherwise have been lost. The Wittliff-Encino connection only adds to the appeal of this excellent book. $150.00
1547. DOBIE, J. Frank. “Bovine Sense of Smell: J. Frank Dobie in American Cattle Producer Says Old Time Longhorns Could Smell Water Miles Away,” in The Purebred 1:2 (February 1941). Pp. 7, 44-45, illustration from The Longhorns. 8vo, original dark blue printed wrappers with photographic illustration. Edges a bit worn, moderately foxed, overall very good.
McVicker C181b. $15.00
.
1548. DOBIE, J. Frank. “The Brush Country of Texas,” in Lincoln-Mercury Times 2:6 (November-December, 1950). Pp. 1-4, color illustrations by H. O. Kelly. 4to, original multi-color pictorial wrappers with color illustration by H. O. Kelly. Fine.
McVicker C296. The illustrations of ranch life in the brush country are by H. O. Kelly (1884-1955), retired cowpuncher living at Blanket, Texas, who worked in thirty states as a cowboy, sheepherder, cowhand, logger, bullwhacker, sharecropper, and occasionally, rodeo rider. Kelly came to public notice through a one-man exhibit arranged by Jerry Bywaters in 1950. “According to Francis Henry Taylor, once director of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Kelly was ‘one of the few genuine primitive painters we have had in our country’” (Handbook of Texas Online: Harold Osman Kelly). JFD’s accompanying article on the brush country of Southwest Texas, where he was raised on a ranch in Live Oak County, is elegiac. $25.00
1549. DOBIE, J. Frank. Charm in Mexican Folktales. N.p., [1951]. 8 pp. 8vo, original light green printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from Texas Folklore Society Publication 24 (The Healer of Los Olmos and Other Mexican Lore). McVicker D43. In this Christmas keepsake, JFD recounts gathering folklore for his book The Longhorns. Among the yarns he spins is that of José Beltrán, an old spent vaquero on the Tom O’Connor Ranch near Refugio, whose job consisted of trapping wild cattle. One moonlit night while waiting patiently at the waterhole for his quarry, Beltrán encountered a maverick bull (puro negro) that actually turned out to be el diablo. $50.00
1550. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Literary Guild of America, 1931. xv [1] 367 pp., 6 plates (including frontispiece), maps, text illustrations, and endpaper maps by Ben Carlton Mead. 8vo, original orange pictorial cloth. Faint discoloration to binding, mild foxing to frontispiece. Very good in lightly worn and soiled d.j. with one small tape repair. Related clipping laid in. Signed by J. Frank Dobie and Ben Carlton Mead.
Literary Guild of America edition, printed from the same plates as the first edition, second printing (also issued in the same year), with dedication to JFD’s father, a “clean” cowman (clean is added in this issue), glossary revised. Basic Texas Books 45B: “Best book ever written on hidden treasure, and one of the most fascinating books on any subject to come out of Texas.” Dobie, Big Bend Bibliography, p. [7]. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mead 29n). Greene, Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 9. Howes D374. McVicker A2a(2). Powell, Southwest Classics, pp. 343-55: “I have chosen Coronado’s Children...not because it is his best book—my favorite is The Mustangs, his was Tongues of the Monte—but rather because it is the one that made him the legendary figure he became, the one that first brought him national recognition. It is an enthralling book.”
Chapter 5 is devoted to “Tales of the Cow Camp”; other references to ranching and cowboys are found in the book. The last chapter (“Shadows and Symbols”) contains the first printing of the enigmatic symbols that buriers of treasure have used since time immemorial. $50.00
1551. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children.... New York: Literary Guild of America, 1931. Another copy. Covers worn and stained, mild foxing to title, d.j. not present. Reading copy. $10.00
1552. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [early 1940s]. xiv, 367 pp. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Endsheets lightly browned, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. with text illustrations by Mead. Signed by J. Frank Dobie.
Wartime edition, with printed statement to that effect on title page, complete and unabridged text on thinner paper and slightly reduced format, plates omitted. McVicker A2a(6). $15.00
1553. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, n.d. (ca. 1946). xiv, 367 pp. 8vo, original terracotta pictorial cloth. Endsheets lightly browned, else fine in fine d.j. with Mead illustration. Signed by J. Frank Dobie.
McVicker A2a(7). The wartime government regulation of paper statement has been removed from the title page. Publisher’s ads on d.j. verso altered from preceding. $15.00
1554. DOBIE, J. Frank. Lost Mines of the Old West: Coronado’s Children. London: Hammond, Hammond and Company, [1960]. xv [1] 367 pp., text illustrations by Mead. 8vo, original ecru cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j. with illustration of treasure hunter looking very much like JFD.
First British edition. Basic Texas Books 45H. McVicker A2d, “A line-by-line reprint from the Southwest Press trade edition.” Mead’s plates omitted. $35.00
1555. DOBIE, J. Frank. Lost Mines of the Old West: Coronado’s Children. London: Hammond, Hammond and Company, [1960]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original red cloth. Mild staining at lower hinge, else very fine in d.j. with same illustration as preceding. $30.00
1556. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales of Los Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. Foreword by Frank H. Wardlaw. Austin & London: University of Texas Press, [1978]. xxii, 329 [2] pp., title and text illustrations by Charles Shaw. 8vo, original half terracotta cloth over tan mottled boards. Mint in publisher’s slipcase.
Limited edition (#135 of 300 numbered copies), signed by Frank Wardlaw and illustrator Charles Shaw. Barker Texas History Center Series, No. 3. $75.00
1557. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children. Austin & London: University of Texas Press, [1978]. xxii, 329 pp., title and text illustrations by Charles Shaw. 8vo, original half terracotta cloth over tan boards. Very fine in very fine d.j. illustrated by Charles Shaw.
First trade edition. Basic Texas Books 45I. $20.00
1558. DOBIE, J. Frank. Cow People. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., [1964]. x [2] 305 pp., text illustrations (a few by Mead, but mostly photographic and full-page). 8vo, original brown cloth. Exceptionally fine, in very fine d.j. (with photos of cowmen on front and Tom Lea’s portrait of JFD on back).
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #55. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Crawford 24), (Lea 144), (Mead 29). Guns 601. Reese, Six Score 31: “Pure cow country, with sketches of Ike Pryor, Ab Blocker, Shanghai Pierce, and many other lesser known cattlemen.” McVicker 18a(1). Powell, Southwest Classics, p. 351. “Cow People [is] a delightful compendium of tales of eccentric southwestern ranchers and stockmen, springs from the author’s firsthand knowledge of such people as well as from extensive reading about them. Some may downgrade Dobie’s efforts and others dismiss him altogether, but his books will be read and his influence will endure as long as there are people who love the lore and legendry of Texas and the Southwest” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 504). $75.00
1559. DOBIE, J. Frank. “A Cowboy and His Polecats,” in Frontier Times 38:1 (January 1964). Pp. 13, 67. 4to, original color photographic wrappers. Back wrap slightly foxed, otherwise fine.
First printing. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators McVicker C489. JFD, who likes skunks and does not mind their smell (“provided I am not close enough to receive its full intensity”), states that skunks have been known to stampede a herd of longhorns. This issue also includes William D. Wittliff’s “The Bandana, ‘Flag’ of the Range Country” (p. 43) and is signed by him. Charles Russell illustrations grace Mary Stuart Abbott’s article written at the age of ninety-three: “Child of the Open Range: The Daughter of Granville Stuart and Later Wife of Teddy Blue Abbott Reminisces about the Old Days in Montana.” Remington article on Babícora region, etc. $25.00
1560. DOBIE, J. Frank. Do Rattlesnakes Swallow Their Young? Austin: Texas Folklore Society, 1946. 24 pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Very fine. Inscribed and signed by J. Frank Dobie to Lester Jones: “What a beautiful medallion that Pony Express! I cherish it. Thank you so much.... June 16, 1947.”
First separate printing, offprint from Texas Folklore Society Publication 21 (Austin, 1946). McVicker D36. JFD, who likes rattlesnakes because “they make the country more interesting and more natural,” presents firsthand accounts (mostly from cowboys and ranchers) documenting that rattlesnakes sometimes swallow their young to protect them. $75.00
1561. DOBIE, J. Frank. Do Rattlesnakes Swallow Their Young? Austin: Texas Folklore Society, 1946. Another copy. Fine. $50.00
1562. DOBIE, J. Frank. Ella Byler Dobie and Christmas. [Austin]: The American-Statesman, 1961. Folio broadside printed in three columns. Very fine.
First separate printing of an article that appeared in the American-Statesman on December 24, 1961. McVicker D78. JFD’s tribute to his mother, with recollections of incidents at Rancho Seco in Nueces County, Texas. “When she was very young, raiders from below the Rio Grande came up into the border ranches and drove off cattle, killed them and skinned them for the hides, raided the Noakes Store in Nueces County, occasionally killed a man. The caution she grew up with never entirely left her so long as she lived on the ranch. When I was a child and Papa was gone, Mama always had the old .44 Winchester right at her head when she went to bed.” $20.00
1563. DOBIE, J. Frank. The First Cattle in Texas and the Southwest Progenitors of the Longhorns. Pp. 171-97. 8vo, original beige wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 42:3 (January 1939). Cook 238: “Formed Chapter One of The Longhorns.” Herd 690. McVicker C163a. In this excellent treatise JFD traces the introduction of cattle to Texas by various Catholic missions and early Spanish expeditions. The astonishing vitality and incredible proliferation of longhorn cattle in Texas influenced the lifestyle of Spanish Texas (“stock-raising [in mission-era Texas] became almost the only civilian occupation, despite governmental attempts to enforce farming”). JFD compares the physical nature and mindset of Texas longhorns with cattle in California, New Mexico, and Arizona and discusses how they impacted regions in different ways (e.g., the rise of the hide and tallow trade in California, which was practically nonexistent in Texas).
JFD tells how longhorns were so profuse in early nineteenth-century Texas that they were generally considered more as game animals than domesticated creatures. Occasionally Native Americans hunted the longhorns, too, although, according to JFD, they preferred buffalo and horse meat to beef. He describes how Texas plantation owners often hired a professional hunter to bring in wild cattle (mentioning Captain Flack). JFD surmises the longhorns were not domesticated because they were too difficult to capture and the natural antipathy between longhorns and domesticated stock Anglo settlers imported to Texas. This treatise is filled with fascinating information on the nature of longhorns, including observations and quotations from the great longhorn painter, Frank Reaugh. $65.00
1564. DOBIE, J. Frank. The First Cattle in Texas and the Southwest Progenitors of the Longhorns. Austin, 1939. Pp. [3]-29. 8vo, original white printed wrappers. Fine.
Reprint from The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 42:3 (January 1939). McVicker D24. $50.00
1565. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Flavor of Texas. Dallas: Dealey & Lowe, 1936. [12] 287 pp., frontispiece and text illustrations by Alexander Hogue (mostly full-page). 8vo, original patterned salmon and cream cloth printed in brown, spine with GTT at foot, top edge pale green. Very fine in fine d.j. (green, brown, and beige, with rider on rearing horse). Signed by JFD.
First edition, first issue binding, first issue d.j. (chapter 1 first appeared in The Country Gentleman, the other chapters were printed serially in The Fort Worth Press). Campbell, p. 105. Cook 16. Dobie, p. 51: “Considerable social history”; p. 55: “Chapters on Bean, Green, Duval, Kendall, and other representers of the fighting Texans.” Dykes, My Dobie Collection, p. 8: “Hard to find and expensive” (#11 on his rarities list). Guns 602. Herd 691. McVicker A5. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 8.
References to cowboys and ranching are found throughout, and two chapters are specifically devoted to ranching history (“Riders of the Stars” and “The Trail Driver Breed”). One of Hogue’s striking black-and-white illustrations shows a cowboy drinking water from a cow track, with Ab Blocker’s famous quote about how he had “drunk more water out of cow tracks than any trail driver left alive.” JFD includes a first-rate chapter on “How Texas Was Hell on Women.” $400.00
1566. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Flavor of Texas. Dallas: Dealey & Lowe, 1936. Another copy. Fore-edges slightly foxed, otherwise very fine, d.j. not present. $150.00
1567. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Flavor of Texas. Dallas: Dealey & Lowe, 1936. [12] 287 pp., frontispiece, illustrations by Alexander Hogue. 8vo, original orange and cream cloth printed in dark blue, plain beige spine, without GTT at foot, top edges uncolored. Very fine in d.j. (salmon and cream pattern with illustration of Texas flag and leaping man firing a pistol). Signed by author.
First edition, second issue binding, second issue d.j. $175.00
1568. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Flavor of Texas. Austin: [Designed by Larry Smitherman for] Jenkins Publishing Company, 1975. [8] 167 pp. Large 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in d.j.
Second edition (illustrations omitted). $25.00
“The Best of All Books of Its Kind” (Lawrence Clark Powell)
1569. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1943. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1943. 111 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (some full-page) by Russell, Borein, Bugbee, et al. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Faint rust stain to back wrapper from clasp on mailing envelope, else very fine, in original mailing envelope, signed by JFD in ink on title: “1st edition—J. Frank Dobie.”
First edition of a pivotal book in the literary historiography of the West (“one of J. Frank Dobie’s most significant contributions to the recognition and study of southwestern literature was his initiation and teaching of a celebrated course at the University of Texas at Austin: ‘The Life and Literature of the Southwest’.... From this course emerged Dobie’s...Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest”—WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 505). Basic Texas Books B73: “A delightful, intensely subjective guide to Dobie’s favorite books.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Borein 51), (Bugbee 65), (Dunton 40), (Hurd 67), (Lea 140), (Leigh 91), (Santee 40), (Thomason 21). Guns 603. Herd 692. McVicker A10a(1).
Powell, Southwest Classics, p. 348: “[Dobie] met departmental skepticism of a course he proposed on the Life and Literature of the Southwest. When his colleagues questioned that there was any literature, Dobie countered that there was plenty of life and he’d teach it. He did both. The course proved legendary. He kept expanding its syllabus until its final publication as Guide to the Life and Literature of the Southwest, then and now the best of all books of its kind.” Saunders 273b. Yost & Renner, Russell, p. 248 (“Appearances”).
Dobie includes sections on “Cowboys and Range Life,” “Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads,” “Horses: Mustangs and Cow Ponies,” “Buffaloes and Buffalo Hunters,” “Women Pioneers,” etc. The copyright notice on the title verso may be our favorite of all time, and it is very much in the generous spirit of J. Frank Dobie: “NOT COPYRIGHTED. Anybody is welcome to help himself to any of it in any way.” $100.00
1570. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Austin: University of Texas Press, 1943. Another copy. Very fine, in original mailing envelope.
First edition. Guns 603. Herd 692. McVicker A10a(1). $50.00
1571. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: University Press in Dallas, Southern Methodist University, 1943. 111 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (some full-page) by Russell, Borein, Bugbee, et al. 8vo, original yellow pictorial cloth. Fine. No d.j. (as issued), signed by author.
First SMU edition, cloth issue (printed from the original plates with a new title page). McVicker A10a(3). $75.00
1572. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: University Press in Dallas, Southern Methodist University, 1943. Another copy. Fine. $50.00
1573. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: University Press in Dallas, Southern Methodist University, 1943. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original blue pictorial wrappers. Wrappers slightly browned, otherwise fine. $35.00
1574. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, Revised and Enlarged in Both Knowledge and Wisdom. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1952. vii [1] 222 pp., text illustrations (some full-page) by Russell, Lea, Cisneros, et al. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine in rubbed, lightly chipped d.j. Dudley R. Dobie’s copy with several sheets of notes relating to his teaching and research laid in.
Second edition, revised and enlarged, illustrations vary (some illustrations from first edition retained, but new ones by Cisneros and others added). Basic Texas Books B73. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bugbee 66), (Cisneros 63), (Lea 141), (Leigh 52), (Thomason 23); Kid 329; Western High Spots, p. 2 (“Introduction—My Sport”): “Number one on my list for reading”; p. 32 (“High Spots in Western Fiction: 1902-1952”). Guns 604. Herd 693. McVicker A10b. Yost & Renner, Russell, p. 249 (“Appearances”).
JFD comments in his new preface: “I have made more additions to the ‘Range Life’ chapter than any other. I am a collector of such books. A collector is a person who gathers unto himself the worthless as well as the worthy. Since I did not make a nickel out of the original printing of the Guide and hardly expect to make enough to buy a California ‘ranch’ out of the present printing, I have added several items, with accompanying remarks, more for my own pleasure than for benefit to society.” $65.00
1575. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1952. Another copy. 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in rubbed and lightly soiled d.j. $45.00
1576. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1952. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original goldenrod pictorial wrappers. Exceptionally fine. $25.00
1577. DOBIE, J. Frank. Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, [1957]. vii [1] 222 pp., text illustrations (some full-page) by Russell, Lea, Cisneros, et al. 8vo, original orange printed wrappers. Moderate shelf wear, upper fore-edge slightly foxed, otherwise fine.
Seventh printing. $10.00
1578. DOBIE, J. Frank. Life and Literature of the Southwest: An Incomplete Guide to Books on Texas and the Southwest. Austin: University of Texas, 1936. 28 leaves, mimeographed and stapled. Fine.
McVicker D14b. First compiled and issued in 1933, this is the second version of the mimeographed precursor to Dobie’s Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest. “[Dobie] developed his ‘Life and Literature of the Southwest’ course at the University of Texas; the class, one of the most popular offered at the University...demonstrated Dobie’s knowledge of the land, people, and literature of the Southwest, as well as his great vitality as a teacher. A brief mimeographed reading list prepared as the course was organized...evolved in the renowned Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.... As late as 1979, James K. Folsom, writing in The Western: A Collection of Critical Essays, adjudged the Guide ‘the most useful single bibliography of Western Americana’” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 537). $65.00
1579. DOBIE, J. Frank. Hunting Cousin Sally [wrapper title]. Austin: Privately published, 1963. 14 pp. (printed in double column). Large 8vo, original blue pictorial wrappers (portrait of Ike Pryor in his hand-me-down Union uniform, by William Wittliff). A few foxmarks to fore-edges, else fine.
First separate issue, offprint from Southwest Review (Summer 1963), the Dobies’ Christmas greeting for 1963. McVicker D84. Whaley, Wittliff 3. JFD’s biographical notes on cattleman Ike Pryor are followed by Pryor’s firsthand recollections, including how the eighteen-year-old orphan became involved with the cattle business when he was working as a farmhand near Austin: “I could watch the herds of Longhorns trailing by, see the cowboys, and smell the trail dust. I wasn’t a bit satisfied with keeping my eyes on a pair of mule ears and walking up one row and down another between a pair of plow handles. Moreover, I had learned that cowboys were getting thirty dollars a month, while here I was getting just fifteen. I took the cow fever.” One of Pryor’s witticisms is: “Any cowman of open range days who claimed never to have put his brand on somebody else’s animal was either a liar or a poor roper.” $45.00
1580. DOBIE, J. Frank. I’ll Tell You a Tale: Selected and Arranged by the Author and Isabel Gaddis. Boston: Little, Brown, [1960]. xvii [1] 362 pp., text illustrations by Ben Carlton Mead. 8vo, original tan cloth. Top edge slightly foxed, else fine in lightly worn d.j. Signed by artist Ben Carlton Mead.
First edition, second printing. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mead 27). McVicker A17a. WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 542): “The tales were chosen by Isabel Gaddis, herself from the range country and a former student of Dobie’s. The stories are gathered under such headings as ‘The Longhorn Breed’...and they represent Dobie at his best in doing what he did with artistry—telling a tale.” $35.00
1581. DOBIE, J. Frank. An Informal Hour with J. Frank Dobie: Stories of the Southwest. New York: Spoken Arts 722, 1957. Phonograph record (33-1/3 r.p.m.; 12 inches, read by JFD). Some foxing to sleeve, else fine, in original mailing package.
McVicker D58. Among selections read by J. Frank Dobie are: “The Mezcla Man,” “Bigfoot Wallace and the Hickory Nuts,” and “Bears Are Intelligent People.” $45.00
1582. DOBIE, J. Frank. J. Frank Dobie Tells “The Ghost Bull of the Mavericks” and Other Tales. [Austin]: Domino Records, [1960]. Phonograph record (33-1/3 r.p.m.; 12 inches, read by JFD). Very fine in original pictorial album cover with portrait of Dobie, record in original glassine sleeve.
McVicker D75. Selections include “The Dream That Saved Wilbarger”; “Diamond Bill, Confederate Ally”; and “Too Much Pepper” (all from Tales of Old-Time Texas); and “Drouthed Out” (from I’ll Tell You a Tale). $35.00
1583. DOBIE, J. Frank. John C. Duval, First Texas Man of Letters: His Life and Some of His Unpublished Writings. Dallas: Southwest Review, 1939. 105 [1] pp., tinted frontispiece and text illustrations by Tom Lea. 8vo, original brown cloth over beige cloth. Fine in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Campbell, p. 45: “Not merely a critical and biographical study, but includes a series of Duval’s unpublished writings.” Cook 28. Dobie, p. 55. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 131); Western High Spots, p. 116 (“Ranger Reading”). McVicker A8a(1). One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 14: “Dykes says: ‘Tom Lea illustrated the book with some of his best drawings and naturally the Lea collectors compete when an occasional copy appears for sale.’.... Scarce.”
The chapter entitled “An Old Time Texas Ranch” deals with the theme of hold-up hospitality on early Texas ranches and gives some pointers on detecting greenhorns (strapping one’s gun to the saddle, carrying an umbrella while on horseback, etc.). Duval (1816-1897), came to Texas in 1835, and, unlike his brother Burr H. Duval, escaped the Goliad Massacre. John was surveying land in Texas in 1840, served as a Texas Ranger with Bigfoot Wallace in Jack Hays’ company beginning in 1845, rose to rank of captain in the Confederate Army, and wrote two early classics on Texas. “His writings justify his being called the first Texas man of letters.... Of all personal adventures of old-time Texans, [Early Times in Texas] is perhaps the best written and the most interesting.... Duval’s most artistic and most important book is The Adventures of Bigfoot Wallace” (Handbook of Texas Online: John Crittenden Duval). One of the good features of this book is Dobie’s detailed bibliography on the various confusing editions and issues of Duval’s published works. $250.00
1584. DOBIE, J. Frank. John C. Duval, First Texas Man of Letters.... Dallas: Southwest Review, 1939. Another copy, unsigned. Very fine in fine d.j. $125.00
1585. DOBIE, J. Frank. John C. Duval, First Texas Man of Letters.... Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, [1964 or 1965]. 105 pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Tom Lea. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
Second edition. $20.00
“One of the True Classics of Range Cattle Literature” (Reese, Six Score)
1586. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, 1941. xxiii [1] 388 pp., title with color illustration (extending across two pages) and text illustrations by Tom Lea (some full-page), photographic illustrations. 8vo, original full calf with blindstamp of brand. Minor shelf wear and spine very slightly rubbed, usual mild marginal browning on endsheets due to contact of calf binding with endpapers, pp. 2-3 browned where an item was formerly laid in, overall a fine copy, in publisher’s white cloth slipcase with color illustration by Lea (case slightly stained, confined mainly to lower edge). Association copy with typed letter, signed by Carl Hertzog, to “Bibliophiles and Book Dealers and Friends of Tom Lea and J. Frank Dobie” about the sale and purchase of this copy of the book: “To stop some critical gossip I traded $200 worth of books to get a copy of The Longhorns with the letter from Dobie to E. A. Brinissttool (sic) concerning the ‘bat-wing’ chaps in the illustration by Tom Lea.... I didn’t like the idea of circulating conversation putting Dobie and Tom Lea in the negative, so I bought the book. Later I mentioned this to Tom and he was not perturbed in the least. He said they don’t understand design and should know that this painting was not made for the book but for a mural in the Odessa post office. I made the chaps this way as an element of design. If they want to criticize, did you ever see a cowboy with a shirt this white?” Affixed to front free endpaper is book dealer Charles P. Everitt’s typed, signed note about the book with manuscript note below. Laid in is the 16-page promotional with Lea illustrations and photographic plates (specially printed for Dudley R. Dobie). Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplates.
First edition, limited “Rawhide” edition (#258 of 265 copies signed by Dobie and Lea, with special limitation leaf with illustration by Lea showing Dobie and Lea in cowboy gear; in the special full calf binding and slipcase illustrated by Lea). Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 30. Cook 34. Dobie, p. 102: “History of the Longhorn breed, psychology of stampedes; days of maverickers and mavericks; stories of individual lead steers and outlaws of the range; stories about rawhide and many other related subjects.” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #18. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 5; Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 135); Kid 295; Western High Spots, p. 15 (“Western Movement: Its Literature”); (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #62); pp. 82, 86 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Based on a terrific amount of research and written as only ‘Mr. Southwest’ could write it—a major contribution to the history of the West”; p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”).
Graff 1099. Herd 694. Hinshaw & Lovelace, Lea 42B. Howes D375. McVicker A9a(1). Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 21: “Though chiefly about Texas and Texas cattle, a general history of the early cattle industry, its techniques, and anecdotes about cowboys.” Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 5. Reese, Six Score 32: “This is the most desirable edition.... One of the true classics of range cattle literature. The limited edition is increasingly hard to procure.” Saunders 4032. Streeter Sale 2399. $3,500.00
1587. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, 1941. xxiii [1] 388 pp., title with color illustration (extending across two pages) and text illustrations by Tom Lea (some full-page), photographic illustrations. 8vo, original white pictorial cloth (color illustration by Tom Lea). Exceptionally fine in very fine d.j. illustrated by Lea. Original prospectus laid in. Difficult to find in fine condition like this copy, and with the prospectus.
First trade edition. Hinshaw & Lovelace, Lea 42C. McVicker A9a(2). “The Longhorns...represents Dobie at the peak of his powers. The author begins the book with a statement that the longhorns belong to history, ‘a past so remote and irrevocable that sometimes it seems as if it might never have been’.... The work is a rewarding mixture of fact, lore, and history.... Dobie closes the book with praise for the longhorns for their great strength, vitality, endurance, and nobility” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 539). $250.00
1588. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, 1941. Another copy, without prospectus. Very fine in very good d.j. (price-clipped, light wear, one chip on back panel). $200.00
1589. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, [April 1945]. xxiii [1] 388 pp., title with color illustration (extending across two pages) and text illustrations by Tom Lea (some full-page), photographic illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fore-edges foxed, else very fine in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition, sixth printing, war issue (first printing of this issue). Printed on thinner paper stock, with d.j. setting out the changes necessary for the war issue and JFD’s appeal to buy war bonds. $25.00
1590. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, [April 1945]. Another copy. Fore-edges foxed, else fine in d.j. $15.00
1591. DOBIE, J. Frank. “Mesquite.” [San Angelo], December 1, 1938. 4 pp., photographic illustration and portrait of JFD, 2 text illustrations. Small folio, new brown cloth. Fine, signed by JFD.
First separate printing, offprint from Southwestern Sheep & Goat Raiser. Dykes, My Dobie Collection, p. 10 (#36 on his rarities list). McVicker D22. JFD traces the use of all parts of the mesquite tree through history and waxes eloquently on how the humble mesquite epitomizes the range country of Texas. This offprint is replete with interesting facts and discussion, including: Mexican vaqueros wore mesquite leaves under their hats to prevent sunstroke; use of the handsome wood for construction and furniture (timbers in the Alamo; ranch houses between Laredo and Brownsville and elsewhere; King Ranch furniture); mesquite used as posts for the first barbed wire in Texas (some still standing); mesquite roots for whips and quirts; consumption of mesquite beans by cattle (in dry weather only!) as a preventative to worms; trail drivers such as Goodnight adhering to the theory that the presence of mesquites indicated water; astute observation that mesquite proliferation is probably due to overgrazing stock; methods of mesquite eradication. $85.00
1592. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Mezcla Man. El Paso del Norte: [Carl Hertzog for Bertha and Frank Dobie], 1954. [4] 11 pp., frontispiece by José Cisneros. 8vo, original “adobe print” wrappers, stapled. Slight rust stain at one staple, else very fine.
First edition. Cook 53. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Cisneros 64); My Dobie Collection, p. 10 (#40 on his list of rarities). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 89 (quoting Hertzog to Dobie, 1954): “I had trouble getting the paper I wanted for The Mezcla Man...so I had to use two kinds of paper.... Won’t the bibliographers of 1987 have fits when a copy shows up with the 2-color paper combination reversed, or maybe even an odd color?” McVicker D52. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 38.
Borderlands vaquero Elejio Juárez of Ranchos de los Olmos (on the south side of the Nueces River) told this story to JFD, who used it in his book On the Open Range. In this incarnation, the length of the story was doubled “thanks to an improved memory” (JFD). This is our favorite Dobie pamphlet—a wonderful story, creative design and printing, and illustrated by Cisneros. According to a note at the back: “The cover design was obtained by making prints from an adobe—the native ‘bricks’ of the Southwest for more than four centuries. Mud, straw and pebbles create textural design.” $150.00
1593. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Mezcla Man. El Paso del Norte: [Carl Hertzog for Bertha and Frank Dobie], 1954. Another copy. 8vo, loose in original wrappers. Slight abrasion to endpapers. Printer Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. $125.00
“Fuzzy Mustangs”—With Artist’s Original Drawing
1594. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Mustangs. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1952]. [3] xvii [1] 376 pp., color frontispiece, original pen and ink drawing (tipped on opposite limitation page) and text illustrations (some full-page) by Charles Banks Wilson. 8vo, original pinto hide, gilt-lettered leather spine label, t.e.g. Other than usual mild foxing adjacent to frontispiece, a superb copy in plain brown paper d.j. and publisher’s tan cloth pictorial slipcase (illustrated by Banks).
Limited edition, Pinto Edition (#61 of 100 copies, signed by Dobie and Wilson, with original drawing by Wilson, and in the special “Fuzzy Mustangs” binding in horse-hide with hair). Campbell, p. 130: “Stories of mustangs and mustangers.... This book incorporates Dobie’s Tales of the Mustang (1936) and part of Mustangs and Cow Horses, edited by Dobie, Boatright, and Ransom.... Famous mustangs are mentioned and their stories told. We learn of the ways, methods, and hardships of those who caught and tamed wild horses. It is the love of liberty of the wild horse which inspires the author and provides the theme of his book.” Dobie, pp. 33, 81, 132, 151, 180. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #66: “Rated by many as the best of Dobie’s books.”
Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 14; Western High Spots, p. 21 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West” #10): “The Pinto Edition failed to go around among the dedicated Dobie collectors. You had to ‘know’ a dealer to get a copy, and the casual Dobie collectors are simply out of luck on this beautiful issue of The Mustangs”; pp. 82, 86 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “The number one book about range horses;” p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Graff 1100. Herd 696. McVicker A14a(1). Powell, A Southwestern Century 28: “The fact that the horse is a nobler creature than the cow raises this ‘sequel’ to The Longhorns to the highest pinnacle of Dobie’s art, in which he sees the wild horse as symbolic of all that is best in the free and individualistic American tradition.” Reese, Six Score 33: “Certainly the best book on range horses, with much on cattle work.... Many feel this to be one of Dobie’s best books.” $4,000.00
1595. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Mustangs. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1952]. xvii [1] 376 pp., color frontispiece and text illustrations (some full-page), illustrated endpapers by Charles Banks Wilson. 8vo, original blue and tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (Wilson illustrations on front and back).
First trade edition, first issue d.j. (with Wilson drawing of mustangs on rear panel). McVicker A14a(3). WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 541: “The Mustangs may well prove to be the most enduring of Dobie’s books. The English Romantic, the lover of the open range, and the critic of contemporary society merge into the marvelously elegiac opening lines of the volume: ‘Like the wild West Wind that Shelley yearned to be, the mustangs, the best ones at least, were “tameless, and swift, and proud”.... ’ He wrote obliquely of the spiritual truth of freedom, a value he believed the wild horses and their world embodied. Such a principle, of course, had been defined by Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the few American writers to significantly influence Dobie. The tales and facts collected in the book, however, have a vital tang of actual experience that transcends the abstract message.” $75.00
1596. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Mustangs. London: Hammond, Hammond, and Company, [1954]. xiv, 346 pp., color frontispiece and text illustrations (some full-page) by Charles Banks Wilson. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Foxing to fore-edges and occasional text. Very good copy in rubbed d.j. with tear (no loss of image). Laid in are publisher’s printed presentation slip to author and clipping of a short review. JFD pencil note on contents page, indicating that the English publisher did not include his footnotes.
First English edition. McVicker A14c. For the English edition the acknowledgements at the end of “A Personal Introduction” have been omitted, as have the notes at the back of the book. $50.00
1597. DOBIE, J. Frank. My Salute to Gene Rhodes. [El Paso: Carl Hertzog for J. Frank Dobie], 1947. [2] 12 [2] pp., tailpiece by Bugbee. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, limited issue (600 copies). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bugbee 67). Herd 697. Lowman, Printer at the Pass 46: “This simple and unadorned pamphlet is a complete resetting, ‘with a few corrections and emendations’ of Dobie’s introduction to The Little World Waddies.... It was sent by the Dobies as a Christmas greeting in 1947.” McVicker D37. $75.00
1598. DOBIE, J. Frank. On the Open Range. Dallas: Southwest Press, [1932?]. xii, 312 pp., 4 color plates (including frontispiece), text illustrations (some full-page), and pictorial free endpaper by Ben Carlton Mead, brands illustrated in text. 12mo, original dark blue pictorial cloth stamped in orange. Small bruise to upper edge of front cover, front endpapers browned (from newspaper clipping), pages adjacent to plates lightly foxed (including title), overall very good, with newspaper clipping of brands affixed to front pastedown.
First edition, textbook issue, printed on lighter-weight paper, Mead illustrations retained on free endpapers, but pastedowns substituted with: “This book is the property of the State of Texas” with lines for students’ names, etc. The first edition (1930) was limited to 750 copies, but the textbook edition was printed in 15,000+ copies. The textbook issue went through at least four printings under Southwest Press. Reprints were not distinguished as such. According to Lon Tinkle’s biography of JFD, the book was recommended by the State for adoption as a textbook in October 1932.
Campbell, p. 207. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mead 23n); My Dobie Collection, p. 8 (citing first edition): “It is seldom that a copy of the first [edition] reaches the market” (#10 on his list of rarities); Western High Spots, p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Herd 698n. McVicker A3a(2). Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 17 (citing first edition). Yost & Renner, Russell, p. 268 (“References”).
On the Open Range was the first of Dobie’s commercially published anthologies, dedicated to the boys and girls of the Southwest. Dobie was upset because the trade issue mistakenly had the same text as this “school book” issue. He had wanted to delete certain parts in the trade issue that duplicated material from his earlier books, rightly thinking that many who would buy the trade issue would have his earlier books, while most schoolchildren would not. Because of money difficulties the corrections were never made by the publisher and Dobie was not happy with this regular issue (see Tinkle’s biography of Dobie, p. 127). $45.00
1599. DOBIE, J. Frank. Picthing [sic] Horses and Panthers. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1940. 15 pp., text illustration by Will James. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from Mustangs and Cow Horses (Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1940). Cook 33. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Dufault [James] 56); My Dobie Collection, p. 10 (#37 on his rarities list). Herd 699. McVicker D27. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 31: “Scarce.”
JFD explores the American range horse’s ability to buck (as compared to its European counterpart), and discusses the possibility that this was an evolved protective skill to assist horses in warding off panthers. JFD tells of some famous outlaw horses, including Pecos Bill’s Widow-Maker, the Strawberry Roan, and Zebra Dun. He mentions Phillip Ashton Rollins’ allusion to “a mythical bronco named Armageddon that ate nothing but gunpowder and cholla cactus, and, having bucked itself completely out of its skin, continued to pitch until nothing of it remained beyond its ears and memory.” Dobie Christmas greeting for 1940. $50.00
1600. DOBIE, J. Frank. Prefaces. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, [1975]. ix [1] 204 pp. 8vo, original half black cloth over orange boards. Very fine in fine d.j. with slight wear.
First edition. Compilation of prefaces written for books by other writers, some not previously published. Essays on Andy Adams, Gene Rhodes, Charlie Siringo, Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, and others. Includes a discussion of James Cox’s The Cattle Industry of Texas and Adjacent Territory. $30.00
1601. DOBIE, J. Frank. Rattlesnakes. Boston: Little, Brown, [1965]. [9] 201 pp., illustrated title page. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition. McVicker A19. The majority of the rattler incidents JFD describes occurred on ranches or trail drives. JFD interviewed Charles Goodnight in 1926, and includes his account of the giant rattler that saved the lives of Oliver Loving and One-Armed Bill Wilson during an encounter with Comanche warriors on their grueling trail drive from Palo Pinto County, Texas, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1867. In typical JFD style, he supplements Goodnight’s account of the same incident with those of Bill Wilson, J. Evetts Haley, Loving’s great grand-daughter, and others.
A. C. Greene and His Library: “I am not one of that recent tribe that seems so eager to topple [Dobie] from the lofty position he continues to hold in Southwestern letters. Dobie wrote about what Dobie knew: nature and what he called ‘natural men.’ Rattlesnakes is a good example of Dobie writing about nature in a serious but amusing vein.” $75.00
1602. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Roadrunner in Fact and Folk-Lore. Austin: [Texas Folk-Lore Society for] Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission, 1939. 31 pp. 8vo, original blue pictorial wrappers. Moderate marginal browning, small chip in upper cover, otherwise fine.
McVicker D26. Reprint from In the Shadow of History, the 1939 publication of the Texas Folk-Lore Society. An abbreviated version of this essay originally appeared in Natural History Magazine. Another of the Dobies’ Christmas greetings, this one exploring the natural history of a quintessential denizen of the southern ranges. JFD was actively involved in the movement to protect the roadrunner by law, sympathy, and understanding. $125.00
1603. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Seven Mustangs. [Austin: Adams Publications], 1948. [2] 12 [2] pp. 8vo, original green wrappers with photograph of Alec Phimister Proctor’s “Seven Mustangs” sculpture. Mild to moderate staining to back wrapper, otherwise fine.
First edition, the Austin issue (without statement below title: “Address delivered at the unveiling of the monument”); another issue came out in Fort Worth at the same time. Cook 40. Dykes, My Dobie Collection, p. 10 (#39 on his rarities list). McVicker D39b. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 37: “Scarce.”
Christmas greeting reprinting an address made by Dobie at the unveiling of Procter’s monument on the University of Texas campus at Austin. Brief history of the mustang in America, from Spanish introduction to trail drives and Charles Siringo to modern breeding at the San Antonio Viejo Ranch in Jim Hogg County (where Proctor did his research for the sculpture). $50.00
1604. DOBIE, J. Frank. Some Part of Myself. Boston: Little, Brown, [1967]. xiii [3] 282 pp., portrait of Dobie, photographic plates. 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in fine d.j., with Bertha Dobie’s presentation card laid in.
First edition. McVicker A20. JFD (1888-1964) intended to write his autobiography, but did not finish before he rode to the other side. He left behind the beginning chapters covering his life up to the 1930s. Bertha McKee, his ever-faithful wife, companion, and editor, gathered JFD’s notes and edited them to create this book. JFD begins his account with “A Plot of Earth,” an account of his youth on the Dobie family’s ranch in the brush country west of the Nueces River in Live Oak County, Texas. Over half the chapters are on ranching, including “The Cowman Who Was My Father” (Richard J. Dobie), “My Mother—Ella Byler Dobie,” “Uncle Frank Byler,” “Ranch Neighbors,” “Horses out of My Boyhood,” etc. $75.00
1605. DOBIE, J. Frank. Some Part of Myself. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, [1967]. Another copy, without presentation card laid in. Very fine in d.j. with some wear and chipping. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. $50.00
1606. DOBIE, J. Frank. Some Part of Myself. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, [1967]. Another copy. Very fine in fine d.j. $50.00
1607. DOBIE, J. Frank. Storytellers I Have Known. [Austin], 1961. 29 pp. 8vo, original salmon printed wrappers. Fine.
First separate printing (reprinted from Singers and Storytellers, Texas Folk-Lore Publication 30, 1961). McVicker D79. Mohr, The Range Country 662. Christmas greeting from the Dobies, with tales and storytellers of the range country. The first of these raconteurs was a “panther man” riding a tired canelo horse who dropped by the Dobie ranch at night and “shivered the timbers” of the young JFD. $30.00
1608. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tales of Old-Time Texas. Boston: Little, Brown, [1955]. vi [2, signed leaf] vii-xvi, 336 pp., frontispiece and text illustrations (many full-page) by Barbara Latham. 8vo, original half brown cloth over yellow boards. Very fine in very fine d.j. Uncommon.
First edition, signed issue, with leaf autographed by JFD bound in after title. Guns 605. Herd 701. McVicker A15a(1) (not noting this special issue with the signed leaf). The chapter on “A Ranch on the Nueces” gives the history of the Ray Ranch established in 1868 amidst great tribulations from raiders and Native Americans. Other chapters include “The Wild Woman of the Navidad,” “Big Foot Wallace and the Hickory Nuts,” “Northers, Drouths and Sandstorms,” “The Headless Horseman of the Mustangs,” “Desperate Rides,” “The Planter Who Gambled Away His Bride,” “Guarded by Rattlesnakes,” “The Apache Secret of the Guadalupes,” “The Mezcla Man,” and many more. $300.00
1609. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tales of Old-Time Texas. Boston: Little, Brown, [1955]. xvi, 336 pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Barbara Latham. 8vo, original half brown cloth over yellow boards. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition, trade issue. $100.00
Illustrated by Jerry Bywaters
1610. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tales of the Mustang. Dallas: [The Rein Company for] The Book Club of Texas, 1936. 89 [1] pp., tinted title and text illustrations by Jerry Bywaters. 8vo, original grey boards, printed paper label on upper cover. Light foxing to endpapers and usual faint offsetting from illustrations, generally very fine in original glassine d.j. Signed by JFD on half-title.
First edition, limited edition (300 copies). Cook 17. Dobie, p. 132. Dykes, My Dobie Collection (#7 on his list rarities): “It may be as difficult to find as any of the other Dobie limiteds except The Mustangs.” Herd 700. Lowman, Printing Arts in Texas, p. 61: “One of the most sought after modern rarities.... Chef d’oeuvre of the Book Club of Texas.” Marcus, Book Club of Texas 6. McVicker A6. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 7.
This handsomely printed and designed work was the precursor for JFD’s monumental The Mustangs. JFD comments in the preface to the present work: “For years I have been gathering data on mustangs and have enough about them to make a good-sized book. If el bueno Dios lends me life, I hope some day to put it into form.” JFD’s text is pleasingly illustrated by artist Williamson Gerald (Jerry) Bywaters (see Handbook of Texas Online: Williamson Gerald Bywaters).
JFD discusses the dispersion of range horses in the Southwest and Texas, noting that before the cattle trails were fenced and plowed under, “Texas cowboys had trailed more than 10,000,000 Texas cattle and more than 1,000,000 Texas horses upon them. The horses were Spanish—tough, wiry, thoroughly adapted to their environment. Their chief use was in developing the ranch industry over Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Idaho—all the vast territory of the Northwest that by the close of the seventies had been finally wrested from the Plains Indians.” $1,000.00
1611. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tales of the Mustang. Dallas [Rein for] The Book Club of Texas, 1936. Another copy. Small stain to top fore-edge, endpapers foxed, and usual faint offsetting from illustrations, overall very fine in original glassine d.j. Signed by JFD on half-title. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. $1,000.00
1612. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945. xiii [3] 285 pp. 12mo, original tan cloth. Fine in near fine d.j. (one short tear and price-clipped). Signed by author.
First edition. Campbell, p. 45: “Autobiographical, an account of Dobie’s impressions during a year at Cambridge University as visiting professor of American History in 1943.... Of course, a Texan of the cattleman tradition was already conditioned to admire the tradition of the English gentleman who came to the West and engaged in the cattle business.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 142). McVicker A11a. $50.00
1613. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1946. xiii [3] 285 pp. 12mo, original tan cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. Signed by JFD.
First edition, eighth printing. $15.00
1614. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1946]. 192 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates. 8vo, original beige buckram. Endsheets browned, else fine in near fine d.j. with one tear. Publisher’s sample copy label tipped in.
First British edition. Publisher’s sample complete copy. $75.00
1615. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1946]. Another copy. First edition but not publisher’s sample. Fine in somewhat worn and soiled d.j. $35.00
1616. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1946]. Another copy. Corners bumped, else fine, d.j. not present. $15.00
1617. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tongues of the Monte. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935. vii [3] 301 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original yellow decorated cloth stamped in red and black. A very fine, bright copy in fine d.j. with design matching binding (price-clipped). The flamboyant binding and d.j. on this unusual and attractive book are very fresh and bright.
First edition, second printing (“first edition” removed from title verso). Campbell, pp. 156-57. “Creative in Dobie’s best manner.” McVicker A4a(1). “Tongues of the Monte is about as close as Dobie ever got to writing a novel” (Abernethy, J. Frank Dobie, p. 18).
Tongues of the Monte is a key work on the life, social history, and folklore of the vast ranches and haciendas of the Borderlands and the world of the Mexican vaquero. JFD spent his youth among Spanish-speaking people and was always fascinated by their culture. The book opens with protagonist Don Federico (thought to be JFD himself) riding through the eastern cordillera of Mexico, where he encounters four vaqueros killing a bull (“Blood-drinkers are rare among vaqueros, and I was enthralled by the sight”).
Tongues of the Monte, JFD’s favorite of his own works and deemed by Larry McMurtry as JFD at his best, is a quasi-picaresque novel vividly revealing the life of the Mexican earth and its people, based on JFD’s Guggenheim-funded adventures traveling two thousand miles through the brush country east of the Sierra Madre in the early 1930s. $100.00
1618. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942. xii [4] 301 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original green cloth. Faint foxing to upper fore-edge and endsheets, otherwise very fine in very good pictorial d.j. (slight wear and mild foxing). Signed by author.
Second edition of Tongues of the Monte, issued under a different title and with revised foreword by author. McVicker A4a(2). In the expanded foreword JFD reveals the permutations of the title Tongues of the Monte, originally to be The Hacienda of the Five Wounds (for the vast hacienda of the Marqués de Aguayo, “which included almost half of Coahuila”—Handbook of Texas Online: Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo).
In the new preface JFD comments: “I must have been about grown before I came to know that ‘cowboy’ is not a literary word. Most of the cowhands I knew were Mexicans, and all of them were called vaqueros. My father was a stockman, having driven horses up the trail to Kansas with Mexican vaqueros, then turning to cattle.” $75.00
1619. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942. Another copy, signed “Pancho Dobie.” Faint foxing to upper fore-edge and endsheets, otherwise very fine in very good d.j. (slight wear and mild foxing). $75.00
1620. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942. Another copy, not signed by JFD. Some staining and spotting to binding, otherwise fine in fine d.j. $25.00
1621. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tongues of the Monte. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1949. xiv [4] 301 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original yellow decorated cloth stamped in red and black. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
Third edition, second printing, with the expanded preface that appeared in the SMU edition (see preceding), and the neat original binding design repeated. McVicker A4a(3)n. $35.00
1622. DOBIE, J. Frank. Two Kinds of People. Pasadena: Grant Dahlstrom at the Castle Press for the Friends of Lawrence Clark Powell, 1953. 4to broadside printed in black and terracotta in double column, small illustration of a Southwestern landscape. Very fine.
First separate printing (#3 of the Southwest Broadsides). McVicker D50. JFD worries about the impact of the oil industry on Texas land, referring to the Tom O’Connor ranch on the Texas coast (“A kind of oil culture dominates Texas with more force than cattle ever dominate...only the devil would want to pipe it into the green pastures of heaven”). JFD then relates the poignant story of Tom O’Connor’s demise and how the old cattleman ordered all of his cattle herded and brought to the ranch house so that he could hear “natural” sounds in his last hours. Most excellent printing and very strong text. $40.00
1623. DOBIE, J. Frank. Up the Trail from Texas. New York: Random House, [1955]. [8] 182 [2, ads] pp., tinted text illustrations (some full-page) by John C. Wonsetler, illustrated endpapers. 12mo, original rose decorated cloth stamped black and blue. Superb copy in very fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 78 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Primarily for younger readers...dandy book about real trail drivers.” McVicker A16a(1). This book remains a fun, informative book for readers of all ages. $30.00
A Vaquero of the Brush Country
Branded by Dobie in Ink
1624. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country...Partly from the Reminiscences of John Young. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color frontispiece of the formidable J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Fragile board edges worn as usual, front free endpaper detached, some foxing (heavier at endsheets and adjacent to plates, including title), good to very good copy. Signed by J. Frank Dobie and with his manuscript brands in ink.
First edition, “Rio Grande River” on endpaper maps. Basic Texas Books 44: “Dobie’s first complete book...a lasting contribution to the literature of the Texas range. It presents the memoirs of John Duncan Young, a South Texas cattleman, as interpreted by Dobie.... The text includes, in addition to Young’s life as a pioneer cattleman, sections on roundups and cattle drives, on the hide and tallow business in Texas, on Billy the Kid and the Mexican outlaw Cortina, on life in the South Texas brush country, on Mexican and Indian warfare along the border after the Civil War, and on the folk ways of the Texas cattle industry.” Campbell, p. 85. CBC 84 & 3164. Cook 7. Dobie, p. 102. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #11. Dykes, Kid 141; Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 14; My Dobie Collection, p. 8: “Scarce” (#31 on his rarities list); Western High Spots, p. 20 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West” #8); p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 606. Herd 702. Howes D376. McVicker A1a(1). One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 12. Rader 1162. Reese, Six Score 34.
A Vaquero of the Brush Country makes clear how much the Texas cowboy owes to his Mexican counterpart for techniques, equipment, and colorful language. “Gallons of ink have been spilled by historians and other interpreters of the cowboy in an attempt to set the record straight, to preserve the cowboy in print as he really was. Some of the best nonfiction on the cowboy may be found in the memoirs and autobiographies of cowboys themselves.... Many of old-time cowboys left behind accounts of their adventures.... Perhaps the most literary of these accounts is J. Frank Dobie’s A Vaquero of the Brush Country” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, pp. 499-500).
In his introduction, JFD sets the stage for John Young, telling of George Saunders’ declaration: “John Young would charge hell with a bucket of water.” JFD further remarks: “A common object of both Mr. Young and myself has been to place in a clear light certain characteristics of ranch people that, on account of the prolific work of sensation mongers and sentimentalists, require stressing. The men of the Western saddle, however untutored in books some of them may have been—were not ignorant. Their profession was one that demanded skill, alertness, resourcefulness, close observation, will power, and fidelity. It was a profession that engendered pride. They were laborers of a kind, it is true, but they regarded themselves as artists, and they were artists. Years of experience, of practice in deftness, and of study in animal psychology were necessary to perfect a top hand. No genuine cowboy ever suffered from an inferiority complex or ranked himself in the ‘laboring class’.... He considered himself a cavalier in the full sense of that word—a gentleman on horse, privileged to come it proud over all nesters, squatters, Kansas Jay-hawkers, and other such earth-clinging creatures.” $400.00
1625. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Covers worn (especially edges), front hinge cracked, some foxing (heavier at endsheets and adjacent to plates, including title). Contemporary ink gift inscription on verso of frontispiece. $125.00
1626. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color frontispiece of the J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Some edge wear, occasional slight foxing, a few small ink ownership stamps, else fine in the scarce and beautiful pictorial d.j., which is lightly worn and foxed and split along spine with no losses.
First edition, second printing, title verso states second edition, “Rio Grande River” on endpaper maps. McVicker A1a(2). Reese, Six Score 34: “Supposedly, the word ‘River’ [in the words ‘Rio Grande River’ on the endsheet map] was later removed at Dobie’s insistence, as being redundant. However, I have recently handled a copy of the second edition, so noted on the verso of the title page, with the map still reading ‘Rio Grande River’” (Reese Company catalogue 42, item 440), and have seen other similar copies, so I doubt the accuracy of this point.” $125.00
1627. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Ex-library (ink stamps on front endpapers and dedication leaf, embosure on imprint, call number in pencil on title verso and dedication, back endpapers abraded where library materials removed), worn and foxed, d.j. not present. Reading copy. $20.00
1628. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color frontispiece of the J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Fragile binding lightly stained and with usual wear (especially corners), mild to moderate foxing to text, otherwise very good, with 1933 gift inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition, fourth printing (title verso states “fourth edition”), “Rio Grande River” gaffe on endpaper maps corrected. McVicker A1a(3). $25.00
1629. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Binding worn, occasional foxing, generally very good, with printed label of Herbert Fletcher’s Houston bookstore on front free endpaper. For more on bookseller and publisher Fletcher, see Handbook of Texas Online: Herbert Herrick Fletcher. $35.00
1630. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Fine in publisher’s original glassine d.j. (worn). Signed by J. Frank Dobie, and with his manuscript brands in ink. $45.00
1631. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original dark maroon cloth. Offsetting to endsheets, otherwise fine in pictorial d.j. (worn and chipped). $35.00
1632. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original rose cloth. Bookplate and ownership signature of E. C. Crampton on front pastedown. $20.00
1633. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1936]. xvi, 302 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations, and endpaper maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original tan cloth. Spine light, mild staining along joints, internally fine, in d.j. (lightly worn and price-clipped).
Second edition. McVicker A1b(1). $25.00
1634. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1949]. 274 [2] pp., 2 plates (including frontispiece), text illustrations by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original brown cloth. Endsheets and fore-edges foxed, else fine in d.j. with a few small, closed tears.
First British edition. McVicker A1c. $45.00
1635. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1952]. xvi, 302 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations, endpaper maps by Justin Gruelle. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine, bright, price-clipped d.j. with full-color Gruelle illustration. Signed by JFD.
Third American edition, first issue, fourth printing (February 1952). $25.00
1636. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country (Condensed Edition).... New York: Pennant Books, [1954]. [6] 184 pp. 12mo, original color pictorial wrappers. Superb copy, remarkable for a paperback of that era.
Fourth American edition, first printing of the Pennant paperback edition. McVicker A1d. $15.00
1637. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Voice of the Coyote. Boston: Little, Brown, 1949. viii [2, signed leaf] ix-xx, 386 pp., tinted frontispiece and illustrated title, text illustrations (some full-page) by Olaus Murie. 8vo, original brown cloth with gilt illustration of coyote. Very fine in near fine d.j. (a few short closed marginal tears, no losses).
First edition, signed issue, with leaf autographed by JFD bound in after title. Campbell, p. 127. Dobie, pp. 22, 167: “Not only the coyote but his effect on the human imagination and ecological relationships. Natural history and folklore; many tales from factual trappers as well as from Mexican and Indian folk.” Dykes, Kid 398. Herd 703. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 21: “Fascinating account of the coyote’s behavior and of other plains animals. Usable in any plains state.” McVicker A12a(1).
WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 540: “Dobie...expresses anger at those who slaughter coyotes for no good reason.” On the perennial debate of coyotes as predators of the cattle range, JFD remarks: “The master studies of the relationships of the coyote to other animals of its environment have been made within the past ten years by Adolph Murie, biologist and naturalist, a pioneer in the field. His yet unpublished study of Cattle Losses and the Coyote on a Southwestern Range (Arizona) leaves the coyote generally guiltless of predation on cattle, though exceedingly active on carrion. However, Emerson’s Law of Compensation always works. As cows are bred up for sow-like weight and form they lose their protective instincts.... I still think that a range cow should have enough elemental life in her to keep coyotes off her offspring. Unless she has, the meat from her kind will descend to the level of hothouse chicken so far as invigorating qualities are concerned.” $450.00
1638. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Voice of the Coyote. Boston: Little, Brown, 1949. xx, 386 pp., tinted frontispiece and illustrated title, text illustrations (some full-page) by Olaus Murie. 8vo, original brown cloth with gilt illustration of coyote. Condition fine, but rated only as very good due to former owner’s occasional ink notes. Dust jacket price-clipped and with a few short tears.
First edition, trade issue. $75.00
1639. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). E 342: A Collection of Stray Mavericks Caught, Roped, and Branded by Members of the “Big Corral” (English 342: Life and Literature of the Southwest).... Austin: University of Texas, 1941. [4] 47 leaves (mimeographed). 4to, tan wrappers with title and brand printed in red, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
First printing. McVicker B44. Second in a series of anthologies from student writings, edited and with a foreword by their professor, JFD. “Dobie affected to scorn what he termed ‘our institutions of so-called higher learning,’ but in fact (and almost single-handedly for a long time) he worked to make the study of western regional literature respectable in the university” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 247). $100.00
1640. DOBIE, J. Frank & Jeff Dykes. Forty-Four Range Country Books Topped Out by J. Frank Dobie in 1941, and Forty-Four More Range Country Books Topped Out by Jeff Dykes in 1971. Austin: Encino Press, 1972. vii [1] 32 pp., illustrated title page of a cowhand reading a book (by Will Crawford). 8vo, original brown cloth, upper cover with pictorial paper label (repeating Crawford’s illustration on title). Very fine in original glassine d.j. Signed by Dykes. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition, limited edition (1,000 copies). Basic Texas Books B72. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Crawford 27). Whaley, Wittliff 88. Superb notes by two experts on range literature. JFD comments on his selections: “In picking the following titles, I have considered vitality, readability, fidelity to range life, and historical information.... I realize how easy it would be to add forty-four more titles and still not get down to skimmed milk.” To Dobie’s original 1941 choices, Dykes adds 44 more well-annotated selections, all published between 1941 and 1971. $65.00
1641. DOBIE, J. Frank & Jeff Dykes. Forty-Four...and Forty-Four...Range Country Books.... Austin: Encino Press, 1972. Another copy. Very fine in original glassine d.j. Jeff Dykes’ signed presentation copy to noted collector Dorothy Josey: “For Mrs. Clint Josey—discriminating book buyer and range life collector. I think my old paisano Pancho would have loved this one and I hope you do—Jeff.” $65.00
1642. DOBIE, J. Frank & Jeff Dykes. Forty-Four...and Forty-Four...Range Country Books.... Austin: Encino Press, 1972. Another copy. Very fine in original glassine d.j. Signed by Dykes. $50.00
1643. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Foller de Drinkin’ Gou’d. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1928. 201 pp., printed music. 8vo, original red pictorial wrappers bound in brown and green mottled cloth. Top edge slightly foxed, several spots on title page, otherwise fine.
First edition, wrappers issue. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 7. Basic Texas Books 203:7. CBC 3427. Dobie, p. 129: “Scores, with music and anecdotal interpretations.” McVicker B7. WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 503: “Unquestionably, Dobie’s major achievement was that almost single-handedly he made southwesterners of the 1920s and 1930s, when very little southwestern literature as such existed, aware of the literary possibilities of their folk heritage.” In his contribution “More Ballads and Songs of the Frontier Folk,” JFD provides biographical information on Charlie Johnson, “a genuine cowboy balladist” and writer of “The Cowboy’s Stroll.” JFD tells how Johnson went to work on Tom O’Connor’s ranch in South Texas in 1877 at age sixteen, first went up the trail in 1880, and claimed to have branded more cattle than any other man in Texas. Also included in this anthology is Newton Gaines’s “Some Characteristics of Cowboy Songs.” $40.00
1644. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Legends of Texas. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1924. xii, 282 pp., photographic plate, map, 2 text illustrations. 8vo, original blue cloth gilt. Binding dull and moderately worn, hinges weak, occasional mild to moderate foxing (especially to fore-edges and endsheets), overall a very good copy.
First edition. Texas Folk-Lore Society Publications 3. Basic Texas Books 203:3. Dykes, My Dobie Collection, (#8 on his rarities list), p. 9: “Of the books edited by Dobie, I regard Legends of Texas...as the hardest to find and apt to be the most expensive. Frank wrote in my copy...on March 1, 1943: ‘How proud I was of this book...my first.... A rare book now.’ Twenty-eight more years have added to the problem of finding a copy.” McVicker B3(a).
JFD wrote approximately one-third of the material for Legends and edited the remainder. Depending on how one wishes to interpret bibliography, this could be considered Dobie’s first “book.” John R. Craddock’s “The Legend of Stampede Mesa” tells a legend from the Texas Panhandle about a murdered cattle buyer. His ghost reputedly haunted a spot in Crosby County considered excellent for holding cattle on a trail drive, and thus herd bosses avoided the area because the ghost was said to cause stampedes. $100.00
1645. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Legends of Texas. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1924. xii, 282 pp., photographic plate, map, 2 text illustrations. 8vo, original blue cloth gilt. Minor shelf wear, generally fine.
First edition, second printing (“Second Edition” on title page). The second printing was also available in wrappers, according to promotional material. $45.00.
1646. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Man, Bird, and Beast. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1930. 185 pp., 2 illustrations by Will James. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers, hand bound by Dr. S. K. Stroud in half brown calf over tan cloth. Light wear, old tape stains and writing on wrappers.
First edition. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 8. Basic Texas Books 203:8. CBC 4754. Dobie, pp. 40, 70 (referring to Woodhull’s article): “Richest and most readable collection of pioneer remedies yet published.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Dufault [James] 54). McVicker B11(a).
Of range country interest are Frost Woodhull’s “Ranch Remedios,” Jovita González’ “Tales and Songs of the Texas-Mexicans” (folklore among vaqueros and pastores of the borderlands). Further, Betty Smedley, long-time rare book dealer, contributed “Legends of Wichita County,” commenting: “Stories of the Wichita cattle country are almost as numerous as mesquite trees.” Smedley goes on to relate four of the best.
This book and several other copies (see below) of Texas Folk-Lore Society publications were hand bound by Dr. Stroud, a Corpus Christi book collector whom Dudley R. Dobie met through Dan Kilgore. $40.00
1647. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Man, Bird, and Beast. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1930. Another copy. 8vo, later navy blue buckram. A few spots to binding, upper fore-edge lightly foxed. $25.00
1648. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, Number IV. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1925. 133 pp., photographic plate, text illustrations (printed music and pictographs). 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Text block detached from fragile wrappers (light wear). Very good copy, with small ownership ink stamp (“C. E. Kelly”) on upper cover and blank endpaper. From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition, wrappers issue. Basic Texas Books 203:4. McVicker B4(a). Ranching content in this volume consists of JFD’s “Versos of the Texas Vaqueros” and Roy S. Scott’s “The Cowboy Dance of the Northwest.” $75.00
1649. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, Number IV. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1925. Another copy. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers bound in later red cloth. Slight wear to wraps, top edge lightly foxed, overall fine. $60.00
1650. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society V. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1926. 190 pp., printed music. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers bound in later green cloth. Binding lightly stained, fore-edges lightly foxed, else very fine.
First edition, wrappers issue. Basic Texas Books 203:5. CBC 290 & 4204. Cook 77B. McVicker B5(a).
Ranch content includes: Branch Isbell’s “Episodes at Ranch Community Dances”; JFD’s “The Tournament in Texas” (early Texas rodeo-like affairs with a Southern flavor of chivalry); Mary Daggett Lake’s “Pioneer Christmas Customs of Tarrant County” (includes cowboy dances); John K. Strecker’s “On the Origin of Reptile Myths” (cow-puncher beliefs that rattlesnakes, owls, and prairie dogs cohabit burrows; horse-hair rope protects against rattlesnakes; cowboy mythology about “The Great Water Dog of the Plains”; etc). $45.00
1651. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society V. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1926. Another copy. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers hand bound in half red calf over green cloth by Dr. S. K. Stroud. Wraps lightly chipped, else fine. $45.00
1652. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society V. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1926. Another copy. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Upper wrapper detaching, wrappers chipped and torn. $30.00
1653. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Puro Mexicano. Austin: [Designed by H. Stanley Marcus for the] Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1935. [2] x, 261 pp., title illustrated with sombrero. 8vo, half black cloth over rose cloth. Fore-edges lightly foxed, otherwise fine, in original glassine d.j.
First edition, cloth issue. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 12. Basic Texas Books 203:12. McVicker B21. Paul S. Taylor’s “Songs of Mexican Migration” includes the corrido “The Two Rancheros” (dialogue between a returned emigrant and a rancher who remained in Mexico). Sarah S. McKellar, a native Texan and the wife of a Scottish rancher in Mexico, relates the tale “Br’er Coyote” as told by her ranch cook. In the telling, McKellar provides social history on ranch life at La Mariposa in northern Coahuila. In Joe Storm’s “Sons of the Devil,” Jim Jackson, a cowman of the old school, tells of Mescalero Apache stealing horses from Texan and Mexican ranches and the tale of Diablo, a big black stallion thought to be a medicine horse. Simple, elegant design by Stanley Marcus of Nieman-Marcus fame. $45.00
1654. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Puro Mexicano. Austin: [Designed by H. Stanley Marcus for the] Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1935. Another copy, without original glassine d.j. Slight foxing to fore-edges, else fine. $35.00
1655. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Texas and Southwestern Lore. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1927. 259 [1] pp., printed music. 8vo, original grey pictorial wrappers with ranching images. Very fine, with only slight wear to the attractive, fragile wraps.
First edition, wrappers issue. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 6. Basic Texas Books 203:6. Dobie, pp. 40, 43, 129: “Tales about Texas-Mexican vaquero folk.” Dykes, Kid 176: “‘Folk-Lore Shooting,’ an article...by Frost Woodhull, debunks the reputations of some of our better-known gunmen, including that of the Kid.” McVicker B6. Robinson, Haley (1978) 286, 303.
This is one of the best Texas Folk-Lore Society publications for a ranching collection, with Jovita González’s “Folk-Lore of the Texas-Mexican Vaquero”; Bertha McKee Dobie’s “Tales and Rhymes of a Texas Household”; J. Evetts Haley’s “Lore of the Llano Estacado” and “Cowboy Songs Again”; JFD’s “Ballads and Songs of the Border Folk”; John R. Craddock’s “Songs the Cowboys Sing”; Ina Sires’ “Songs of the Open Range”; Arbie Moore’s “The Texas Cowboy”; and more. $125.00
1656. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Texas and Southwestern Lore. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1927. Another copy. 8vo, original grey pictorial wrappers hand bound by Dr. S. K. Stroud in tan calf over grey cloth. Wrappers and a few leaves foxed. $75.00
1657. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Texas and Southwestern Lore. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1927. 259 [1] pp., printed music. 8vo, original blue cloth. Main portion of upper and lower panels of the very rare original pictorial d.j. neatly trimmed and affixed to upper and lower pastedowns. Light shelf wear, upper hinge loose, lower hinge cracked. Contemporary ink ownership inscription on front free endpaper, owner’s blindstamp on title.
First edition, cloth issue. $50.00
1658. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). Tone the Bell Easy. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1932. 199 [1] pp., illustrations by Ben Carlton Mead and Tom Smith, printed music. 8vo, later three-quarter maroon calf over white cloth (bound by Dr. S. K. Stroud). A few leaves spotted and a bit worn, generally very good.
First edition. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 10. Basic Texas Books 203:10. Cook 82. Dobie, p. 177 (citing J. Mason Brewer’s article “Juneteenth”): “Outstanding as a collection of tales.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mead 31): “Including the first use of the Mead paisano drawing as official emblem of the [Texas Folk-Lore] Society.” McVicker B15(a).
In his introduction, JFD speaks of the Society’s adoption of the roadrunner as its emblem and how this came to be. Ruth Dodson’s excellent “Folk Curing among the Mexicans” discusses various folk medicines of the brush country and curandero Don Pedro Jaramillo (based on contributions by J. T. Canales of Brownsville, and A. T. Canales, of Premont, sons of the late Don Andrés Canales, pioneer ranchman of the region where Don Pedro lived). Jovita González in “Among My People” documents customs of the ranch folk of the Texas-Mexico borderlands. JFD in “Mustang Gray: Fact, Tradition, and Song” explores the swashbuckling adventures of San Jacinto veteran M. B. (“Mustang”) Gray, including evidence that Gray was a leader among the raiders who beginning in 1839 preyed on Mexican ranches between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. Gray and his men, who attempted to establish the Republic of the Rio Grande, “became known as ‘Cow-Boys’—thus not only contributing a name to the men whose occupation was to make Texas famous but also fixing on them a reputation that the public at large has never forgotten.” $65.00
1659. DOBIE, J. Frank, Mody C. Boatright & Harry H. Ransom (eds.). Coyote Wisdom. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, [1938]. [2] 300 pp., text illustrations by Ben Carlton Mead and others, printed music. 8vo, original blue cloth over beige cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 14. Basic Texas Books 203:14. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mead 32). McVicker B29a. In addition to coyote lore, this anthology includes ranch folklore, such as Fannie E. Ratchford’s “Legend Making on the Concho”; John Gould’s “Pie-Biter” (about Jim Baker, Burk Burnett cow-camp cook who refused to be hampered by the bonds of truth); etc. $150.00
1660. DOBIE, J. Frank, Mody C. Boatright & Harry H. Ransom (eds.). Mustangs and Cow Horses. Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1940. xi [1] 429 pp., illustrations by Russell, Lea, Bugbee, Santee, and others, map (modern rendering of Stephen F. Austin’s map of Texas from 1829). 8vo, original maize cloth. Cover shelf-worn and lightly stained, lower cover with a few abrasions), text fine. From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate, as well as the bookplate of W. S. Broome.
First edition. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society 16. Basic Texas Books 203:16. Cook 89. Dobie, p. 40: “Tales about Texas-Mexican vaquero folk.” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #19: “Richest assemblage of material on range horses ever published.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bugbee 68), (Dufault [James] 55), (Lea 145), (Santee 39), (Thomason 19); My Dobie Collection, p. 9 (#9 on his rarities list): “Rare.... Add to the Dobie fans seeking the book for its illustrations, the horse book buffs and the range life collectors and, pardon the pun, you have a hoss race anytime a copy appears on the market.” Herd 705. McVicker B36a. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 11. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:65. Four contributions by J. Frank Dobie (“As Smart as a Cutting Horse,” “The Deathless Pacing White Stallion,” “Pitching Horses and Panthers,” “Cow Horse Names, Colors and Cures”).
A few of the other first-rate contributions include: Florence Fenley’s “The Mustanger Who Turned Mustang”; Frank Collinson’s “Fifty Thousand Mustangs”; R. B. Cunninghame Graham’s “The Horse of the Pampas”; Ruth Dodson’s “Texas-Mexican Horse-Breaking”; W. H. Hudson’s “Cristiano, A Sentinel Horse”; John A. Lomax’s “Peepy-Jenny”; James K. Greer’s “Anti-Indian Horse”; Frank Goodwyn’s “Ballad of Manuel Rodriguez”; Jovita González de Mireles, “The Mescal-Drinking Horse”; and more. $125.00
1661. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. Dobie at Southwestern University: The Beginnings of His Literary Career, 1906-1911. Compiled and Edited by Judson S. Custer. Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, 1981. 87 pp., frontispiece photograph of JFD, photographic illustrations (many full-page). 8vo, original cream cloth. Very fine in slightly rubbed d.j.
First edition. Reprints early writings by or about J. Frank Dobie from the Southwestern University Magazine, contains a bibliography of JFD manuscript holdings at Southwestern, and presents an article on JFD by Jeff Campbell entitled “Pancho at College—Toga or Sombrero.” Includes young JFD’s “A Cow Drive” and “The Buried Lariat.” $35.00
1662. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. COOK, Spruill (comp.). J. Frank Dobie Bibliography. [Waco: Texian Press, 1968]. x [2] 64 pp., frontispiece, facsimiles of title pages. 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition, limited edition (#22 of 500 copies, signed by Cook). Basic Texas Books B53. $50.00
1663. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. DANIEL, Price, Jr. Texas and the West: Catalogue No. 24 Featuring the Writings of J. Frank Dobie; A Contribution towards a Bibliography. Waco: [Designed by Carl Hertzog for Price Daniel, Jr., 1963]. [36] pp., frontispiece portrait of Dobie (by Tom Lea), text illustrations (including photographic portrait of JFD). 8vo, original terracotta cloth with JFD symbolic roadrunner stamped in brown on upper cover. Very fine. Scarce in the cloth limited edition.
First edition, limited edition (#52 of 210 numbered copies bound in cloth). Basic Texas Books B62: “One of the earliest attempts at a Dobie checklist.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 121); “Not in Cook” 203. Lowman, Printer at the Pass 159A. Introductory material includes Lawrence Clark Powell’s “Mr. Southwest” and Jeff C. Dykes’ “J. Frank Dobie and His Books.” Handsome catalogue with good annotations.
In discussing JFD’s range collection, Dykes comments: “Frank’s critical annotations and comments are in many of his range books, and while the practice of writing in books is frowned on by most dealers and collectors, who among us would turn down one personally annotated by a Dobie or a Webb or a Bedichek?” $50.00
1664. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. DANIEL, Price, Jr. Texas and the West.... Waco: [Designed by Carl Hertzog for Price Daniel, Jr., 1963]. [32] pp., text illustrations (including photographic portrait of JFD). 8vo, original brown illustrated wrappers with Tom Lea’s portrait of Dobie. Very fine.
First edition, wrappers issue. Lowman, Printer at the Pass 159B. $35.00
1665. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. FRONTIER TIMES. “Southwestern Author Is Honored,” in Frontier Times 8:6 (March 1931). Pp. 242-246, photograph of Dobie, map (from Coronado’s Children). 4to, original beige wrappers with photographic illustration. Browned, with ink stamp of W[alter] P[rescott] Webb on upper wrap and Dudley R. Dobie’s pencil note.
Reprinted from Dallas News. See also in this issue: “Cattle Trail to Louisiana in 1866” as told by Judge Ed Kone to T. U. Taylor (pp. 249-56, 273-77) and Harry Williams, “Texas Cattle Trails” (pp. 279-81). Not in Cook or McVicker. $20.00
1666. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. GADDIS, Isabel. Presentation of the Isabel Gaddis Collection of J. Frank Dobie by Dr. and Mrs. Charles N. Prothro. [Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones], 1970. [24] pp., frontispiece portrait of Dobie, text illustrations. 8vo, original pale grey wrappers with illustration of Dobie’s symbolic roadrunner. Mint in original mailing envelope.
First printing. Dykes, “Not in Cook” 241. Includes an introduction on J. Frank Dobie and Isabel Gaddis, along with photographs illustrating the collection. $15.00
1667. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. GEDDIE, Jack. “What Is a Texan?” in The Cattleman 28:8 (January 1942). Pp. 28-29, 31, photograph of Dobie. 4to, original wrappers with photographic illustration. Slight abrasion to edges of wrappers, light foxing to first and last leaves, otherwise very fine.
First printing. Cook 245 (see also end of note to Cook 383). Geddie pronounces JFD to be “an authentic image of the Texas heritage” and includes a section “Raised in Cow-Country.” At pp. 34-37 is C. E. Fisher’s “Mesquite Eradication Studies at Spur, Texas” (using sodium arsenic and lye). Great ads, including Flat Top Ranch, Adair Ranch, Houston Fat Stock Show (with photo of Gene Autry touting the world premiere of the Flying “A” Ranch Rodeo). $20.00
1668. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. McVICKER, Mary Louise. The Writings of J. Frank Dobie: A Bibliography. Lawton: Museum of the Great Plains, [1968]. xv [1] 258 [2] pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (mostly photographic, some by Lea and Mead), facsimiles. 8vo, original white cloth over brown cloth. Very fine in publisher’s acetate d.j. and slipcase.
First edition, limited edition (#487 of 500 copies, signed by author). Basic Texas Books B132: “The best bibliography so far.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 194), (Mead 52). Introduction by Harry H. Ransom. $75.00
1669. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. MOLYNEAUX, Peter. “A Vaquero of the Brush Country: New Book Reveals That J. Frank Dobie Is an Authentic Literary Artist,” in Texas Monthly 5:1 (January 1930). Pp. 7-23, photographic portrait of Dobie. 8vo, original orange printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly stained and chipped. Two ink stamps of Oscar Dancy.
Cook 278. This issue contains a fine portrait of JFD and Peter Molyneaux’s review of Vaquero of the Brush Country, concluding: “About the most genuine book about cowboys and cow country ever written.” Also present is T. J. Cauley, “Longhorns and Chicago Packers: Relation of Texas Cattle to the Rise of the Packing Industry in the Windy City.” $25.00
1670. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. Photographs: 3 color snapshots of Dobie and friends taken at Cactus Lodge, John P. Barnes Ranch, December 5, 1946. Each photo measures 8.3 x 11.1 cm, in envelope addressed to J. Frank Dobie from Central Motor Company, Waco, Texas. Faded, small tear on one photograph. Notes taped to backs of photos with subjects and place listed. Address on envelope (702 Park Place, Austin, Texas) marked through with pencil and rerouted to General Delivery, Kerrville, Texas.
Photos are of: (1) L. L. (Tex) Colbert, “Pancho” Allen, Joe N. Mitchell, John F. Barnes, Gen. Thomas Hardin, and JFD; (2) L. L. (Tex) Colbert, John F. Barnes, and JFD; (3) John Evans, Joe Baldwin, Herbert Calhoun. $75.00
1671. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. SLOAN, Dorothy–Books. The Library of Dudley R. Dobie Part I: J. Frank Dobie Collection. Austin: [Designed and Printed by David Holman at Wind River Press for] Dorothy Sloan–Books, 1993. [239] pp., plates (some in color), text illustrations. 8vo, original cream printed wrappers. Fine copy.
First printing. Exhaustive (and exhausting) catalogue with 3,551 annotated entries and index, documenting every facet of JFD’s literary output, from manuscripts, autograph letters, and exceedingly rare limited editions to copious listings of magazine articles and newspaper columns. Also includes promotional materials and other ephemera, works about JFD, and selected books and pamphlets from his library. $50.00
1672. DODGE, Grenville M. The Indian Campaign of Winter of 1864-65, Written in 1877, by Major General Grenville M. Dodge, Read to the Colorado Commandery Loyal Legion of the United States at Denver.... Denver, 1907. 20 [1] pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Covers lightly browned at edges, otherwise fine. Rare.
First edition. Graff 1108. See Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 2006. Rader 1168. Wynar 1701. Dodge reports stock rustling by Cheyenne, Ogallala, and Brule Sioux and road ranches along the overland route from Fort Leavenworth and Omaha. He records that some of the action took place at the ranch of Old Jules (Jules Beni or Bene, French-Canadian-Indian trader deprived of his ears and executed by Jack Slade a few years before).
Dodge declares: “I predict that if more troops are not sent into this district immediately, this road will be stripped of every ranch and white man on it.... What we need are troops, supplies for them, and a vigorous campaign against these hostile Indians. They must be put on the defensive instead of us. No difficulty can arise in finding them. Over 2,000 cattle accompany them” (p. 11). $450.00
Lithographed Views & Map of the Black Hills
1673. DODGE, Richard Irving. Black Hills: A Minute Description of the Routes, Scenery, Soil, Climate, Timber, Gold, Geology, Zoology, Etc. with an Accurate Map, Four Sectional Drawings, and Ten Plates from Photographs, Taken on the Spot. New York: James Miller, 1876. 151 [1] [4, ads] pp., 10 tinted lithographic plates (including frontispiece), 4 charts & profiles (one folding & 2 colored), folding lithographed map (The Black Hills of the Cheyenne Map of Exploring Surveys made under the Direction of Lieut. Colonel R. L. Dodge, 23d. U.S. Infantry 1875, 55 x 36.8 cm, scale: approximately nine miles to one inch). 12mo, original green cloth, sides and spine ruled and decorated in black, spine gilt-lettered. Light shelf wear (slightly more pronounced at spinal extremities), folding map torn (two clean tears on one panel, no losses), mild to moderate foxing near plates (mainly affecting blank margins), overall a very good to fine copy, tight and clean.
First edition. Graff 1111. Howes D401. Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 59: “Colonel Dodge, in charge of the military escort for the Newton-Jenney party, quickly capitalized on his venture. A good share of the book concerns geology and resources.” This handsome color plate book on the Black Hills was published hurriedly after gold was discovered in the area, and before Custer’s last fight. The work contains much on the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, with discussion of gold, miners, Native Americans, and routes. The attractive plates include “Dodge’s Pass & Trouper’s Mount, W.T., the outer Rampart,” “From Harney’s Peak Looking South East,” “Coldspring Cañon, W.T. in Red Beds,” “Devil’s Tower, Distant View,” “Miner’s Stockade, French Creek,” etc.
The author frequently discusses the suitability of the Black Hills for cattle ranching, states that the Black Hills “are closed to settlers by virtue of a treaty with the Indians,” predicts war, and notes rustling and depredations by Native Americans: “This summer several hundred head of valuable brood mares were run off from the Laramie plains. The Indians from the Agencies made no less than four pillaging expeditions to the Loup this summer, and about the 1st of October, a young man, peaceably herding cattle on Cottonwood Creek, not far from the post of Fort Laramie, was set upon, killed, scalped by a party of friendly Indians from the Agencies. These facts, and many similar ones, are perfectly known to the men who wish to settle the Black Hills...” (pp. 139-40); “As a grazing country it cannot be surpassed; and small stock-farms of fine cattle and sheep cannot, I think fail of success” (p. 150). $300.00
1674. DODGE, Richard Irving. The Black Hills.... Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965. 151 [4, index] pp., frontispiece, color illustrations. 8vo, original grey buckram. Very fine in slightly rubbed and price-clipped d.j.
Reprint of preceding. $45.00
1675. DODGE, Richard Irving. The Hunting Grounds of the Great West: A Description of the Plains, Game, and Indians of the Great North American Desert.... With an Introduction by William Blackmore. London: Chatto & Windus, 1878. lvii [1] 448 pp., photographic frontispiece portrait of author, 20 engraved plates, folding lithographed map with partial and outline coloring (Map of the Western States and Territories of the United States Showing All the Existing Indian Reservations and the Buffalo Range in 1830 and 1876, 21.7 x 31.5 cm). Thick 8vo, original red gilt-pictorial cloth stamped in black. Moderate outer wear, book block partially detached from binding, lower blank margins of two preliminary leaves stained, a few old tape repairs to map verso, text and plates clean and fine. Engraved armorial bookplate of John George Fenwick and British bookdealer’s small printed label on front pastedown.
Second English edition (first English edition London, 1877; first American edition New York, 1877). Campbell, p. 127: “The best part of the book is on the bison. This information the author obtained in 1870 from the buffalo hunter J. Wright Moar, when he visited Fort Dodge.” Dobie, p. 151: “Outstanding survey of outstanding wild creatures.” Graff 1113n. Howes D404.
Though primarily a survey of Native American culture in the Great Plains and Rockies, we include this book here for its excellent material on buffalo and wild cattle. J. Frank Dobie cited this work extensively in his Longhorns for its chapter on “Wild Cattle,” which is mostly concerned with Texas longhorns. Dodge believes that buffalo and wild cattle can be cross-bred, but only when the buffalo cow is the mother of the mule. One of the plates depicts Native Americans rustling livestock. $100.00
1676. DODGE, Richard Irving. Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years’ Personal Experience among the Red Men of the Great West.... Hartford: A. D. Worthington & Co., 1882. 653 pp., 25 plates (engraved frontispiece portrait of author after photograph by Brady; engraved plate of portraits of Generals Crook, Miles, Custer, and Mackenzie; 6 chromolithographs of Native American artifacts; 17 engravings of scenes and events). Thick 8vo, original three-quarter leather over marbled boards. Binding rubbed, spine dry, very light ink stamps on front pastedown, front hinge cracked (but strong), overall a very good copy, plates excellent.
First edition. Introduction by Gen. W. T. Sherman, in which he describes the book as “the best description extant of the habits, manners, customs, usages, ceremonies, etc., of the American Indian, as he now is.” Bennett, American Nineteenth-Century Color Plate Books, p. 34: “Minutely and beautifully drawn.” Campbell, p. 114. Eberstadt 104:81. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 137. Graff 1114. Howes D403. Larned 628. Luther, High Spots of Custer 120: “Suggests that possibly Custer committed suicide.”
McCracken, 101, p. 26: “According to Eberstadt, Dodge spent an extended period among the Plains Indians. During this time he was able to make many firsthand observations in regard to ‘their character and customs.’ In his introduction to the book, Dodge states he compared many of his observations with those of leaders in the field—Catlin, Schoolcraft, etc.—and where his observations differed from theirs, relied on the Indians themselves.” Pilling 1060. Rader 1172. Raines, p. 68: “The Texas Indians come in for a share of treatment, and some incidents occur in Texas.” Rosenstock 516. Saunders 2143. Smith 2496. Tate, The Indians of Texas 2777: “Views the western tribes as depraved and barbaric, but includes considerable information on Southern Plains tribes.”
Ranching material is found throughout, including “Texas Cow-Boys” and “Stealing a Herd of Cattle” (chapter 47); Buffalo Bill; Native American stock (chapter 46 “Domestic Animals” includes a section on “Indian Stockbreeders”); stock rustling (especially chapter 42, “A Race of Thieves and Plunderers”); horsemanship (good coverage of Native American equipage and methods of making saddles, lasso, etc.); etc. $250.00
1677. DODGE, Richard Irving. Our Wild Indians.... Hartford: A. D. Worthington & Co., 1884. 653 pp., 25 plates (engraved frontispiece portrait of author after photograph by Brady; engraved portraits of Generals Crook, Miles, Custer, and Mackenzie; 6 chromolithographs of Native American artifacts; 17 engravings). 8vo, original brown gilt decorated cloth. Slight shelf wear, spine slightly faded, front hinge cracked, small contemporary purple ownership stamp on title and preliminary page, overall a very good to fine copy, plates excellent.
Early reprint. Some of the reprints did not include the color plates, but they are present in this copy. $125.00
1678. DODGE, Ruby McGill. Reynolds Presbyterian Academy and College. Belton: Peter Hansborough Bell Press, 1960. [14] 128 [4] 16 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographs, illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Light shelf wear, ink notations to text, otherwise a fine copy. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Not in CBC. This scarce local history is an unusual source for social history and education in the cattle country. The foreword is by Rupert N. Richardson, well-known historian(see Herd 188-90). Noted Scotch-Irish cattleman and judge, John Alexander Matthews, (Handbook of Texas Online: John Alexander Matthews) founded the Reynolds Presbyterian Academy, located in the ranch country of Albany, Texas. Matthews was the head of the celebrated Reynolds-Matthews clan of Interwoven fame (see Reese, Six Score 78 and Handbook of Texas Online: John Alexander Matthews & Sallie Ann Matthews Reynolds). $40.00
Curandero of the Brush Country
1679. DODSON, Ruth. Don Pedrito Jaramillo, “Curandero.” San Antonio: Casa Editorial Lozano, [1934]. 159 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo, original green cloth with red lettering and ruling. Text browned (due to the acidic paper on which it was printed), small closed tear (2.5 cm) at lower portion of gutter on title page, otherwise fine. Signed by the author at Mathis, Texas. A Borderlands rarity.
First edition. Dobie (p. 70) and Borderlands Sourcebook (p. 332) both list only the 1951 reprint by the Texas Folk-Lore Society. A classic in the field of folklore and native medicine documenting the life and work of Pedro Jaramillo (1829?-1907), the legendary curandero, whose medicines and remedies were used by five generations and whose shrine in Falfurrias at Rancho Los Olmos is still visited by the faithful today. The University of New Mexico website on Jaramillo refers to him as “perhaps the most famous curandero of all time, known as “The Saint of Falfurrias (Texas)” and he is discussed in Chapter 35 of Andrés Saénz’s Early Tejano Ranching in Duval County published by the Institute of Texan Cultures.
“Don Pedrito...was born of Tarascan Indian parents near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in the mid-nineteenth century. He moved to South Texas as a young man in 1881 and settled on the Los Olmos Ranch.... At that time the only doctor between Corpus Christi and Laredo lived in San Diego; therefore, Don Pedrito’s powers were often sought. At first he treated only close neighbors, but soon he began visiting ranches throughout the region between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Dressed as a Mexican peasant, wearing heavy shoes, a sombrero, and a cowboy vest, he either walked or rode a donkey on his healing missions.... He constantly received money through the mail in the form of donations, usually in the amount of fifty cents or a dollar. He made generous donations to several area churches and to the constant stream of poor people visiting his ranch. He bought food in wagonloads and kept his storeroom well stocked. More than $5,000 in fifty-cent pieces was found at his home when he died. Don Pedrito never married, but he adopted two boys. He died on July 3, 1907, and was buried in the old ranch cemetery near Falfurrias. His resting place has become a shrine and is visited by several hundred persons yearly.” (Handbook of Texas Online: Pedro Jaramillo). $750.00
1680. DOMÍNGUEZ, Francisco Atanasio. The Missions of New Mexico, 1776: A Description.... Translated and Annotated by Eleanor B. Adams and Fray Angelico Chávez. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [1956]. xxi [1] 387 pp., tipped-in color frontispiece, maps, text illustrations. 4to, original beige pictorial linen. Very fine in near fine d.j. (minor marginal chipping). Laid in is a related offprint article, “Paging Procrustes” by Roland F. Dickey.
First edition. Father Domínguez was Commissary Visitor to the Franciscan missions of New Mexico. The present work is his travel journal, beginning on March 1, 1776, with departure from El Paso. He spent the next fourteen months touring and documenting his observations for an official report and wrote private letters to his superior as well.
Domínguez’ provides a description of the establishments of New Mexico (including Isleta), with good documentation on cattle and sheep grazing operations: favorable pasturage at Laguna and Taos (noting that Comanche sometimes share pasturage at Taos); introduction of cattle at various missions; Apache depredations against cattle at Carnué leading to abandonment of the area; 1681 López expedition to Texas which involved converting 1,490 head of cattle into silver for buying wine, wax, etc.
The editors comment on the use of the word “rancho” in Spanish New Mexico: “It might be misleading to translate rancho as ranch in view of the present association of the word in the United States with large establishment for grazing and breeding horses, cattle, or sheep. The rancho was a hut, or group of huts, outside the settlement used by farmers and herdsmen, or by extension, a very modest farm or hacienda. The term originally referred to a mess, usually a military one, and to the tents or huts used for the lodging of soldiers.” $150.00
1681. DONALDSON, Thomas C. Idaho of Yesterday. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1941. 406 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic and vintage prints). 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in price-clipped d.j. (marginal chipping and two 2.5-cm sections missing from head and foot of d.j. spine).
First edition of a foundation stone of Idaho history; this work was edited and compiled by the author’s son, Thomas Blaine Donaldson, in 1903, after his father’s death. Guns 613. Smith 2508. Donaldson (1843-1898), historian and government official, has left us an excellent firsthand, inside accounts of early Idaho, with good material on establishment of the Territory, biographies of pioneers, politics, stage lines, vigilantes, outlaws, Native Americans, social and business history, mining, agriculture, and ranching. Donaldson discusses establishment of the first ranches in the Territory in 1869 and provides biographical information on some of the early stock raisers.
The author gives insights into the special challenges of ranching in Idaho: problems with hostile Native Americans, limited markets in Idaho, arid climate, and the lack of adequate transportation facilities until the coming of the railroad. “The railroad enabled the individual cattle ranchers to market beef in Omaha and Chicago. Prior to this date, the capitalists or wealthy ranchers bought up small bunches of cattle, placed them in immense herds, and drove them to the nearest shipping points: viz., Winnemucca, Nevada, or Kelton, Utah, for the San Francisco market; or Ogden, Utah, for the Eastern market. A cattle drive was expensive not alone because herders and horses were scarce, but also because of the scarcity of water made it hazardous to trail range-fattened stock through a desert” (p. 22).
Lamar (Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West, pp. 314-15) refers to Donaldson’s massive The Public Domain: Its History, with Statistics (Washington, 1881 & 1884) as “the vade mecum of western historians” and “indispensable to students of the history of the West.” Donaldson had an intimate knowledge of and strong official influence on the realm of public lands and their use. Stockmen, miners, and lumbermen who wanted special favors or their violations overlooked often exerted pressure on Donaldson. $50.00
Native American Stock Raising
1682. [DONALDSON, Thomas C. (ed.)]. UNITED STATES. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. CENSUS BUREAU. Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States (except Alaska) at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Washington: GPO, 1894. vii [1] 683 pp., 203 chromolithograped, engraved, and photographic plates (some folding, 20 colored, 25 uncolored, 158 photographic), 25 maps (some folding and/or colored), text illustrations. Large, thick 4to, original black cloth. The massive binding is worn (small splits at top joints) and the heavy text is a bit loose, otherwise very fine, the plates and maps superb. Ink ownership signature on title. Despite the few flaws, this is the best copy we have seen of this book that is difficult to locate in collector’s condition. Not only is the book far too heavy for one volume, but also it is a book that people understandably used and read.
First edition. Graff 4396. Howes D418. McCracken, 101, p. 47: “Prior to 1850 Indians were not included in the United States Census. By 1890 the census included Indians living both on and off of the reservations, as well as those who had ‘abandoned their tribal relations and became citizens.’ This beautifully illustrated volume enumerates the Indian population in every imaginable category [and] contains a wealth of the sort of statistical information that only the government can produce.” This massive state-by-state survey includes a mine of detailed information and statistics on stock raising among Native American tribes. The accompanying iconography offers excellent exhibit potential, such as Julian Scott’s colored lithograph “Issue Day, Indians Running Beef before Killing.—Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita, and Oklahoma, 1890” and photograph by W. R. Cross “South Dakota. Issuing Beef Cattle to the Sioux at Rosebud Agency.” The chromolithographs are by Julian Scott, Gilbert W. Gaul, Peter Moran, Henry Rankin Poore, and Walter Shirlaw. Photographers include Muybridge, Cantwell, T. H. Sullivan, and W. H. Jackson.
One plate of special interest is Scott’s colored portrait of noted Comanche leader Quanah Parker, who not only was a prominent rancher, but also influenced ranching history after his tribe settled on the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. “Economically, Parker promoted the creation of a ranching industry and led the way by becoming a successful and quite wealthy stock raiser himself. He also supported agreements with white ranchers allowing them to lease grazing lands within the Comanche reservation” (Handbook of Texas Online: Quanah Parker). The print of Quanah Parker by Julian Scott is listed in Tyler, Unpublished Typescript on Texas Lithographs of the Nineteenth Century. $2,000.00
1683. DONNELLY, Thomas C. (ed.). Rocky Mountain Politics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [1940]. vi [2] 304 pp., text maps. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in d.j. with minor chipping and a some light staining.
First edition. Herd 715. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 21: “Introductory chapter discussing geography, people, economic picture, voting habits of the region. Gives an excellent general history and survey of the state as a background for its politics.” Paher, Nevada 488. Saunders 4043. State-by-state review of Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona, with sheep and cattle discussed in sections on economy. $30.00
1684. DONNELLY, Thomas C. (ed.). Rocky Mountain Politics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [1940]. Another copy. Very fine, d.j. not present. $25.00
1685. DONOHO, M[ilford] H[ill]. Circle-Dot: A True Story of Cowboy Life Forty Years Ago. Topeka: Crane, 1907. 256 pp., photographic frontispiece by Kansas photographer R. B. Hansford. 8vo, original red cloth stamped in gilt and black (title and a dot within a circle). Exceptionally fine, bright, and tight.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:111. Graff 1129. Guns 614: “Material on some of the outlaws of the Indian Territory, and the gunmen of Dodge City.” Herd 716: “Scarce.” Howes D427. Rader 1174.
History interwoven with rustic dialogue, written by a cowboy about a ranch located in west-central Texas, with descriptions of raising cattle, roundups, trail drives to Abilene in the 1870s, Comanche raids, Texas fever, and the hardships and joys of cowboy life. The heroine, Edna, takes over the family Circle-Dot Ranch after her father is killed in the Civil War and becomes known as “Circle-Dot, the Cattle Queen.” There was an actual ranch in Texas named Circle-Dot (Frank Collinson worked at the Circle-Dot at one time).
From the preface: “The Author was a cowboy...and is thoroughly conversant with every phase of cowboy life. After the lapse of many years, some of the most pleasant recollections engraved on the tablets of his memory are of the open plains, the wild cattle, and the irresistible cowboy.... To portray this wild, active and strenuous life, and to give an accurate pen-picture of this past and forgotten industry, is the mission of Circle-Dot.” $125.00
1686. DOTEN, Alfred. The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1973. xx [2] 808 + [6] 809-1,575 + [6] 1,577-2,381 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, maps, illustrations. 3 vols., 8vo, original tan buckram gilt. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase.
First edition of one of the most valuable sources on the social history of the American West. Edited by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 201: “Throughout, Doten provides amazingly detailed descriptions of life in the Mother Lode.”
“Feisty Alf Doten is Nevada’s premier diarist. No less than 55 of his rambunctious years are recorded in 79 leather bound journals containing more than 20,000 entries and about 3-1/2 million words.... The final entry was penned just before his death in Carson City in November 1903.... Noted novelist Walter Van Tilburg Clark devoted massive amounts of time in digging into archives from Plymouth to San Francisco to make certain what Doten meant.... Starting as a carpenter, [Doten] became a rancher and miner in California’s Sierra.... In 1865 he began a 39 year journalistic career—first with Virginia City’s Daily Union, and then after 1867 at the Gold Hill Daily News where he became editor-owner in 1872. Under Doten, the News became Nevada’s leading political and mining journal.... He was also a horse breaker, a surgeon’s assistant, a musical entertainer, a politician, mining expert, lime-burner, hunter, fisherman, insurance salesman and vigilante—truly an Alf of all trades. Of unusual social historic interest is Doten’s coverage of the Comstock after 1878” (Paher, Nevada 491). $100.00
1687. DOTY, Sile. The Life of Sile Doty 1800-1876: A Forgotten Autobiography. The Most Noted Thief and Daring Burglar of His Time.... [Detroit]: Alved of Detroit, Inc., 1948. x [4] 288 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations. 8vo, original black cloth. Fine in near fine d.j. (minor wear and a few chips).
Modern reprint of the rare first edition (Toledo, 1880), which Ramon Adams states is scarce “owing to the fact that the subject’s family succeeded in destroying many copies of it” (Guns 462). Howes C556: “A predatory profession, practised chiefly in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, and told of with gusto by the old rogue at seventy-five; his horrified family succeeded in destroying many copies.” Not in Garrett, The Mexican-American War. Compiled by J. G. W. Colburn, with an introduction by Randolph G. Adams.
Doty led a gang which specialized in cattle rustling and horse theft. When the Mexican-American War broke out, Doty was pardoned of his crimes and lit out for Mexico with a team of stolen horses. Finding army life not to his taste, Doty arranged a rumor of his death and plundered in Mexico, alternately in U.S. or Mexican uniform. When the Mexicans were about to surrender formally, Doty felt sorry for General Scott, who was poorly mounted, and immediately remedied the situation by stealing the finest Mexican charger and equestrian equipage he could find. General Scott proudly rode to the surrender conference on his splendid new steed. $50.00
Photographs of Cowboy Life by L. A. Huffman
1688. DOUBLEDAY, Russell. Cattle Ranch to College: The True Tale of a Boy’s Adventures in the Far West. New York: Doubleday & McClure Company, 1899. xii [4] 347 pp., pictorial title printed in red and black, photographic frontispiece, photographic plates of cowboy life, numerous marginal and text illustrations (by Janet MacDonald and Ernest Seton Thompson). 8vo, original dark blue pictorial cloth stamped in green, white, and black (cowboy on a rearing horse), spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Light shelf wear, hinges starting, otherwise fine.
First edition, with 1899 on title and no ads. Herd 717: “Scarce.” The author describes a boyhood on a working cattle ranch in the Dakota region in the 1870s, complementing the text with superb unattributed documentary photographs of day-to-day ranch life. Some, or perhaps all, of the photographs are the work L. A. Huffman, pioneer Montana photographer. “The Huffman pictures constitute one of the finest pictorial records of life on the western frontier” (Thrapp II, pp. 688-89).
From author’s preface: “This is a true tale of a boy’s life in the West twenty-five years ago. It is an account of his amusements, his trials, his work, his play. The incidents described actually happened and are described substantially as ‘the boy’ [John Worth] related them to the writer.” $75.00
1689. DOUBLEDAY, Russell. Cattle Ranch to College.... New York: Doubleday & McClure Company, 1899. [2, half-title with ad on verso] iii-xii [4] 347 [1] [1, ad] pp., pictorial title printed in red and black, frontispiece, photographic plates of cowboy life, numerous marginal and text illustrations (by Janet MacDonald and Ernest Seton Thompson). 8vo, original dark blue pictorial cloth stamped in green, white, and black (cowboy on a horse), spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Light shelf wear and moderately rubbed, interior very fine.
First edition, early reprint, with date of 1899 retained on title but with added advertisement on half-title for H. H. Lewis’s A Gunner aboard the “Yankee” and page of publisher’s ads at end. The rear ad refers to the book as a “6th Thousand” printing and declares: “The immediate success of this book was to be expected from its unique attractiveness.” $30.00
1690. DOUGAL, William H. Off for California: The Letters, Log, and Sketches of William H. Dougal, Gold Rush Artist.... Oakland: Biobooks, 1949. vi [2] 62 [3] pp., illustrated title page in color, photographic portrait of author, plates of original drawings (one folding). Oblong small folio, original blue moiré cloth decorated in gilt. Upper corners bumped, slight offsetting to endpapers, otherwise very fine.
First edition, limited edition (600 copies). California Centennial Editions 22; edited by Frank M. Stanger, foreword by Joseph A. Sullivan. Mintz, The Trail 545. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 202: “Trained as an engraver, Dougal arrived in California on November 22, 1849. This handsome publication reproduces his sketches of scenes in present-day San Mateo County; Mission Dolores, and San Francisco, including a superb panorama from Nob Hill.... Dougal later did the engraving work for Cadwalader Ringgold’s ‘Series of Charts with Sailing Directions, State of California.’” Rocq 13296.
The illustration of the Sánchez Rancho in 1850 has a caption beneath: “This dilapidated-looking adobe house, which would now be on the Mills Estate at Millbrae, had been headquarters of the famous 15,000-acre Rancho Buri Buri, and the home of its founder and owner, José Sánchez.... Few of the early travelers down the Peninsula failed to stop at the ‘Sánchez Ranch’ for a brief rest, perhaps a meal or a night’s lodging, or at least a drink from the creek for their thirsty horses.” Also present is a sketch of Angelo’s Ranch, and Dougal’s journal refers to the Whisman Ranch, among others. $50.00
1691. DOUGLAS, C. L. Cattle Kings of Texas. Dallas: Cecil Baugh, [1939]. xiv [2] 376 pp., frontispiece photograph, text illustrations (including photographs, some full-page, by Erwin E. Smith, W. D. Smithers, et al.), brands, map, pictorial endpapers. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth stamped in brown. Endpapers and adjacent leaves browned, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. with Smith photo on back panel.
First edition, second printing. Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 31. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 619. Herd 719: “First appeared serially in The Cattleman magazine.... Short histories of some of the famous Texas ranches and their owners.” Howes D434.
This standard work on Texas cattle kings is filled with wonderful illustrations, including valuable documentary photos, reproductions of vintage prints, and lively text illustrations. Douglas maintains that Cortez as one of the first cattle kings of America, and includes a chapter on Marin de León (subtitled in contents as “Spanish Rancheros Cleared Way for American Stockmen”). All of the big names are here (Shanghai Pierce, Samuel Maverick, King & Kenedy, et al.), along with some of the lesser lights. $100.00
1692. DOUGLAS, C. L. Famous Texas Feuds. Dallas: Turner Co., [1936]. v [3] 173 pp., frontispiece, plates (mostly photographic portraits). 8vo, original half red cloth over black cloth embossed with leaf pattern, upper cover with gilt-stamped pistol (placed 5 cm from top edge of binding). Occasional mild to moderate foxing, gilt lettering on spine flecked, otherwise fine, in the uncommon d.j. (slight marginal chipping and mild dust-soiling to rear panel).
First edition. Dykes, Kid 236: “Discusses the effect of lawlessness in New Mexico on law enforcement in West Texas.” Guns 620. Many of the famous feuds of early Texas, such as the Taylor-Sutton Feud, centered around cattle, and ownership of same. In his chapter on the Mason County War, Douglas states: “There was once a time in Texas when the charge of cattle theft was a weapon just as handy and just as deadly as the pistol and the rifle” (p. 147). $100.00
1693. DOUGLAS, C. L. Famous Texas Feuds. Dallas: Turner Co., [1936]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original half red cloth over black cloth with linen texture, upper cover with gilt-stamped pistol (placed 5 cm from top edge of binding). Binding lightly flecked, otherwise fine in near fine d.j. with a bit of minor chipping. $75.00
1694. DOUGLAS, C. L. Famous Texas Feuds. Dallas: Turner Co., [1936]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original maroon cloth over smooth black cloth, upper cover with gilt-stamped pistol (placed 10 cm from top edge of binding). Spine sunned, otherwise fine, d.j. not present. Bookplate of Western author Helen Giffen. $75.00
1695. DOUGLAS, C. L. Famous Texas Feuds. Dallas: Turner Co., [1936]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original terracotta cloth lettered in black. Slight shelf wear, otherwise fine, d.j. not present. $50.00
1696. DOUGLAS, C. L. The Gentlemen in the White Hats: Dramatic Episodes in the History of the Texas Rangers. Dallas: South-West Press, [1934]. vii [1] 205 pp., frontispiece, plates (some photographic), text illustrations (some full-page and/or, photographic). 8vo, original maroon cloth. Mild foxing adjacent to plates, otherwise fine in the rare d.j. (a few chips and closed tears).
First edition. Adams, Burs I:112. Guns 621. Mohr, The Range Country 685. Many of these gripping Ranger tales revolve around cattle and horse thieves and border skirmishes in the cattle country, with the familiar cast of characters, including John R. Hughes, Bill McDonald, L. H. McNelly, Dan W. Roberts, Juan Cortina, Quanah Parker, et al. $125.00
1697. DOUGLAS, William O. Farewell to Texas: A Vanishing Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, [1967]. xi [3] 242 pp., color photographic frontispiece of bluebonnets, text illustrations (line drawings, some full or double-page, by Pete Parnell). 8vo, original blue cloth with illustration of longhorns. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. American Wilderness Series 1 (Justice Douglas is general editor). Feisty Supreme Court Justice Douglas, an early environmentalist and ecologist, passionately discusses Texas’ wilderness areas from the viewpoint of a concerned environmentalist. When the author begins by referring to stockmen as “modern Ahabs,” the reader realizes that a different perspective on ranching will be offered.
Douglas notes the effects of various ranching practices: eradication of predators (“Dr. Burton Warnock...taught me that the stockmen were often the villains, while the predator they curse was the hero”); overgrazing (“The truth is that, while [Big Bend] is good country for light grazing, it is so fragile it cannot withstand the heavy use which it receives.... The time may come when the present owners and their bankers will want to be ‘bailed out.’ It is probably only then that the land can be put to its highest use—recreation”); barbed wire (“With fences there was now a method of rotating cattle so that one pasture could rest while others were being grazed. But these fences, although of conservational value, were a matter of concern to botanists...for they changed radically the flora native to the region.... Cattle cause a reduction in species; goats are much more severe; but sheep practically obliterate flowers, leaving only shrubs and grass.... Cattle were followed by sheep and goats, and sheep and goats by desert”); branding (“Branding is somewhat disappearing due to fencing and the elimination of the open range, partly because brands reduce the value of the hide and add an operational cost”); demise of the rugged, hardy longhorn except as a hobby to keep the species alive (“The Longhorn is like the buffalo—all the meat is up front and the public wants the steaks that come from the rear end”); and more. $50.00
1698. DOUTHITT, Katherine Christian (ed.). Romance and Dim Trails: A History of Clay County. Dallas: William T. Tardy, 1938. [14] 280 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (mostly photographic, many full-page), cattle brands, endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth. Fine in d.j. (slight wear, a few small chips and tears). Errata slip tipped onto title page. Very scarce.
First edition. CBC 952. Guns 616. Herd 718. This excellent history of Clay County near the Texas-Oklahoma border contains a wealth of material on ranching history: firsthand narratives by men and women pioneers, biographies (with photos) of early settlers and ranchers, a list of brands and ranches, trail drives to Indian Territory (most of the beef supplied to the reservations came from Texas), strong social and women’s history, and fascinating arcana (such as a photo of “The Man Who Claims to be The Real Jesse James”).
The biographical section leads off with William Susan (“Sude”) Ikard (1847-1934), one of the noteworthy Texas cattlemen (see Handbook of Texas Online: William Susan Ikard). After serving in the Confederacy with Sul Ross, Ikard entered the cattle business in 1865 by rounding up cattle in Parker County and began to make trail drives up the Chisholm Trail as early as 1867. In 1871 Ikard secured range rights and moved near the buffalo hunting center that later became Clay County, where he built a log cabin with a buffalo-hide roof, organized Henrietta and Clay County, acquired the first of his grandiose ranches (the 20,000-acre V Bar Ranch), and drove immense herds to Indian Territory.
Other biographies include the exciting lives of Newt Jones of Archer City (cowboy, trail herder, and Texas Ranger in the Frontier Battalion) and T. N. Patterson (“a top cow hand” on various ranches in Texas and Indian Territory, early trail driver, rustler fighter, and rancher). Most of the early settlers of Clay County were stock raisers, and the county seat, Henrietta, was one of the old cowtowns and a gathering point for buffalo hunters.
In a chapter on how Henrietta became county seat, the author tells a funny story that captures the spirit of Clay County: “Tradition says that Henrietta received papers for county organization, but [the neighboring settlement of] Cambridge spirited them away. Then the cowboys took a hand in the county’s history. One night the ‘Punchers’ [Henrietta faction] decided the ‘Pinheads’ [Cambridge faction] had held the honor of county seat long enough. Here stories differ somewhat, but it is agreed that the cowboys roped the safe containing the county records and files and dragged it to Henrietta. One version reported that the whole courthouse was roped and dragged part of the way, but it became too cumbersome; so they turned it over and cut a hole in the floor taking only the safe. There had already been fist-fights between the rivals; but after this there were pitched battles, and several men were killed. At last, an election was ordered. The cowboys again entered the contest spiritedly, rounding up every man between Fort Worth and the staked Plains, and won the election. The cattlemen refused to allow the cowboys such a victory, however, and a horse race was arranged to decide the issue” (pp. 14-15). $500.00
1699. DOWNEY, Stephen W[heeler]. The Trans-Missouri Country: Its Characteristics, Capabilities, and Probable Destiny. An Address Delivered at Laramie City, Wyoming Territory.... New York: L. H. Bigelow & Co., 1872. 21 pp. 12mo, original green printed wrappers, sewn. Wrappers with mild to moderate soiling and slight marginal chipping at top edge of upper wrapper, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition of an early Wyoming promotional. Not in Eberstadt, Graff, Howes, etc. In the most lofty terms imaginable, Downey exhorts settlement in the West, particularly the Trans-Missouri region: “With our gold and silver mines, our mountains of iron, our vast deposits of coal, with a million and a half acres of grass-land in the LARAMIE Plains alone, where countless herds of cattle and innumerable flocks of sheep may roam and grow fat, with two noble streams penetrating to our vast forests of spruce, balsam, and yellow pine, and which forms a channel of communication by which means millions of feet of timber can be annually run down to our great national highway, the Union Pacific Railroad, you can judge what must be the progress and advancement of the LARAMIE Plains in the next decade” (p. 13).
See Annals of Wyoming indices for more on Downey, who wrote several promotionals touting Wyoming, such as the rare Prospectus of the Wyoming Central Land and Improvement Company (St. Louis, 1884), “written primarily to induce cattle interests to the state, especially to Albany and Carbon counties” Herd 723). For two other Wyoming promotionals by Downey, consult Stopka, Wyoming Territorial Imprints (1880.4 & 1885.3). $375.00
1700. DRAGO, Harry Sinclair. Great American Cattle Trails: The Story of the Old Cow Paths of the East and Longhorn Highways of the Plains. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., [1965]. xii [2] 274 pp., photographic plates, maps, endpaper illustrations by Lorence F. Bjorklund. 8vo, original grey cloth. Spine slightly abraded, otherwise fine in slightly worn but fine d.j. with Bjorklund illustration.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 32). Guns 624. A history of the American cattle trail, in all its various forms—from Spanish introduction of cattle to American Colonial market paths to the major drives of the 1880s. Drago (1888-1980), one of the most prolific writers in American history, authored about a hundred novels under the pseudonyms of Bliss Lomax, Kirk Deming, Will Ermine, Stewart Cross, J. Wesley Putnam, Grant Sinclair, and Peter Field. He also made it big in Hollywood as a film writer for Tom Mix and Buck Jones. “After 1960 he was a major contributor to American’s written record of the West, writing such well-known books as...Great American Cattle Trails” (Lamar, pp. 320-21). $35.00
1701. DRAGO, Harry Sinclair. Outlaws On Horseback: The History of the Organized Bands of Bank and Train Robbers Who Terrorized the Prairie Towns of Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma for Half a Century. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., [1964]. xxxiv [1] 320 pp., photographic plates, map, endpaper illustrations by Lorence F. Bjorklund. 8vo, original crimson morocco stamped in gilt, t.e.g. Very fine in publisher’s glassine d.j. and black board slipcase with printed paper label illustrated by Bjorklund.
First edition, limited edition (#89 of 150 signed copies). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 32). Guns 626: “I am glad to see more and more writers, this author among them, correcting some of the false legends that have been plaguing historians for many years.” Though this book primarily focuses on outlaws engaged in robbing banks and trains, there is a veritable who’s who of western outlaws covered here—Cole Younger, Frank and Jesse James, Belle Star, and others. Many of the outlaws on horseback honed their skills punching cattle before moving to the seemingly greener pasture of outlawry. Drago does not neglect our distaff delinquents, including juicy material on the real father of Belle Starr’s first child and deflating the legend of the Rose of Cimarron. $100.00
1702. DRAGO, Harry Sinclair. Wild, Woolly, and Wicked: The History of the Kansas Cowtowns and the Texas Cattle Trade. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, [1960]. viii [2] 354 pp., endpaper maps. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:114. Guns 629: “This book does much to debunk some of the nonsense written about the Earps.” This is the story of the cattle boom towns, dusty villages that sprung up around the cattle trade—Dodge City, Abilene, Wichita, and others. This book, which was Drago’s first historical work, won the Buffalo Award for best Western book of the year. $40.00
1703. DRAPER, W[illia]m R. Exciting Adventures along the Indian Frontier: A Reporter’s Experiences in the Red Man’s Territory and in the Old Cherokee Strip during the Nineties. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Publications, [1946]. 32 pp. 8vo, original orange printed wrappers. Text less browned than usually found in the pulpy, popular offerings of the Haldeman-Julius publishing factory. Very fine.
First edition. Guns 632. The author recounts his experiences as a reporter in the Cherokee Strip, an area of the Indian Territory that by the treaty of 1866 had been set aside as the communal property of the Five Civilized Tribes. The tribes were bullied or brainwashed into selling the Strip for $1.25 an acre as pressures of settlers and rancher increased. The author and his family participated in the September 16, 1893, land race and settled at Blackwell, where he became a printer’s devil and friends with Osage “cowboy-printer” Red Eagle. The two interviewed Quanah Parker, Geronimo, and other such tribal notables. Draper includes peripheral information on Anglo and tribal stock raising. $35.00
1704. DRESDEN, Donald. The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1970]. xi [1] 282 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. with illustration of the Marquis after an 1886 photograph. Signed by author.
First edition. This book records one of the more exotic episodes in the history of the Western cow business. Dashing French nobleman Antoine Amédée-Marie-Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, the Marquis de Mores (1858-1896), arrived on the American scene with about three million dollars in 1883. Among his far-flung enterprises was a 45,000-acre spread on the Dakota range, complete with a grand château of almost thirty rooms and twenty servants, where he roistered with Teddy Roosevelt and held court over the Badlands social scene with his bride Medora. However, his three trials for the murder of a man who ambushed him were the highlight of his sojourn in the West.
As a cattle baron, the Marquis was a spectacular disaster, and by 1889, he retreated back to his native France, where he got tangled up in the nasty anti-Semitic politics of the Dreyfus era. The feckless French entrepreneur met his death at the hands of anticolonialist Arab murderers in North Africa. This complex man left his mark on both the Dakotas and French politics. $50.00.
1705. DRIGGS, B. W. History of Teton Valley, Idaho. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1926. 227 pp., frontispiece photo of the Tetons, photographic plates. 8vo, original grey gilt-lettered boards. A fine copy, signed by noted Wyoming historian and feminist educator Grace Raymond Hebard, with a few of her notations in pencil, and her printed book label.
First edition. Flake 3010. Guns 635: “Has a chapter on outlawry.” Herd 725: “Scarce.” Smith 2578. This well-illustrated regional history contains information on early ranching in the Valley, biographies of stock raisers, accounts of rustling by Anglos and Native Americans (see especially the chapters “Outlawry” and “Sheep Depredations”), potential of the valley for stock raising, and some unusual fugitive history (e.g., “When Wilson, Pratt, and Driggs decided to locate here, they shipped a half dozen thoroughbred Holstein bulls in, but they did not survive long, as the old settlers and other beef-producing stockmen claimed they interfered with their beef stock, and shot the Holsteins on the range” (p. 155). Excellent social history, with much on area women. $300.00
1706. DRIGGS, B. W. History of Teton Valley, Idaho. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1926. Another copy. Slightly worn at extremities, otherwise fine. $250.00
1707. DRIGGS, Howard R. The Old West Speaks. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall [1956]. 220 pp., 37 color plates from watercolor paintings by William Henry Jackson, photographic illustrations by Jackson and others. Small folio, original brown cloth over tan mottled cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. with Jackson illustration in color.
First edition. Herd 726. In the chapter entitled “Longhorns and Shorthorns” the author discusses the cattle and sheep trade in the American West (Howard Egan’s 1855 drive of 1,500 shorthorn cattle from Utah to the California Gold fields; Antonio José Luna’s 1849 drive of 25,000 sheep from New Mexico to California; Captain James Cook’s brush-popping longhorns with Mexican vaqueros for Slaughter; legendary 1866 Oliver-Loving trail drive; etc.). Among the illustrations is a color plate of W. H. Jackson’s painting of Texas longhorns being driven over the Chisholm Trail. $50.00
1708. DRIGGS, Howard R. The Pony Express Goes Through: An American Saga Told by Its Heroes. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1935. xvi, 208 pp., frontispiece, maps, illustrations by William H. Jackson (some in color), endpaper maps. 8vo, original green cloth gilt. Errata tipped in. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped), with Jackson illustration in color.
First edition. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 3. Paher, Nevada 508: “There are excerpts from newspapers of the day and descriptions of pony riders personally known by the author.” The author includes information on Western showman Buffalo Bill Cody, who was a Pony Express rider in his youth. $50.00
1709. DRIGGS, Howard R. Timpanogos Town: Story of Old Battle Creek and Pleasant Grove, Utah. [Manchester, New Hampshire: The Clarke Press, 1948]. [10] 102 pp., color frontispiece, numerous photographic plates (portraits and vintage photos), folding plan, text illustrations by J. Rulon Hales. Fine in d.j. (rubbed and lightly soiled on back panel).
First edition. Not in Flake. A history of Old Battle Creek and Pleasant Grove, Utah. Though the focus of the book is on the general history of the town and pioneers (including handcart overlanders), ranching and Ute rustling are often in the background. The chapter “Indian Stories” contains an account of “impetuous cowboys” who chase two peaceful Ute (Curly and Blind Pete). The latter was named thus because of being blinded as a result of the cowboys’ attack. $150.00
1710. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: American Pioneer Trails Association, [1942]. [ii] [2, signed limitation leaf] iii-x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece) of Jackson’s watercolor paintings with printed captions on tissue guards. Small folio, original light grey cloth with embossed gilt seal of the American Pioneer Trail Association on upper cover, t.e.g. Pastedowns slightly foxed, else very fine in decorative board slip case. Laid in is Jackson’s colored map: Trails of the Old West.
First edition, “Author’s Autograph Edition,” signed by Howard R. Driggs and William H. Jackson, printed on Strathmore all-rag wove paper (#194 of 500 copies). Campbell, p. 105. Guns 636 (citing the “Trails Edition”). Herd 727 (citing the “Trails Edition”). Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 22: “Brief sketches and stories of places along the Oregon Trail.” Saunders 2869: “Pictorial history of the development of the West including material on the Santa Fe Trail.” Smith 2579.
Presented are outstanding events of Western history from firsthand sources: old trappers’ rendezvous, establishment of trading and army posts along pioneer trails, John Sutter, Gold Rush, handcart companies, Comstock, Pony Express, overland stage, transcontinental telegraph and railroad, cattle trails and cowboys, etc.
One of the color plates is Jackson’s watercolor painting of Texas longhorns being driven over the Chisholm Trail. “Jackson (1843-1942), survey artist, illustrator, important pioneer photographer, [and] author, travelled overland by wagon train to California in 1866.... From 1870-1878 Jackson was the official photographer for the Hayden Survey of Territories, making the first photographs of Yellowstone Park in 1871.... From 1879 to 1894 he was in business as photographer and publisher in Denver, following which he was on assignment for Harper’s photographing around the world.... When he was 93 he painted a series of Western scenes [these paintings are the ones illustrated in the present work] for the Department of the Interior” (Samuels, Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, pp. 248-49). $200.00
1711. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: American Pioneer Trails Association, [1942]. x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece), color folding map laid in. 4to, original olive green cloth gilt, top edges stained orange. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by Driggs and Jackson on half sheet tipped in between half-title and frontispiece. Laid in is Jackson’s colored map Trails of the Old West.
First edition, “Collectors Edition,” with the autographs of Driggs and Jackson. $150.00
1712. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: American Pioneer Trails Association, [1942]. x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece). Another copy of “Collectors Edition,” without Jackson’s map laid in, but with the half sheet bearing autographs of Driggs and Jackson. Very fine in fine d.j. $150.00
1713. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: American Pioneer Trails Association, [1942]. x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece). Another copy of “Collector’s Edition,” without Jackson’s map laid in or the half sheet bearing autographs of Driggs and Jackson. Very fine in slightly chipped d.j. $60.00
1714. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: American Pioneer Trails Association [G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1942]. x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece). 4to, original terracotta cloth gilt, top edges stained dark blue. Fine in d.j. (slightly chipped at extremities). Signed by author and illustrator.
First edition, “Pioneers Edition,” with half sheet bearing autographs of Driggs and Jackson tipped in between half-title and frontispiece. $125.00
1715. DRIGGS, Howard R. Westward America, with Reproductions of Forty Water Color Paintings by William H. Jackson. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1942]. x [2] 312 pp., 40 color plates (including frontispiece). Small folio, original brown cloth, top edges stained orange. Fine in d.j. (lightly chipped at extremities). Folding colored map by Jackson laid in. From the library of scholar Margaret A. Long, signed on front free endpaper and her notes in back. Laid in are Long’s additional typed notes and a review of the book from the New York Herald Tribute citing the book as “the best of all the picture books about the West” and praising Jackson’s paintings as revealing “not only a high degree of artistry but historical fidelity and a feeling for the West that no other watercolorist of our time possesses.”
$75.00
1716. DRIGGS, Howard R. & Sarah S. King. Rise of the Lone Star: A Story of Texas Told by Its Pioneers. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1936. xvii [1] 438 pp., 8 color plates (including frontispiece) and text line drawings by Edwin W. Deming. 8vo, original blue cloth. Light outer wear, mild staining to rear endpapers, otherwise fine. Ownership signature in pencil on front free endpaper.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Deming 39). This volume primarily comprises an account of Anglos who settled Texas, the road to independence, the Republic era, and early statehood, along with individual chapters on unusual Texans, such as captive Buckelew (see Item 686 in Part I of this catalogue). There is a section on cowboys and ranchers (Goodnight, King, et al.). The chapter on Big Foot Wallace relates problems with Apache and other rustlers. The latter section of the book contains good material on Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders”: “It was the proved fighting qualities of Texans that led Theodore Roosevelt at the outset of the Spanish-American War to organize his ‘Rough Riders’ in that State. His call brought together a force of cowboys and rangers and others trained in the wide open spaces of the whole West, but in a large measure they were boys from Texas”—p. 412). Driggs includes a droll story about Roosevelt and a Uvalde cowboy who joined the Rough Riders and extols the generous spirit of the first Texas cowboy he ever met. $35.00
1717. DRIGGS, Howard R. [& Ezra Meeker]. Covered-Wagon Centennial and Ox-Team Days. Oregon Trail Memorial Edition, 29 December 1931 [with]: Ox-Team Days. New York: World Book Company for Oregon Trail Memorial Association, [1931?]. x, 156; [4] 318 pp., frontispiece portrait of Ezra Meeker, text illustrations and photographs by William H. Jackson, and others. 2 works in one vol., 8vo, original black pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, but generally fine.
“Oregon Trail Memorial Edition.” Edited by Arthur W. Procter. Mintz, The Trail 330n (citing second work): “The first printing was in October, 1916.... The book was later reprinted with title variations. This is an account of the author’s trip across the plains in 1906 with an ox team at the age of twenty-two, and of the retracing of the trail in 1906 with an ox team at the age of seventy-six.”
The book includes material on ranches and ranchers along the Oregon Trail. Of all the overland trails, the Oregon Trail remained in use the longest, in its latter years serving as the eastward route to Omaha and Kansas for cattle and sheep drives. At various stops along the historical retracing of the trail in 1931, pageants were held, such as one in North Dakota with a cast of “a thousand characters, scores of horses, seven bands, patrols and chanters, Indians, ranchers, cowboys, and cattle kings, with a caravan of covered wagons.” The Laramie pageant featuring “a rodeo staged by cowboys, and cowgirls added to the thrill.” The many wonderful photos include Oliver Applegate, Ezra Meeker (one shows ninety-something-year-old ox-team pioneer of 1852 in an airplane), and William Henry Jackson (the latter with text describing the pioneer artist-photographer as “a bullwhacker and a vaquero” who traversed the old Western trails). $75.00
1718. DRISCOLL, R. E. Seventy Years of Banking in the Black Hills. [Rapid City, South Dakota: Gate City Guide, 1948]. 87 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait). 8vo, original stiff brown pictorial wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Guns 637. Herd 728: “Chapter on livestock in the Black Hills.” Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 161: “An excellent summary in a field in which not much has been written.” $45.00
1719. DRURY, Clifford Merrill. Elkanah and Mary Walker: Pioneers among the Spokanes. Caldwell: The Caxton Printers, 1940. 283 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original blue gilt-pictorial cloth. Fine in near fine d.j. (a few minor chips, price-clipped).
First edition. Smith 2588. See Tweney, Washington 89. Occasional material documenting the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly on beef, such as Father Eells’ critical description of the pioneer Oregon missionaries’ diet: “The beef neither chewed the cud nor parted the hoof. It was made out of the Indian pony. Cattle were very scarce. The Hudson’s Bay Company owned all in the country, except what the missionaries had brought. Neither love nor money could procure one from the company” (p. 122). $50.00
1720. DRURY, Clifford M[errill]. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the Opening of Old Oregon. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1973. 476 + 435 pp., color frontispieces (portrait of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman after sketches by Paul Kane), full-page text illustrations, maps. 2 vols., 8vo, original blue cloth, spine gilt. Light shelf wear to spines, otherwise a very fine set.
First edition. Northwest Historical Series 10 & 11. Clark & Brunet 68: “Dr. Drury considered this two-volume work his culminating study of the Protestant missionaries in Oregon. In comparison with his Marcus Whitman, M.D. [see next entry] this is a greatly expanded and entirely new work. A product of 40 years of study, Drury wove his extensive knowledge of primary source material into a detailed narrative which is heavily footnoted and documented.” Smith S176.
Included is documentation on the formation of the Willamette Cattle Company, the Hudson’s Bay Company attempt to hold its monopoly on cattle, and the famous 1837 purchase and drive of 800 head of cattle and forty horses from California to the Willamette Valley. “The success of the cattle drive of 1837 opened a new era in Oregon’s history. It made the settlers, as far as cattle were concerned, independent of the Company’s strangle-hold on a basic element in Oregon economy” (p. 283). $150.00
1721. DRURY, Clifford Merrill. Marcus Whitman, M.D., Pioneer and Martyr. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1937. 473 pp., frontispiece, plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original full gilt-pictorial padded navy blue leather, t.e.g. Minor shelf wear, otherwise very fine.
First edition, limited edition (#12 of 15 signed copies in full leather, in an edition of 500). Smith 2590. Tweney, Washington 89 #16: “There have been a number of biographies of Marcus Whitman.... However, the late Dr. Drury spent almost an entire lifetime in the study of the Whitmans, their mission, and their associates. One of Dr. Drury’s better works, and probably among the best of biographies of Dr. Whitman.”
Drury gives information on the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly on cattle, the missionaries’ vicissitudes with their attempt to keep their little herd intact, and how the pioneers were forced to eat “horseflesh” instead of beef for five years. $150.00
1722. DRURY, Clifford Merrill. Marcus Whitman, M.D., Pioneer and Martyr. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1937. 473 pp., frontispiece, plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original gilt-pictorial blue cloth. Ink ownership signature on verso of frontispiece, otherwise fine and bright.
First edition, limited edition (#80 of 500 signed copies). $75.00
1723. DRURY, Clifford Merrill. Marcus Whitman, M.D., Pioneer and Martyr. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1937. 473 pp., frontispiece, plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original gilt-pictorial blue cloth. Fine in chipped d.j.
First trade edition. $40.00
1724. DUBOIS, John Van Deusen. Campaigns in the West 1856-1861: The Journal and Letters of Colonel John Van Deusen DuBois.... Edited by George P. Hammond. Tucson [& San Francisco: Grabhorn Press for] Arizona Pioneers Historical Society, 1949. xii [2] 120 [4] pp., 16 plates of pencil sketches by Joseph Heger, folding map, decorative chapter-titles, margin notes in red. Folio, original red leather over red, brown, and white decorated boards, black leather spine label. Very fine.
First edition, limited edition (#155 of 300 copies, signed by editor). Eberstadt 127:161: “Superlative on-the-spot drawings, including forts and Indian battle scenes.... One of the most beautiful western books ever published [and] one of the more important. DuBois participated in the major campaigns in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah and his journals and letters here are published for the first time. The drawings of artist Heger, made during the course of the campaigns, are of the first order and add much to the value of the book.” Heller & Magee 481. Howes D521. Wallace, Arizona History VI:42.
Dubois provides some interesting details on the types of problems that military expeditions sometimes encountered with the large herds that accompanied their treks. In relating his participation in the Marcy-Loring military expedition sent to Utah by President Buchanan in 1857-1858 to depose Brigham Young, Dubois describes a devastating blizzard high on the Platte-Arkansas divide, at Black Squirrel Creek. The 250-foot corral constructed of tree trunks and brush to hold the large herd disintegrated in the devastating winds: “All our stock had stampeded. Nothing was left in camp.... All day it snowed.... We could not sleep it was so cold. We drank four quarts of liquor during the day when we were in the snow without feeling any effect.” The expedition lost 350 sheep, forty mules, twelve cattle, and ten horses (to say nothing of the two Mexican vaqueros frozen to death). Of the stampeded livestock, 260 mules and sixty-three cattle were later found and returned by the herders.
The expedition remained in camp for two days to recuperate the remaining 1,200 animals, then took the muddy trail north. The expedition made a short side trip to Rayado in northern New Mexico where rancher Lucien Maxwell followed the tradition of magnanimous ranch hospitality, inviting the men to a series of parties called bailes. “Women were plenty & quite pretty,” wrote Dubois. “We had a gay enough time in spite of ten inches of snow which fell yesterday.” The final baile ended with a typical ranch feast of ox ribs and tortillas. The dinner lasted until 3 o’clock in the morning. Six hours later Dubois and his companions were back in the saddle and en route to Fort Bridger. $550.00
1725. DUFF, Katharyn. Abilene on Catclaw Creek: A Profile of a West Texas Town. [Abilene]: The Reporter Publishing Company, 1970. xi [1] 298 pp., photographic plates (including Pine Street in the 1880s “when cowboys were still shooting up the town”). 8vo, original light brown pictorial cloth. Fore-edges and endpapers foxed, otherwise fine in d.j.
First edition, second printing. A history of Abilene, encompassing its beginnings as a waypoint on the Texas and Pacific railroad and its role as a cattle town in the heart of the open-range longhorn country. Among the early regional ranchers and ranches covered are Clabe and John Merchant of Callahan with brand “74”; J. C. McCord of Coleman County; J. W. Carter and Dock Grounds Y-Y Ranch and Dunn-Gholson of Shackelford County (by 1874); John Simpson and the Hashknife outfit of Cedar Creek; and many more. $30.00
1726. DUFFUS, Robert Luther. The Santa Fe Trail. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1930. ix [3] 283 pp., frontispiece plate (from Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies), plates, maps, illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original navy decorative cloth gilt. Very fine, bright copy in very fine d.j. (scarce in d.j.). Signed by author. Bookplate.
First edition. Campbell, p. 192. Dobie, pp. 75-76, 78: “Best book of this century on the subject.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 12 (“Western Movement—Its Literature”). Flake 3027. Rittenhouse 177: “A standard work about the SFT.... It was the first such major work to follow that of Inman (1897) and is still used widely.” Saunders 2871. Tate, Indians of Texas 2216n.
The primary focus is the pioneer era of the Santa Fe Trail, when cattle interest was for the most part limited to the teams hauling the wagons across the prairies and the lone dairy cow trudging stoically behind. However, the author includes material on Lucien Maxwell’s 1,700,000-acre lordly ranch and Maxwell and Kit Carson’s 1853 sheep drive (over 10,000 head) from New Mexico to California to supply the California gold mines. The final chapters include information and some statistics on the trail drives and the range cattle industry that transformed the region. $100.00
1727. DUFFUS, Robert Luther. The Santa Fe Trail. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1930. Another copy. Light shelf wear and a few mild stains to cover, Otherwise fine and bright. Historian Margaret Long’s copy, with her notes in the book and research papers laid in. $50.00
1728. DUFFUS, Robert Luther. The Santa Fe Trail. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1930. Another copy. Slight shelf wear, generally fine and bright, d.j. not present. $40.00
1729. DUKE, Cordia Sloan & Joe B. Frantz. 6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1961]. xxii [4] 231 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of R. L. “Bob” Duke), photographic plates (some by E. J. Cameron), maps. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. The M. K. Brown Range Life Series 1. Basic Texas Books 82n: “An old cowhand told Haley that his book viewed the XIT through the eyes of its owners, and that Lewis Nordyke’s Cattle Empire (NY: Morrow, 1949) viewed it through the eyes of the managers and foremen. This left the story from the viewpoint of the cowhand still to be told. This gap has been amply filled by [the present work] which combines the recollections of some 80 XIT cowhands in order ‘to let the cowboy tell the story of his workaday world as he saw it, stripped of the false heroics.’” CBC 121 and 7 additional entries. King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 15: “Personal accounts of life on the XIT Ranch include a few women’s experiences.” Winegarten I, p. 109.
Cordia Duke was the wife of the last XIT general manager to run cattle, and she provides good coverage of the XIT women and social history. The “E. J. Cameron” to whom some of the Montana photographs are attributed is undoubtedly the noted pioneer woman photographer Evelyn Jephson Cameron (b. England 1868-d. Montana, 1915), whose photographs and diaries provide one of the most detailed records extant of life on the Great Plains. $50.00
1730. DUKE, Cordia Sloan & Joe B. Frantz. 6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1961]. xxii [4] 231 pp., frontispiece portrait of R. L. “Bob” Duke, photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by authors, with University of Texas Press catalogue of Western Americana title list (with illustrated wrappers by Tom Lea) laid in.
Second printing. $40.00
1731. DUKE, Cordia Sloan & Joe B. Frantz. 6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1961]. Another copy. Fine in d.j., with presentation inscription by Frantz on front free endpaper. $30.00
1732. DUKE, Cordia Sloan & Joe B. Frantz. Printed broadside with quotation from the authors’ 6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas, with illustration by H. D. Bugbee. [Austin]: N. Furqueron at the Press of W. Thomas Taylor for the Book Club of Texas, 1994. 43 x 28 cm. Very fine.
First printing, limited (425 copies). Designed by N. Furqueron as the annual broadside of the Book Club of Texas. $35.00
1733. DUMKE, Glenn S. The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California. San Marino: [Ward Ritchie Press at Los Angeles for] Huntington Library, 1944. xi [1] 313 pp., frontispiece portraits, photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original half light green cloth over beige boards. Fine in near fine d.j.
First edition. Huntington Library Publications. Mohr, The Range Country 666. Powell, Land of Fact...Southern California 10: “There is no madder decade in the history of Southern California.... For nearly half a century Dumke’s book has remained unchallenged as the classic interpretation of the 1887 Southern California land boom.” Rocq 16241.
In some ways, this is the opposite of the typical cattle country book. While many books trace the rise of the cattle culture, herein lies the tale of the passing of the California rancho to vineyards, citrus groves, and megalopolis sprawl. “Despite successful establishment of settlements at El Monte, San Bernardino, and Anaheim, southern California made little appeal to prospective colonists until drought and bankruptcy, completing the ruin of the cattle industry, brought about the subdivision of many of the large ranchos.... By 1872 Southern California’s transition from Mexican cattle frontier to American commonwealth was almost completed” (pp. 8-9). $40.00
1734. DUNCAN, Bob. Buffalo Country. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1959. 256 pp., text illustrations by author. 8vo, original half terracotta cloth over beige decorative boards. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Before the Indo-European domesticated cow became one of the enduring symbols of the American West, the plains were dominated by buffalo. The story of that shaggy creature is told here, from first contact with Spanish explorers to the final days of the mass slaughter. Includes a final chapter on breeding buffalo with cattle—cattalo. $25.00
1735. DUNCAN, C. A. Memories of Early Days in the Cache la Poudre Valley. Timnath, Colorado: The Columbine Club of Timnath, [1925]. 57 pp., one photographic illustration. 16mo, original green and brown mottled cloth, silver lettering on upper cover. Fine. Scarce.
First edition. Wynar 337. The author’s family history in Colorado includes an account of the first settlers in Timnath and Windsor, early development of the area (including early cattle enterprises and ranchers); outlaws like cattle trader Tom Burris who had a sideline of stealing horses; “Some Horse Stories,” etc.
In the account of the first school in the Fort Collins region (1868), the author comments: “The school house stood out on the open range and often range cattle would be in the vicinity. It was dangerous for anyone to go near them on foot as the cattle were very likely to attack them. Children who came to school on foot were obliged to wait at the school if range cattle were around until someone came for them on horseback or drove the cattle away. One day my sister wore a red dress to school and when the closing time came she thought there were no range cattle among the milk cows which were nearby and started home. She had only gone a short distance when one of the cows charged towards her. She ran back to the school and got to the door just in time to escape the cow’s horns. The teacher had to take off his coat and put it on her to cover the dress before it was safe to take her the half mile to her home.” $150.00
1736. DUNHAM, Dick & Vivian Dunham. Our Strip of Land: A History of Daggett County, Utah. N.p., n.d. (ca. 1947). vi, 102 pp. 8vo, original stiff yellow printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
First edition. Guns 648: “History of Brown’s Hole with a great deal of material on the outlaws of that section and the activities of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch and others. Also tells about some of the exploits of Tom Horn.”
This rambling and often rambunctious account of early life in northeast Utah contains good information on local ranches and ranchers. Chapter X (“Robin Hood in Brown’s Park” [Butch Cassidy]) describes the transition in the 1890s from semi-nomadic ranching to the more settled state of ranching-farming and the resulting conflicts between small ranchers, rustlers, big cattle outfits, and the sheep ranchers. Butch got his start stealing horses and rustling cattle, but “he never stole from the outfit he was working for, and to hire him was a cheap form of insurance” (p. 56). Modern ranching and rodeo are well covered, too. $35.00
1737. DUNHAM, Dick & Vivian Dunham. Our Strip of Land: A History of Daggett County, Utah. [Manila, Utah: Daggett County Lions Club, 1947]. vi, 102 pp. 8vo, original stiff yellow printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
First edition, second printing. $25.00
1738. DUNHAM, N. J. A History of Jerauld County, South Dakota, from the Earliest Settlement to January 1st, 1909. Wessington Springs, South Dakota, 1910. 441 [1] [9, index] pp., frontispiece, photographic text illustrations (many full-page). 8vo, original brown cloth. Light shelf wear and a few spots to covers, otherwise fine.
First edition. This dense chronicle of South Dakota local history contains much social history and incidental information on various ranching outfits in the region: Parkhurst Ranch, Martin Ranch, pioneer cattlemen L. A. Pinard, Frank and Will Eagle (photograph accompanies text), and others; 1898 influx of large steers for grazing on the Alpena range; 1905 dipping and quarantine program to stamp out an unnamed cattle disease; introduction of barbed wire (fourteen head of cattle killed by lightning at one stroke as they walked along a wire fence during a storm); and more.
Dunham remarks: “When the author started out to gather the material for this history, he began to learn to ride a bicycle” (pp. 349 et seq.). He tells of his cycling adventures, including how a bridge washed out and he was forced to lift his bicycle over the fence into Eagle Ranch pasture: “I...had to spend considerable time in repeatedly driving off the herd of cattle in the pasture. The wheel so aroused their curiosity and they seemed determined to examine it too closely. It was in that same pasture that Peter Wieland had trouble, in 1885, with a large bunch of curious cattle...” (p. 365). $150.00
1739. DUNIWAY, Abigail Scott. From the West to the West: Across the Plains to Oregon. Chicago: McClurg, 1905. 311 [6, ads] pp., colored frontispiece. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Some staining, but generally very good. Author’s signed presentation copy.
First edition. Smith 2639. See Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1161 & Plains & Rockies IV:323 for more on the author. A composite of “memory and imagination,” this overland-ranching-feminist novel is based on the author’s own arduous 2,500-mile overland in a train of covered wagons to Pacific Northwest in 1852. The latter chapters are set on the idyllic Ranch of the Whispering Firs in the Oregon country. One of the main characters is a strong-willed woman physician.
Duniway (1834-1915), Oregon pioneer, newspaper editor, and suffrage leader, was perhaps the most politically significant woman of her time in the Pacific Northwest. She became vitally interested in women’s property rights and woman suffrage, established the Oregon Equal Rights Society in 1870, and in 1871 managed Susan B. Anthony’s first lecture tour in the West. In 1887 she relocated to Southern Idaho where her family ran a livestock operation. When the suffrage amendment finally passed in Oregon in 1912, Duniway wrote the suffrage proclamation and became Oregon’s first registered woman voter. See Notable American Women (I, pp. 531-33) and Myres, Westering Women and the Frontier Experience (pp. 225-30). $100.00
1740. DUNLOP, Richard. Great Trails of the West. Nashville & New York: Abingdon Press, [1971]. 320 pp., numerous text illustrations (mostly photographic), maps, endpaper maps. Large 8vo, original cream linen. Fine in near fine d.j.
First edition. Smith S182. Includes chapters on the trails that cattle drives used (Chisholm, Oregon Trail, Applegate Road, Mullan Road, etc.). $15.00
1741. DUNN, J. B. (Red) John. The Perilous Trails of Texas. Dallas: Published for the Author by the Southwest Press, [1932]. ix [1] 163 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates. 8vo, original green cloth lettered in red. Some light discoloration to binding, occasional foxing or browning (particularly adjacent to plates), overall very good, mostly unopened, in the scarce pictorial d.j.
First edition. CBC 3545. Dykes, Western High Spots, p.118 (“Ranger Reading”). Guns 650: “Scarce.... Deals with lawlessness on the Mexican border.” Herd 732. Howes D578. Rader 1241. Dunn (1851-1940) gives a spirited account of driving cattle from Williamson County to Kansas, working in the packing houses at Rockport during the Civil War, serving in the Texas Rangers with Chamberlain (1870) and Wallace (1874), and the violent Mexican Raid of 1875. The author includes information on King and Kenedy and a list of cattle trails. $250.00
1742. DUNN, J[acob] P[iatt], Jr. Massacres of the Mountains: A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West.... New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886. [x] 784 pp., numerous engraved text illustrations (many full-page, including Texas Rangers at the Battle of Glorieta, others from photographs, including D. F. Barry’s portrait of Sitting Bull), maps and plans (including engraved foldout map with reservations colored in pink: Map of the Indian Reservations within the United States 1884, 18.4 x 28 cm). Thick 8vo, original olive green pictorial cloth stamped in red, gold, and black. Light wear, generally fine. Seldom found in collector’s condition.
First edition. Flake 3046. Graff 1181. Howes D575: “Best single volume covering the subject.” Larned 3403: “Compiled from the best sources, including many official records.” Luther, High Spots of Custer 125. McCracken, 101, p. 26: “Covers most of the major confrontations in the Indian Wars including Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Little Big Horn and the Nez Percés campaign.” Munk (Alliot), p. 69. Rader 1239. Saunders 2872. Smith 2648. Wallace, Arizona History XIV:2n. “Impressive...a valued standard in its field ever since its initial publication. Its remarkable accuracy, thoroughness of coverage, scope and the sound judgment displayed have enabled it to retain its place as a cornerstone in the history of Indian-white conflicts ever since its original appearance” (Thrapp IV, p. 152).
Dunn’s meticulous research and his attempt to separate historical fact from sensational fiction shed light on the “Indian Wars” in a manner seldom encountered in nineteenth-century literature on the subject. Dunn’s book relates to ranching history because the underlying cause of many of these violent encounters was Anglo acquisitiveness for Native American pastures and minerals, both before and after reservations were established. The book also contains documentation on Native American stock raising. Finally, we find in Dunn’s thoughtful work a rich variety of rustlers and rustling (frequently the trigger for Anglo military action).
Here is an example of the author’s discussion on matters related to ranching and cattle issues: “At Nome Cult [California in 1858] over 150 Indians were cruelly murdered by the whites, who had been allowed to settle on their reservation. No charge of aggression, except cattle-stealing, was given as an excuse, and this proved, on investigation, to be false. The real cause was that the Indians drove away from the reservation the cattle of the settlers, which had been roaming the reservation and consuming the acorns, on which the Indians depended.... Armed parties went to the rancherias in the open day and shot down the wretched ‘Diggers,’ without regard to age or sex” (p. 138).
Another example comes from Chief Joseph of the Nez Percés: “`They stole a great many horses from us, and we could not get them back because we were Indians. The white men told lies for each other. They drove off a great many of our cattle. Some white men branded our young cattle so they could claim them.... On the reservation, twenty acres of land, and no more were allotted to each head of a family, out of which he was to make his living. Stock-raising on twenty acres is necessarily a limited business’” (pp. 636-42). $300.00
1743. DUNNING, Harold Marion. Over Hill and Vale: In the Evening Shadows of Colorado’s Longs Peak. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, [1956-1962]. [8] 605 + [14] 406 pp., numerous text illustrations (mostly photographic, some full-page). 2 vols. (of 3), 8vo, original blue cloth. Fine in near fine jackets. Vol. I signed by author.
First edition. A third volume was published in 1971, but each volume is considered complete in itself. See Wynar 1151. Dunning’s work was favorably reviewed by LeRoy Hafen: “This fine book is more or less a history of the northern Colorado region near Loveland, Estes Park, and Fort Collins, with a vast amount of material concerning its people—past and present.... This work came from the many articles [Dunning] wrote for the Weekly Roundup paper under the title ‘Over Hill & Vale.’”
The first volume includes a section on “Rocky Mountain Jim” (James Nugent), Griff Evans, and the Dunraven Ranch (including photos). Nugent and Evans were prominently featured in Isabella’s Bird’s book, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (see item 415 in Part I of this Catalogue). At pp. 205-224 is a review of Isabella Bird’s book, with local history filling in some details not found in the printed book. Between the grasshoppers, blizzards, “fish that walk,” and a myriad of pioneers, much on ranching is found: biographies and photos of old-time cattlemen such as Joel Estes (discovered Estes Park); Louis Papa;, Frank C. Miller (top hand in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show), etc. Dunning includes excellent material on mountaineering, such as his own “Hints for Climbing Longs”; he climbed Longs Peak sixty times and explored most all of the other mountains in the region.
The second volume has good coverage of various incidents and people related to the cattle trade: how Lord Dunraven came to start his ranch; a chapter on the Delatour Ranch; Crown Creek Ranch (owned by Lady Maude Whyte, daughter of Dunraven); more on pioneer cattleman Louis Papa; etc. For mountaineering enthusiasts, Dunning continues coverage of the subject, including several ascents and details of a marriage ceremony on Long’s Peak. $150.00
1744. DUNNING, Harold Marion. Over Hill and Vale Vol. I.... Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, [1956]. Another copy of Vol. I, variant binding and on thinner paper. 8vo, original maroon cloth. Very fine in near fine d.j. (price-clipped). $75.00
1745. DURATSCHEK, Sister Mary Claudia. Crusading along Sioux Trails, a History of the Catholic Indian Missions of South Dakota. [Yankton, South Dakota: Benedictine of the Sacred Heart, 1947]. xiii [1] 334 pp., portraits, text illustrations (mostly vintage and documentary photographs, some full-page), maps, decorated endpapers. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition. In the chapter on Holy Rosary Mission, the author explains how a hunting tribe became stock raisers. Red Cloud (photos) objected to the 1865 act authorizing the Laramie-Bozeman Trail to furnish a direct route from the Central States to the gold mines in Idaho and Montana. Red Cloud protested that the Trail passed through the only remaining buffalo range of the Sioux. In 1876 under duress the Black Hills Treaty was signed, and the Pine Ridge Reservation was established (1878). “Majestic as the scenery was, it had no practical value for the Indians.... As for wresting a living from the fantastically weird country, that was impossible. Here and there the grass on patches of table land and in the wide gullies furnished grazing for Indian ponies and, later on, for the cattle.... Because 7,000 natives would have to depend largely upon grazing for a livelihood, the original size of Pine Ridge Reservation was quite extensive, [but] subsequent treaties have reduced it.” Contains details on tribal use of peyote (photograph of ceremony). $50.00
1746. DURHAM, George. Taming the Nueces Strip: The Story of McNelly’s Rangers...As Told to Clyde Wantland. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1962]. xx, 178 pp., photographic plates, text illustrations, map. 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Foreword by Walter Prescott Webb. Adams, Burs I:117. Basic Texas Books 49: “One of the few accounts of the McNelly Rangers, told by a member of the force [covering] his service in 1875-1876.” Guns 652: “Gives one of the best accounts of the life and work of McNelly and his Rangers and corrects some of the errors made by N. A. Jennings.”
McNelly’s Rangers, part of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers, spent time fighting Native Americans, trying to recover King Ranch stolen stock, and chasing Anglo outlaws and rustlers and Juan Nepomuceno Cortinas (1824-1894). The author tells how Cortinas initially licensed many of the cattle rustlers who roamed the Nueces Strip. After the Mexican-American War, Mexican rancher Cortinas, one time governor of Tamaulipas, was considered a rogue rustler and murderer by the Rangers and stockmen of the Nueces Strip; or, alternatively, a Robin Hood by disenfranchised borderlanders of Mexican descent.
Webb describes Captain McNelly as a frail tubercular man—“a natural partisan fighter if ever there was one” and “equipped with an iron will and totally unacquainted with fear.” Author Durham was the youngest Ranger in McNelly’s band, and later spent many years working for the King Ranch. $100.00
1747. DUSENBERRY, William H. The Mexican Mesta: The Administration of Ranching in Colonial Mexico. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963. ix [3] 253 pp., brands. 8vo, original yellow and orange cloth. Fine in lightly worn d.j. Author’s signed presentation copy.
First edition. Griffin 2364: “Administrative history of the stockmen’s association from its establishment in 1529 to the end of the colonial period. Relation to slaughtering and meat supply, viceregal interests, hacienda, and subsequent institutions. Appendices give the Mesta ordinances of 1537 and brands of the early stockmen.” From the introduction: “The Mexican Mesta was the first stockmen’s association in the New World. Despite this fact, no adequate study of it has been made.” The descendants of the livestock from the sixteenth-century stockmen of Mexico and their methods are the legacy of today’s ranches in the Southwest and the Transmississippi West. $50.00
1748. DUVAL, John C. Early Times in Texas [continuation with caption title: The Young Explorers; or, Continuation of the Adventures of Jack Dobell]. Austin: H. P. N. Gammel, 1892. 135 [1] 1-253 pp. 12mo, original green cloth gilt, gilt-lettered on upper cover and spine. Paper browned (“printed on the cheapest possible paper”—Basic Texas Books), a few minor spots to binding, otherwise very fine and bright.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 51: “The most literate of all 19th century Texas memoirs. Unlike the author’s other writings, it is authentic history, with only a little exaggeration thrown in here and there.” Dobie, p. 55: “A Texas classic. Of all personal adventures of old-time Texas it is perhaps the best written and the most interesting.” Graff 1188n. Howes D603. Rader 1248. Raines, p. 74. Tate, Indians of Texas 2365: “Numerous confrontations with Texas Indians (especially the feared Comanches), as told in an engaging but not always accurate manner.”
We include this work because of material in The Young Explorers; or, Continuation of the Adventures of Jack Dobell: Cayote Ranch sequence (chapters 2 and 3) on early Texas ranch hospitality; encountering “a vast drove of mustangs; hunting wild cattle (one of Dobie’s sources for The Longhorns); “Where the Wild Cattle Originally Came From”; equestrian match between Texas Rangers, Comanches, and rancheros (details on riding styles and equipage). $350.00
1749. DUVALL, Laura S. Colorado in Verse and Picture, 1916-1928. [Denver: Welch-Haffner Printing Co., 1928]. 206 pp., numerous photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Wilcox, p. 42. Among the poems is one entitled “The Rodeo.” The author records in verse her auto journeys through Colorado in the 1920s. The most interesting feature of the book may be the excellent documentary photos, including several of the author in her car or wearing her long duster while standing in majestic scenery. The poems include “Pikes Peak Auto Drive,” “The Highest Highway in the World,” “Auto Trip West of the Pikes Peak,” “Auto Trip to Pikes Peak,” “The Broadmoor-Cheyenne Mountain Highway,” “The Moffat Road,” “A Scenic Circle Trip of Colorado,” and more. $50.00
1750. DYAL, Donald H. (ed.). A Vanished Landscape. College Station: Friends of the Sterling C. Evans Library, 1986. [12] pp., text illustrations. Oblong 12mo, original tan pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
First printing. Friends of the Sterling C. Evans Library Keepsake 15. Ernest R. Duke’s “Autobiography of an Old Rod Sod Plow” relates to the JA Ranch (owned by John Adair and Charles Goodnight). Duke recalls watching the filming of an authentic Indian buffalo hunt on the ranch in 1916. $15.00
1751. DYER, John L. The Snow-Shoe Itinerant: An Autobiography of the Rev. John L. Dyer, Familiarly known as “Father Dyer,” of the Colorado Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church.... Cincinnati: Published for the Author by Cranston & Stowe, 1890. 362 pp., plates (photographic and after drawings by Mrs. Helen H. Chain), text illustrations. 12mo, original brown cloth, spine gilt. Front hinge slightly loose, otherwise fine and bright, exceptionally clean. Contemporary ink ownership signature on preliminary leaf and one inner leaf.
First edition. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 149. Graff 1193: “The author’s experiences in the Rocky Mountains were fascinating.” Howes D622. Wilcox, p. 42: “One of the best known, and last of the circuit riders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” Wynar 9078.
Reverend Dyer gives an eye-witness account of the harsh but scenic paradise of Colorado during the 1860s and 1870s, with much on skiing and mountaineering. The author was an unpretentious minister to a motley flock scattered through a large area of this sparsely settled mountainous region. He sometimes encountered outlaws and relates some scenes of mob violence.
In a section entitled “The Cattle Baron,” Dyer tells how he bought eight cattle after his first year in Colorado. “But it was known that Brother Dyer had some cattle. Soon I heard that he owned a herd of cattle, and I found that if a preacher in our Church had anything ahead...it was used to excuse the people for not paying his salary.” Among the ranches visited by the author during his extensive wanderings through the Rocky Mountains was the 1.7 million-acre baronial spread owned by Lucien Maxwell (Thrapp II, p. 961), where the author conducted “the first Protestant service ever held on the now famous Maxwell Land Grant.” $250.00
1752. DYKE, Charles L. The Story of Sioux County. Orange City, Iowa: Charles L. Dyke, 1942. xvi, 567 [1] [64, section of photographic portraits] [8, index] pp., photographic plates, map. Thick 8vo, original blue cloth. Fine.
First edition. Dense local history, including sections on “Cattle Herds” and “Cattle Rustlers.” Good social history with many documentary photographs. $35.00
1753. DYKES, J. C. Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1952. 186 pp., frontispiece plate by Charles Russell (Billy the Kid Kills Bill Morton and Frank Baker to Avenge the Death of J. H. Tunstall, i.e., the Kid Shoots Down Two Prisoners in Cold Blood). 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Slight age-toning to margins of wraps and fragile wraps a trifle worn, generally fine.
First edition, limited edition (500 copies, of which 470 were bound in wrappers). University of New Mexico Publications in Language and Literature 7. Campbell, p. 69: “It is far more than a bibliography. The author’s annotations present a case history of William H. Bonney. The 437 items range in time from 1881 to the present, and include not only printed material, both fact and fiction, but also records, folk songs, radio scripts, films, verse, unpublished plays, and even advertisements.” Dobie, pp. 139-40. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #76n: “Useful guide to the Lincoln County War.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 1 (“Introduction—My Sport”). Guns 655: “Each entry contains much information on the content of the book listed, and the author points out many false and inaccurate statements made by the various authors.” Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:94. $150.00
1754. DYKES, Jeff C. Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1952. 186 pp., frontispiece by Charles Russell. 8vo, original red pictorial cloth. Upper corner bumped, otherwise very fine. Laid in is a photographic reproduction of The Kid from a tintype (1881). Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his book plate.
First edition, second printing, with corrections. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:94. Thrapp IV, pp. 152-53: “Jefferson Chenworth Dykes (1900-1989), writer, bibliographer, born at Dallas, Texas...graduated from Texas A & M in 1921.... Meanwhile he had become a book collector, eventually accumulating some 16,000 volumes; book appraiser (he appraised the J. Frank Dobie collection for the University of Texas); book reviewer and bibliographer. He wrote Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend (1952), which Ramon Adams judged...`the first complete list of materials on this young outlaw...’ Dykes was working on a revised edition at his death.” Jeff was also one of the great bookdealers, especially for Cow Country books. $125.00
1755. DYKES, Jeff C. Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1952. 8vo, original red pictorial cloth. Very fine. Another copy. $100.00
1756. DYKES, Jeff C. Fifty Great Western Illustrators: A Bibliographic Checklist. [Flagstaff]: Northland Press, [1975]. xiv, 457 [1] pp., numerous text illustrations (many full-page). 4to, original blue pictorial cloth stamped in silver. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in lightly chipped d.j. From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition. See Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 49 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #200). A massive and essential bibliographical tool, listing appearances in print of Dykes’ favorite Western artists, marred only by the lack of an index. Artists include Lorence F. Bjorklund, Edward Borein, José Cisneros, Maynard Dixon, W. Herbert Dunton, Will James, Tom Lea, Alfred Jacob Miller, Frederic Remington, Ross Santee, E. Boyd Smith, N. C. Wyeth, and many others. $100.00
1757. DYKES, Jeff C. Law on a Wild Frontier: Four Sheriffs of Lincoln County. Washington: Potomac Corral of the Westerners, 1969. iv, 25 [2] pp., text illustrations (photographic portraits, Russell, Remington), map. 8vo, original yellow pictorial boards with Russell buffalo head. Fine. Author’s signed presentation copy to Dudley R. Dobie: “Our printer took off for Christmas a mite early and his press boy didn’t bother with proofs—so this is sorter a hand corrected!” With Jeff’s ink corrections in text.
First edition, limited edition (#193 of 250 copies, signed by author). The Great Western Series 5. Dykes explores the lives of four sheriffs of Lincoln County: William Brady, Pat Garrett, John Poe, and George Curry. Though the book is ostensibly about these men, the overarching theme is Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. $80.00
1758. DYKES, Jeff C. Law on a Wild Frontier: Four Sheriffs of Lincoln County. Washington: Potomac Corral of the Westerners, 1969. iv, 25 [2] pp., text illustrations (photographic portraits, Russell, Remington), map. 8vo, original yellow pictorial wrappers. Fine, signed by author.
First trade edition. $25.00
Dykes Tells How to Collect Range Books
1759. DYKES, Jeff C. Western High Spots: Reading and Collecting Guides. N.p.: Northland Press, [1977]. xiii [3] 192 pp., text illustrations by Bugbee, Elwell and Rawsom plus some photographic illustrations (some full-page). 8vo, original blue cloth. Fine in lightly worn d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate.
First edition. This work is a compiled collection of Dykes’ best articles on collecting and books, including: “Western Movement—Its Literature,” “My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West,” “Remington Rarities,” “Russell Rarities,” “Dobie Rarities,” etc.
From the chapter entitled “A Range Man’s Library”: “There should be a balance in a range man’s library. There should be books about range country, biographies and autobiographies of cowboys and cowmen, histories of their associations, accounts of the trails and trail drivers, ranch histories, studies of the range wars, books about cows, sheep and range horses, and the literature of the range including the novels, ballads and art. These are books that a range man should read and reread for pleasure and for an understanding and essential background of his profession.” $75.00
1760. DYKSTRA, Robert R. The Cattle Towns. New York: Knopf, 1968. [12] 386, x [2] pp., photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs II:60. Guns 656: “The author treats the Kansas cowtowns from a different angle.... He concentrates on their growth, economic condition, and decline rather than upon the lawlessness so often emphasized.” Reese, Six Score 35: “A social history of the Kansas cattle towns written almost entirely from primary sources. Few books have dealt seriously with the realities of life in the cattle trading centers of Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, and Dodge City, and none as well or as completely as this.” $50.00
1761. EAGLETON, N. Ethie. On the Last Frontier: A History of Upton County, Texas. El Paso: Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso, 1971. xi [3] 125 [2] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. This book was designed by Haywood Antone, Hertzog’s successor at the Press, and Hertzog’s strong influence is evident. County and local histories run the gamut of relevance to ranching history from marginal (such as scattered biographies of ranchers) to central and significant. The present county history is central to ranching history in Texas. Over half the book relates to ranching, and a good deal of the remainder segues into the era of oil and gas production, with the gushing forth of McCamey’s legendary wildcat well in 1926.
Upton County (established 1887) in southwestern Texas was part of the open range until the 1890s, when sheep men crossed the Pecos River to compete with cattlemen for the range. The author notes: “The population of Upton County in 1900 numbered forty-eight, mostly cowboys and ranch hands” (p. 11). In the 1880s Dr. G. W. Elliott dug the first well in the County, built the first house, and placed a thousand head of Stocker cattle on the range (the good doctor also patented a saddlebag for rural physicians). In the 1890s cattleman Henry Mayer Halff, a pioneer in irrigation and breeding, operated on the open range and had holdings in Upton County. The Halff operation included the Quien Sabe Ranch & Stock Company, the JM Ranch, and the Circle Dot outfit (see Handbook of Texas Online: Henry Mayer Halff and Quien Sabe Ranch).
This book is excellent for women’s history, relating that Mrs. Rachel Hart Halff accompanied her husband up the trail many times. Also, we learn that among the earliest settlers in the 1880s were three families who formed a caravan, with three men riding herd on more than seven hundred cattle while the three women drove the wagons. $75.00
1762. EARLE, J. P. History of Clay County and Northwest Texas. Austin: The Brick Row Book Shop, 1963. [6] 64 [3] pp., plates and text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original pale green printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Fine.
Limited edition (300 copies); facsimile of the rare first edition (Henrietta, Texas, 1897). CBC 953n. Guns 658n. Herd 737n. Howes E7n. Vandale 56n. Clay County (established 1857) is ranching country through and through. Cattle are a constant element of the background in this history, which also has information on Cynthia Ann Parker and Frank and Jesse James.
Col. H. A. Whaley (1826-1898), the first permanent settler, arrived in Clay County in 1869, and being the only Anglo in the region, he was surrounded by hostile Apache and Comanche (includes material on Ranald Mackenzie’s campaigns). “Most every light of the moon the Indians would make raids, kill and scalp a few settlers and drive off a quantity of stock” (p. 4). Whaley constructed a stockade and hired about a dozen men to help him tend the livestock, cultivate crops, and provide protection against hostiles who frequented the area. Whaley’s principal buyer was the recently established Fort Sill in Indian Territory. The author gives accounts of early stockmen: Babe Cobb, Jimmie Roberts, Allen Parmer (married to James’ brothers sister), John S. Babb (includes Comanche captivity of Mrs. Babb, Bianca Babb, and Sarah Luster), et al. $50.00
1763. EASTON, Robert & Mackenzie Brown. Lord of Beasts: The Saga of Buffalo Jones. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, [1961]. xiii [3] 287 [1] pp., text illustrations by Mac Schweitzer. 8vo, original beige decorative cloth. Very fine in lightly worn and price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Foreword by Jack Schaefer. This work is a biography of Charles Jesse “Buffalo” Jones (1844-1919), a larger-than-life buffalo butcher-cum-conservationist, adventurer, big game hunter, town-founder, and Yellowstone game warden. Jones slaughtered thousands of buffalo in the core buffalo-hunting period, but later became a staunch conservationist. In the 1880s, Jones established a “cattalo ranch” (hybrid buffalo-cattle) on the Arkansas River and worked to increase his herd and experiment with breeding.
Jones made a run in the Cherokee Strip in 1899 and was the first non-Sooner to reach Perry. He tells a great story about a female Sooner: “[She and two men] sneaked in right before the gun, came dashing up out of a ravine.... Having fresh horses they had advantage of all others. The lady rode a jet-black charger, and was one of the most reckless horsewomen I ever saw, and would have done credit to the ‘Rough Riders.’ I whipped my horses severely, but could not pass her. It was humiliating to go into Perry with a lady leading” (p. 81). $35.00
1764. EATON, Frank. Pistol Pete: Veteran of the Old West. Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. x, 278 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original green cloth. Occasional slight foxing, else fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 71. Guns 659: “The writer tells of having a horse race with Belle Starr and losing his Winchester to her.” Herd 738: “One of the wildest tales on record of a man’s experiences in the cattle country.” Eaton (1860-1958) began riding the range in Indian Territory when fifteen years old and at age seventeen shot his first rustler (who happened to have murdered Eaton’s father several years before). Eaton rode for Hanging Judge Parker; worked for the Owens Cattle Company, Charles Goodnight, the Texas Panhandle Stock Association, and other cattlemen’s associations; trailed herds from Texas to Kansas in the 1880s; met Quanah Parker, Charlie Siringo, Belle Starr, Pat Garrett, Jesse James, and many other notables.
One of the interesting aspects of this work is Eaton’s good coverage of Native American ranchers and cowboys in Indian Territory (Captain Sixkiller, Charlie Journeycake, Osage Brown, et al.). Eaton tells how his good pal Rolla Goodnight (Charles Goodnight’s son) was warned by his father that he was too reckless and would die with his boots on. According to Eaton, Rolla always removed his boots when danger arose, hoping to make his father a liar. This entertaining book might need to be taken with two or three cups of salt. $75.00
1765. EATON BROTHERS. Eatons’ Ranch. [Wolf, Wyoming: Eaton Brothers, 1913]. 23 pp. Narrow 16mo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Exceptionally fine and fresh.
First edition. Small Series no. 3. Eatons’ Ranch (founded in 1879 three years after the Battle of Little Big Horn) has been in operation for over a hundred years as a working cattle ranch and a “ranch resort.” Eaton Ranch is located on the old Bozeman Trail, along the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountains, twenty miles west of Sheridan, Wyoming. This little book served as a guide to early-day guests about what to expect during their stay, including tips on how to safely ride a horse. Eatons’ is still in operation and a fine establishment for soaking up the Western experience. The rules and suggestions set out in this guide probably have not changed a great deal since 1913. $100.00
1766. EAVES, Charles Dudley & C. A. Hutchinson. Post City, Texas: C. W. Post’s Colonizing Activities in West Texas. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1952. xiii [1] 171 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Top fore-edge lightly foxed, overall fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Foreword by Jesse H. Jones. CBC 1877. Herd 740. This story of a community planned from its inception by C. W. Post (1854-1914, founder of Postum Cereal Company), chronicles the transition of the Caprock Escarpment of the High Plains from ranching to farming. “In 1906 he purchased some 225,000 acres of ranchland...and designated a site near the center of Garza County as the location of his new town.... In 1907 Post City, as it was called until after the developer’s death, was platted, farms of 160 acres were laid out, shade trees were planted, and a machine shop, a hotel, a school, churches, and a department store were constructed.... One of his most spectacular experiments was his rain-making effort through dynamite explosions. From firing stations along the rim of the Caprock four-pound dynamite charges were detonated every four minutes for a period of several hours. Between 1911 and 1914 he spent thousands of dollars in this endeavor, which met with little success” (Handbook of Texas Online: Charles William Post) $45.00
1767. EBBUTT, Percy G. Emigrant Life in Kansas. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1886. viii, 237 pp., engraved frontispiece, plates, text illustrations. 8vo, original green cloth pictorial cloth stamped in dark brown, gilt-lettering on spine and upper cover. Moderate outer wear, lower hinge and several signatures starting, occasional light foxing, but generally a very good copy with small label of Shepard Book Company (SLC) on front pastedown. Scarce.
First edition. Dary, Kanzana 229. Herd 741: “Scarce.” Rader 1274. Not in Graff or Howes. Ebbutt came to Kansas in 1871 and returned to England six years later. Englishmen like Ebbutt provide observations on emigrant life often not explored by home-grown authors. Ebbutt’s well-written and often humorous narrative vividly describes life on the prairie, cattle raising, farming, and encounters with denizens of the prairie (especially snakes).
Ebbutt tells of encountering Wild Bill Hickok in Junction City: “Wild Bill was a fine-looking fellow, with long curly hair hanging down his back, and was dressed in a rather dandified fashion. He was said to have twenty-seven nicks cut on the handle of his revolver, each signifying a man whose life had been taken by him. And yet he walked the streets as free as any man, and perhaps with more security than a less desperate criminal would, for he would have to be a plucky man to arrest ‘Wild Bill.’ He was afterwards actually elected ‘sheriff’ of Wichita...which was frequented by the Texas ‘cow-boys,’ and he was killed at last in some saloon brawl.”
One of the enterprises Ebbutt undertook was cattle ranching: “In the spring a herd law was passed, and so we boys got up a herd. There were forty head of cattle of our own, and we took in our neighbours’ cattle at a quarter of a dollar per month per head, and thus mustered quite a respectable number.” $200.00
1768. ECCLESTON, Robert. Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849: Diary of.... Edited by George P. Hammond and Edward H. Howes. Berkeley & Los Angeles: [The Westgate Press for] University of California Press, 1950. [6] xvii [1] 256 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, 2 folding maps. 8vo, original terracotta cloth, spine gilt. Very fine in d.j.
First edition, limited edition (750 copies). Bancroft Library Publications 2. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 71: “Perhaps the most spirited and colorful item among the contemporary diaries and journals prepared by those emigrants of 1849-50 who followed the Southwest Trail.... The diary devotes itself mainly to the party’s route through Texas”; Lost Oases, p. 68. Howes E34. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 216: “The party charted new ground by opening wagon travel over the Tucson Cutoff or Apache Pass Trail. From Tucson, Eccleston and companions traveled with Texas Ranger Colonel Jack Hays. Eccleston recorded his daily experiences with a full chronicle. Etter notes that ‘Eccleston’s diary is the only one that has come to light describing 1849 travel on the trail.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 513. Wallace, Arizona History VIII:56.
Eccleston’s diary begins April 3, 1849, when Eccleston, then nineteen, left New York for Galveston, Texas, and ends December 28 of the same year in the desert outside San Diego. Eccleston mentions various ranches where they stopped during their journey, including Coon’s Ranch (El Paso area) and the obligatory Warner’s Ranch.
Included with this overland is Eccleston’s other important work, which “serves as the sequel to Eccleston’s overland narrative” (Kurutz 215): The Mariposa Indian War, 1850-1851: Diaries of Robert Eccleston; The California Gold Rush, Yosemite, and the High Sierra (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1957. [4] vii [1] 168 pp., frontispiece, folding map. 8vo, original terracotta cloth with black leather spine label. Very fine, unopened. First edition. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 71. Rocq 5103). Eccleston’s journal of the Mariposa War is the only firsthand account of that encounter. $250.00
1769. ECHEVERRÍA, Esteban. La Cautiva. El Matadero. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Peuser, [1946]. xxxvi, 175 [6] pp., portrait of author, color frontispiece and text illustrations by Eleodoro E. Marenco. 4to, original white pictorial wrappers with color illustration after a Marenco watercolor. Mild to moderate foxing, bookseller’s stamp on title page, overall very good.
Modern scholarly edition of two literary classics of Argentina, “La Cautiva” [“The Captive”] (first published in 1837) and “El Matadero” [“The Slaughterhouse”] (written in the 1830s but unpublished until the 1870s). From the series “Biblioteca de los Poetas Gauchescos del Rio de La Plata.” Both of these works influenced gaucho literature. Echeverría (1805-1851), Argentine romantic poet, prose writer, and revolutionary propagandist, introduced romanticism in Argentina upon his return from Paris and deeply influenced later writers, particularly through his poetic depiction of the South American landscape. His most successful work was “La Cautiva,” which extols the pampas. Artist Marenco is a leading artist of gaucho life. $175.00
1770. EDDINS, Roy (ed.). History of Falls County, Texas. Falls County, Texas: Old Settlers and Veterans Association, [1947]. viii, 312 pp., portraits, illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Fine.
First edition. CBC 1636. Herd 742. “After the War, [Falls County’s] natural advantages for stock raising, including its succulent grasses, abundance of water and wide-open spaces, continued to stimulate stock raising. It was one of the earliest crops—with good markets in Louisiana and ‘up North.’ As early as the 1860s cattleman had learned that by branding their cattle and gathering them into herds at some convenient place, sturdy cowboys and ponies could profitably take them on ‘drives’ to markets” (p. 179). The work includes local brands and a section on “Early Lawlessness in Cattle Raising.” $150.00
Map of Texas Showing the Mustang Prairie
1771. EDWARD, David B. History of Texas: or, The Emigrant’s, Farmer’s, and Politician’s Guide to the Character, Climate, Soil and Productions of That Country: Geographically Arranged from Personal Observation and Experience. Cincinnati: J. A. James & Co., 1836. 336 [2, ads] pp., foldout engraved map of the Republic of Texas with grants hand-colored in outline (Map of Texas Containing the Latest Grants and Discoveries by E. F. Lee, 31 x 21 cm). 12mo, original brown cloth, printed yellow spine label. Binding worn and stained, upper hinge cracked, intermittent foxing, map with mild foxing and a few minor and very small, clean splits at folds, overall a good to very good copy, with contemporary ownership signature of Stephen Titus. Bookplate of Herbert McLean Evans, noted bibliophile and discoverer of Vitamin E.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 53: “One of the best accounts of Texas on the eve of the Revolution. The book attempts to be unprejudiced, but the author was clearly anti-Texan at heart.” Clark, Old South III:35. Graff 1208. Howes E48: “Conditions just prior to the Revolution described by an actual observer.” Rader 1279. Raines, p. 74. Streeter 1199: “One of the essential Texas books. It gives a good account of the physical features and towns and products of Texas of 1835.” Edward reprints many scarce Texas laws and decrees. The excellent map is based on the Austin-Tanner conformation (Day, Maps of Texas, p. 24).
This book contains a section on the advantages of stock raising in Texas, declaring “the pasture for cattle both summer and winter is unlimited” and that “there is not a sober well-thinking man in the province, who will not aver...that he can do as well as ever he did in a more northern sphere.... Their live stock increases around them with astonishing rapidity, producing their young at an earlier period of life, and having them afterwards more frequently, than those which live in a colder climate; doubling their numbers...every two years.... And did not I see a calf only eight months old! taken from the prairie lands...which weighed three hundred and ten pounds.... It will cost more to raise a brood of chickens in Texas, than an equal number of cattle.”
The author rhapsodizes at length on the vast herds of wild mustangs west of the Nueces. The excellent map of Texas prominently shows the “Drove of Wild Horses” between the Nueces and Rio Grande. J. Frank Dobie in his writings on mustangs refers to early maps of Texas locating these mustang herds. $3,500.00
1772. EDWARDS, Cas. Cowboy Philosophy. Cynthiana, Kentucky: Hobson Book Press, 1944. ix [5] 87 pp., photographic plates, text illustrations. 12mo, original brown cloth. Fine in lightly worn d.j. Inscribed and signed by author.
First edition. Range verse by a resident of Alpine, Texas, including “Ridin’ in Range,” “A Cowboy’s Lament,” etc. Among the photographs are many of Big Bend, Brewster County, H. L. Kokernot’s O6 Ranch, cowboy watering his horse, “Queen of the Rodeo,” Pecos River Bridge, MacDonald Observatory, etc. $55.00
1773. EDWARDS, Cas. Cowboy Philosophy. Cynthiana, Kentucky: Hobson Book Press, 1944. vii [5] 87 pp., photographic plates, text illustrations. 12mo, original brown cloth. Binding slightly abraded. Very good copy in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
Second printing with added plates and a new d.j. design. $25.00
1774. EDWARDS, Everett E. Middle Western Agricultural History as a Field of Research. N.p., [1936]. Pp. 315-328. 8vo, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
Offprint of a paper presented at a joint session of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association and the American Historical Association. The author explores how introduction of new and improved crops and breeds of livestock resulted in what he terms “the American agricultural revolution.” $20.00
1775. EDWARDS, George (ed.). The Pioneer Work of the Presbyterian Church in Montana. Helena: Allied Printing Company, n.d. [ca. 1906]. [2] 213 pp., text illustrations (photographic). 8vo, original green cloth gilt (text block bound in upside-down). Dated inscription to Walter L. Breckenridge from R. M. Donaldson. Light shelf wear, very good copy overall.
Reprinted from vol. 6 of the Montana State Historical Society Collections. This social and religious history in the Montana cattle country includes firsthand recollections of some of the earliest Presbyterian pioneers (some with overlands). The contents are considerably more stimulating than the title would indicate.
From the account of Rev. George Grantham Smith: “I reached Bannack in June, 1864. My work in Montana was confined to Bannack, Virginia City and adjoining [mining] camps and ranches.... It was hard ‘prospecting’ in those days.... On my arrival at Montana I soon learned that my $1200 legal tender would secure me but twelve weeks’ board instead of twelve months.... I created a storm of applause (or something else) by unloading an umbrella.... ‘Tenderfoot!’ and ‘Pilgrim!’ were shouted in all directions.... I was assigned to private apartments in the leading hotel in Bannack City, in the office, with bar, gambling table, gamblers, and highwaymen, every man clothed in buckskin and adorned with a pair of navy revolvers and bowie knife in the bootleg, and Mexican spurs and dangles on the heel.... This was my introduction to a life of strange vicissitudes and marvelous experiences.” $50.00
1776. EDWARDS, J. B. Early Days in Abilene...Edited and Published by C. W. Wheeler, Printed in the “Abilene Chronicle” 1896, Reprinted in the “Abilene Daily Chronicle” 1938 with Added Material from the Papers of J. B. Edwards. N.p, n.d. [1938]. 16 pp. (printed in three columns), text illustrations (mostly photographic, some vintage prints of cattle trade). 4to, original tan decorated wrappers, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
First separate printing of material that originally appeared in the Abilene Chronicle in 1896. Adams, One-Fifty 50. Campbell, p. 121. CBC 4257. Guns 662. Herd 746: “Scarce.... The author relates some events in early Abilene. He lived there from its founding and knew its history firsthand when it was a cowtown.”
Edwards goes into considerable detail on the early days of the cattle trade, drawing the connection between the railroad and the blooming of the livestock trade. “As a matter of course Abilene became famous as a cattle market. Every school boy in the far eastern states, when seeing the long trains of long horned cattle going through the country on the railroads, knew they were shipped from Abilene” (p. 2). Included is material on Joseph G. McCoy (founder of the Abilene cattle trade), Drovers’ Cottage, Wild Bill Hickok’s reign as Marshall, “Cost of Moving Cattle from Texas” by Ike T. Pryor, and more. $250.00
“First Recorded Cattle Drive in California”—Reese
1777. EDWARDS, Philip L[eget]. California in 1837: Diary of Colonel Philip L. Edwards Containing an Account of a Trip to the Pacific Coast.... Sacramento: A. J. Johnston, 1890. 47 pp. 12mo, original tan printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Lightly browned as usual (due to the cheap paper on which it was printed), fragile spine slightly chipped, otherwise fine.
First edition, first published in Themis 2 (1860). The book was published in two formats, cloth and wrappers. Cowan, p. 192. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Western High Spots, pp. 13-14 (“Western Movement—Its Literature”). Graff 1216. Herd 747: “Rare.” Holliday 339. Howell, California 50:447: “His account of the six months spent in the Bay Area is among the most important early descriptions of pastoral California. “ Howes E66. Littell 315. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. Norris 1045. Reese, Six Score 36: “Narrative of the first recorded cattle drive in California.... Aside from its cattle interest, which recounts bringing some 630 head of cattle from California to Oregon, the book is also a California and fur item.” Plains & Rockies IV:48n. Rocq 14541. Streeter Sale V:3008.
The Willamette Cattle Company was the first cooperative venture among the Oregon settlers from the United States. In 1835, President Andrew Jackson sent William Slacum, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, to report on the situation in Oregon. When Slacum discovered the Hudson’s Bay Company held a monopoly on cattle in Oregon, he persuaded the American settlers to unite to buy cattle in California and bring them back to Oregon. In January 1837 the Willamette Cattle Company was formed for this purpose. That same year some 600 head of cattle were herded to Oregon. The success of this venture gave American settlers a growing sense of independence from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The author, who served as Treasurer of the Willamette Cattle Company, originally came to Oregon in 1833 with Captain Wyeth’s party.
Edwards arrived in San Francisco on February 29, 1837, and his day-by-day narrative ended on September 18, somewhere near Mount Shasta, as the company attempted to reach the Willamette Valley. Following is an excerpt from Edwards’ journal describing the vicissitudes of driving a motley herd of wild, stubborn, skittish beasts overland and across waterways. In the genre of trail drive literature, Edwards’ account is very early, but the sentiments he expressed remained true to form to the end of the trail-driving days:
“Horrors! Now we chased the cattle until after the moon rose, to get them across a little water [San Joaquin River] not more than knee deep. And then the state of camp! Shut the book! The last month, what has it been? Little sleep, much fatigue! Hardly time to eat, many times! Cattle breaking like so many evil spirits and scattering to the four winds! Men, ill-natured and quarreling, growling and cursing! Have, however, recovered the greater part of the lost cattle and purchased others. Another month like the last, God avert! Who can describe it?” $1,000.00
1778. EDWARDS, Philip Leget. The Diary of Philip Leget Edwards: The Great Cattle Drive from California to Oregon in 1837. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1932. [6] 47 pp., color frontispiece (San Francisco in 1837, after a watercolor by Vioget). Small 4to, original half green cloth over marbled boards, green gilt-lettered paper label on upper cover. Other than a bit of mild foxing, a fine copy.
Limited edition (400 copies). Grabhorn Press Rare Americana Series 4. Grabhorn 172. Herd 748: “Scarce.” Rocq 14542.
In his introduction, Douglas S. Watson, remarks: “Along the Willamette the first farmer settlers lacked cattle, so necessary to the conquering of the wilderness.... The California that Edwards...saw was pictured by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., in his Two Years before the Mast.’ Dana however, was yet to write his classic tale of the California hide and tallow trade. The Missions that once flourished from San Diego to Sonoma had fallen into decay; secularized, they were being stripped of their herds, and newly created rancheros waxed rich from their spoils.... Of the 729 head of stock with which the drive started, 630 were to reach Oregon; a contribution from Mexican California which helped save Oregon settlements.... Aside from the historical importance...the story of the great cattle drive from California to Oregon in 1837 presents a picture of early far western life, of hardships and obstacles overcome, told in forceful yet simple language, which give it a lasting place in the literature of the American conquest of this continent.” $100.00
1779. EDWARDS, P[hilip] L[eget]. Sketch of the Oregon Territory; or, Emigrants’ Guide. N.p., [1953?]. 20 pp. 16mo, original beige printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
Limited edition (#66 of 500 copies); modern facsimile of the first edition, published at Liberty, Missouri in 1842 (Yale owns the only copy extant). Howes E67n: “First guide to the Pacific coast.” Mintz, The Trail 139n. “Edwards made the trip in 1834 with Wyeth and spent four years in the Oregon Territory.” Plains & Rockies IV:89n. Smith 2745.
Edwards advises overland parties to start with a good supply of cattle because it is easier to drive cattle than to pack other provisions. On the Blue Ridge and Cascades, Edwards remarks: “This district, which affords little prospect to the tiller of the soil, is perhaps one of the finest grazing countries in the world. It has been much underrated.... The herdsman in this extensive valley of more than one hundred and fifty miles in width, could at all times keep his animals in good grass.... I think this section for producing hides, tallow and beef, is superior to any part of North America” (pp. 7-8).
At pp. 17-18, Edwards recalls the cattle driven from California to Oregon in 1837: “A joint stock company was formed for the purpose of procuring cattle from California.... The cattle were to be driven through the intervening country usually laid down on our maps as ‘the unexplored region.’ With a company of seventeen white men and three Indian boys, we started with 800 cattle, and reached the Wallamette with 630. The expedition was replete with hardships and dangers.... Previous to this, there were but few cattle in the Territory, except those belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company.... Those which we brought to the Wallamette (sic), were all young cows, with barely a sufficiency of males for the purposes of procreation.” $75.00
1780. EDWARDS, William B. The Story of Colt’s Revolver: The Biography of Col. Samuel Colt. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole, [1953]. 470 pp., numerous text illustrations (mostly photographic plus over 80 pages of facsimiles—original patent and other documents). 4to, original green cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Contains a chapter on Texas Ranger Capt. Samuel Hamilton Walker and how he helped revolutionize the Colt revolver for frontier use. “The Colt revolver remained preeminent among such arms in Texas and throughout the West for the remainder of the nineteenth century. The 1873 Single Action Army model, known as the Peacemaker or simply six-shooter, became the standard sidearm of the postwar military, the Texas Rangers, and the majority of cowboys across the plains.... Windmills, barbed wire fences, and Colt revolvers have been credited with settlement of the Great Plains. The Colt revolver and Texas remain inextricably associated in history, symbolism, and romance” (Handbook of Texas Online: Colt Revolvers).
The Colt revolver is generally considered to have been the primary weapon of choice of cowboys and cattleman. Phillip Ashton Rollins pointed out that the average cowboy did not carry a gun. $125.00
1781. EELLS, Myron. Marcus Whitman, Pathfinder and Patriot. Seattle: The Alice Harriman Company, 1909. 349 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (mostly photographic), folding map. 8vo, original blue cloth. Upper cover with two small puncture holes and a few light stains, lower hinge cracked, interior very fine. In pictorial d.j. (dusty and chipped). Bookseller Fred Lockley’s printed label on front pastedown.
First edition. Smith 2763. “Dr. Whitman received his first insight into the monopoly which the Hudson’s Bay Company held. When he inquired about obtaining cattle from the Company, he was told that he could have them on the same terms that other settlers obtained them. This was to take wild oxen, break them, use them until the Company required them, and then return them...for there were no cattle in the country at that time except those owned by the Company and the few that the missionaries had just brought” (p. 50). This account includes material on Jesse Applegate and 1843 migration with the “Cow Column.” $45.00
Nine Binding Variants of a Great Mormon Pioneer Account
1782. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878: Major Howard Egan’s Diary; Also Thrilling Experiences of Pre-Frontier Life among Indians; Their Traits, Civil and Savage, and Part of Autobiography, Inter-Related to His Father’s Edited...by Wm. M. Egan.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. 302 [1] pp., text illustrations (some full-page, mostly photographic). 12mo, original red pictorial cloth. Very fine.
First edition. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 154. Flake 3121. Graff 1221 (noting a black binding preceded the red). Howes E76. Jones 1733. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 232: “Egan seems to have been a roving utility man for the Mormon pioneers, often up ahead to ‘survey the track’ and to hunt buffalo.... [Egan] saw Brigham Young as a conservationist ahead of his time, admonishing the brethren not to destroy game wantonly.” Paher, Nevada 542: “Ranks high in importance and accuracy...includes primary material on trails across both southern and northern Nevada...travels on the Mormon Trail to southern California late in 1849, stopping at Las Vegas...excellent sections on the Pony Express...the Overland Mail, home life at Deep Creek Station, other episodes of frontier life among Indians and delightful peculiarly Western incidents.” Smith 2771.
Deep Creek Ranch (photo in text), the most westerly station of the Pony Express within the present boundaries of Utah, was the home of the Egan family when Howard Egan worked as division superintendent for service between Salt Lake City and Roberts Creek (near Eureka, Nevada). Sir Richard Burton remarked on Deep Creek: “The Mormons were not wanting in kindness.... The people, like the Spaniards, apparently disdain any occupation save that of herding cattle.”
Howard Egan (1815-1878) was among the advance guard of 148 Mormon pioneers who began to move West in 1847 in 72 wagons, with a year’s provisions, agricultural implements, and a large herd of cattle. Egan’s party pioneered the Mormon Trail and made one of the early cattle drives west. Egan includes the laws established for this overland: “Every man is to put as much interest in taking care of his brother’s cattle, in preserving them, as he would his own.” Other cattle interest in the volume: 1849 cattle drive from Fort Utah (Provo) to California; great freeze of 1857 that killed so many Mormon cattle; 1862 cattle drive from Salt Lake City to Ruby Valley, Nevada; stampede; Egan’s cattle trading (buying cattle in the winter to drive to California in the summer); ranching operations at Deep Creek, etc.
In 1855 Egan blazed Egan’s Trail, a more direct route from Salt Lake City to California that saved around 200 miles. Egan’s Trail became the route of the Pony Express, the overland telegraph, and the Overland Stage Line. “It is appropriate that Egan Canyon and the Egan Range, north of Ely, should have been named for the true discoverer.... Egan held many civil offices in Utah, and was ‘successful as a missionary and intermediary among the Indians’” (Thrapp IV, pp. 155-56). $150.00
1783. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original olive green pictorial cloth. Lower hinge cracked, generally fine. Contemporary bookplate of Hugh F. Watts, Assayer, Boulder, Colorado, on front pastedown. $125.00
1784. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original light green pictorial cloth. Light outer wear, else fine. $125.00
1785. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original light brown pictorial cloth. Light wear and lower hinge cracked, otherwise fine. $125.00
1786. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original grey pictorial cloth. Pp. 177-208 slightly warbled, otherwise a fine copy. $100.00
1787. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878: Major Howard Egan’s Diary. Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Pp. 49-80 slightly warbled, otherwise fine. $100.00
1788. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original blue pictorial cloth, spine has more decorative detail and name of printer (Skelton Publishing Co., Salt Lake City). Moderate shelf wear, interior fine, overall a very good copy. Ink ownership signature on title page. $100.00
1789. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original plain gilt-lettered maroon cloth. One small, clean tear to title page, otherwise a fine copy. $100.00
1790. EGAN, Howard. Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878.... Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917. 302 [1] [12, index] pp., text illustrations (some full-page, mostly photographic). 12mo, original beige pictorial cloth. Lower cover lightly soiled, otherwise fine, with the added 1942 Utah State Historical Society index.
First edition. Paher, Nevada 542: “The Utah Historical Society published a long-needed 12-page index to this book in 1942.” $150.00
1791. EICKEMEYER, Carl & Lilian Westcott Eickemeyer. Among the Pueblo Indians. New York: Merriam Co., [1895]. 195 pp., frontispiece portrait of authors (standing before their wagon and with Lilian in full, heavy Victorian attire), plates (from authors’ photographs). Small 4to, original green pictorial cloth with silver lettering on upper cover and spine. Light shelf wear, otherwise a very fine copy with ink ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Laid in is a bookmark illustrated with silhouettes of a man and woman who resemble the authors.
First edition. Saunders 1597. This unpretentious travel account outlines the New York authors’ journey by prairie schooner to San Ildefonso, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, and “Ranches de Taos.” At Cochiti, the residents staged a spirited game of gallo, involving wild and reckless horsemanship and an unlucky rooster (two photos). The authors describe the Pueblo practice of communal herding (horses, sheep, goats, and burros), noting that they obtain their horses from Navajo horses traders (photos of Native American saddle, mesquite corral, and mounted Navajo horse traders). Lilian Westcott Eickemeyer was a noted photographer, and her husband Carl Eickemeyer was the son of German-American inventor Rudolph Eickemeyer (see next entry). $175.00
Presentation Copy Signed by Deming
1792. EICKEMEYER, Rudolf. Letters from the South-West. [Astor Place, New York: Press of J. J. Little], 1894. 111 pp., plates and text illustrations (including frontispiece of author riding a horse) by E. W. Deming. 4to, original three-quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, paneled spine with raised bands. Joints cracked, spine worn and chipped, otherwise a very good but fragile copy. Presentation inscription to “Friend Butcher” (perhaps photographer Solomon D. Butcher?) signed by author and artist.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Deming 43). Herd 750: “Scarce.... Letters written by an educated New Yorker seeking health in the Southwest, in which he gives some information on the cowboy.” Howes E84. The author, an electrical engineer who fled Germany in 1848, invented a hat-curling machine and designed motors for an elevator company (later to be known as Otis). Eickemeyer traveled from New York to San Antonio and on to El Paso and Santa Fe. He quotes a letter written by his son Carl (see previous entry) at El Paso in 1893, describing ranches in the El Paso area and around Hueco Tanks:
“I have spent a good deal of time with the cow-boys down in this section, taking trips out to their ranches and into the mountains with them, and have gotten a fair insight into the cattle business. There are only a few losses that the ranchman here has to guard against. He does not have to worry about cattle being frozen, taken sick, or straying very far from the ‘cow-camp,’ which is generally situated near the tanks or springs where they come to get water.... Now and then a cattle thief will start at the northern part of the State, with a few head of cattle, and pick up others from the different ranches all along the Rio Grande, where he will cross with them into Mexico. In this way they sometimes collect a herd of many hundred cattle, which they sell the Mexicans. At other times the thieves are killed by some of the cow-boys before they reach their destination.”
In the latter section of the book, the author narrates his travels in Santa Fe and New Mexico, where artist Deming’s horse was stolen by Apache or Navajo. The author states that most of Deming’s illustrations in the book were made from life. $350.00
1793. EL PASO MUSEUM OF ART. The McKee Collection of Paintings. El Paso: [Designed by Carl Hertzog for] El Paso Museum of Art, [1968]. 66 [1] pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (many in color). 4to, original green cloth with pictorial label. Very fine in publisher’s glassine d.j.
First edition, cloth issue. Lowman, Printer at the Pass 225A: “This book is a thing of exceptional beauty. One of the printer’s finest achievements in recent years.” The emphasis of the McKee collection is Southwestern art. Some of the paintings included are “Cowboys” by W. Herbert Dunton, “Ranch Wandering” by W. H. D. Koerner and “Cattle Drive” by Theodore Van Soelen. $50.00
1794. [EL PASO SADDLERY CO.]. Catalogue # 61-B 1980-81. El Paso: El Paso Saddlery Co., 1980. [1] 44 [1] pp., text illustrations. Square 8vo, original beige pictorial wrappers (stapled, as issued). Other than slight staining to wraps, fine, with price list and order form laid in.
Catalogue of stockman accoutrements, such as saddles, holsters, knives, and belts. $25.00
1795. ELDER, Paul. The Old Spanish Missions of California: An Historical and Descriptive Sketch...Illustrated Chiefly from Photographs by Western Artists. San Francisco: [Tomoyé Press for] Paul Elder and Company, 1913. v [1] 89 [1] pp., printed on thick grey paper, numerous tipped-in photographs printed on matte finish paper (by A. C. Vroman and others). 4to, original grey gilt-lettered boards with photograph of Mission San Gabriel on cover. Very fine in discolored d.j. Difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition. Cowan, p. 193. Levin & Morris, Art of Publishers Bookbindings 88. Weber, The California Missions, p. 30: “Filled with delightful sketches in prose, poetry and photography.” For almost five decades, Paul Elder operated the most significant bookstore in San Francisco, and from 1898 to 1917, at the height of the American Arts & Crafts movement, he published and printed books in his Maybeck-designed bookshop. Elder’s Tomoyé Press, run by printer John Henry Nash, strove to create “the book beautiful.” This venture launched Nash’s career and paved the way for San Francisco’s fine presses of the 1920s and 1930s.
This beautifully executed Arts and Crafts book contains interior and exterior photographs of the missions and a history of each establishment. Peripheral mention of sheep and cattle raising is found: “The live stock of each Mission was an extensive part of the activities, and as there were large herds of cattle, sheep and horses, a good number of men and boys were engaged in their care. They soon became most efficient as horse-trainers and surpassed their teachers in the use of riatas which they braided from rawhide. They were daring riders, and fearless hunters, roping the mountain lion and even bringing in the dangerous grizzly bears for their bear and bull fights, with no other weapon than the riata. As sheep and cattle herders they had an instinctive ability.... The time of the rodeo, when the cattle were rounded up for examination and counting, was set apart as a period of feasting and pleasure and of visiting from one Mission another.... Neophytes were frequently granted a vacation of a fortnight, in which they could visit their pagan relatives in the rancherias” (pp. 67-68). $125.00
1796. ELDER, Paul (comp.). California the Beautiful: Camera Studies by California Artists with Selections in Prose and Verse from Western Writers. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, [1911]. [2] v [1] 72 [3] pp., printed on thick brown paper, numerous tipped-in photographs printed on matte finish paper (photographers include Arnold Genthe, A. C. Mudge, W. E. Dassonville, et al.). 4to, original half natural burlap over tan gilt-lettered boards with tipped-on photograph of Mission San Gabriel on cover. Very fine copy. Difficult to find in this condition.
First edition. Cowan, pp. 192-93. A beautiful fine press collection of photography and writing in homage to the natural beauty of California. Among the contributors are John Muir, Ina Coolbrith, Joaquin Miller, Helen Hunt Jackson, George Sterling, Frank Norris, and Bret Hart.
Included among the selections is Marshall Ilsley’s poem “An April Day on the Hope Ranch” in Santa Barbara, with accompanying photograph taken on the ranch (much of which is now an upscale real estate development, although equestrian and bike trails remain). Thomas Hope, an Irishman who worked as a Texas cowboy, eventually moved to Southern California and acquired two former Mexican land grants (over 6,000 acres) that bear his name today. $125.00
1797. ELDREDGE, Zoeth Skinner. The Beginnings of San Francisco from the Expedition of Anza, 1774, to the City Charter of April 15, 1850, with Biographical and Other Notes. San Francisco: Zoeth S. Eldredge, 1912. 433 + [6] 444-837 pp., frontispiece, numerous plates (vintage prints and photographs, including Turrill and Miller daguerreotype of Mission San Francisco de Asis in 1849), maps (some folding). 2 vols., 8vo, original green cloth, t.e.g. Light shelf wear, spines sunned, otherwise fine, partially unopened. Attractive contemporary engraved bookplates of Nancy Campbell on front pastedowns. San Francisco bookseller Newbegins’ small navy blue printed label over imprint of Vol. 2.
First edition. Cowan, p. 193: “Of great historical value.” Rocq 7963. The author discusses the importance of the hide and tallow trade to the early development of San Francisco: “The opening of the ports to foreign trade was a great stimulus to California development and the secularization of the missions opened the lands to settlement. Cattle raising became a great industry and each year more ships came to the coast for hides and tallow” (p. 212).
The reproduction of Duflot de Mofras’ 1840 map of San Diego is accompanied by a caption pointing out the location of the hide houses mentioned by Dana. Other ranching material: Cattle rustling undertaken by the “Indians of the Tulares” and the resultant vexation and retribution of the rancheros; biographies of early rancheros; “The Great Ranchos”; “Private Ranchos in 1830”; land grants; “The Outfit of a Caballero”; California horsemanship; secularization of missions (plight of missionized Native Americans, loss of their herds and pastures, slaughter of thousands of cattle for hides when secularization orders came); etc. $125.00
1798. ELIAS, Solomon Phillip. Stories of Stanislaus: A Collection of Stories on the History and Achievements of Stanislaus County. Modesto, [1924]. 344 pp. 8vo, original green and brown embossed cloth gilt. Fine, with author’s signed presentation inscription.
First edition. Cowan, p. 193. Rocq 14981. In the 1850s, Stanislaus County, California secured its reputation as a cattle county: “The assessor’s report for 1857 is particularly full and complete and demonstrates the advance that the county had made in the cattle industry” (p. 13). The county’s first industry was grazing: “The low hills of the eastern part of the county and the plains were used for pasturage of stock that roamed at will over the unfenced and unpre-empted lands of the government. The waters of the rivers were easily accessible. It was the romantic day of the cowboy and the vaquero” (p. 17).
This county history contains information on early ranchers in the area (Horr, Newman, Elliott, Hall, and others). Irrigation projects in the 1870s transformed the county into an agricultural mecca, and many chapters are devoted to the evolution of irrigation and water rights. Other subjects include Native Americans (treaties, James Carson’s descriptions of Tulare Valley Natives), Estanislao (brigand-rustler, or disenfranchised neophyte?), Vigilante era, Hill’s and Knight’s ferries, pioneer newspapers, mining, political history, Modesto, LaGrange, Tuolumne City, Turlock, etc. $75.00
1799. ELIAS, Solomon Phillip. Stories of Stanislaus.... Modesto, [1924]. Another copy. Light wear, but generally fine copy. $75.00
1800. ELIEL, Frank. Our Little Old Home Town, Dillon, Montana: Reflections and Reminiscences Recorded by.... [wrapper title]. N.p., n.d. [33] pp. 8vo, original tan printed self-wrappers, stapled (as issued). Wrappers with a few minor marginal chips, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. A brief local history, encompassing the latter part of the 1800s. The author has this to say about the cowhands of Dillon: “The Independence Day celebration was a regular annual event, with its patriotic oration, parade and general hilarity. The cowboys and horse wranglers enjoyed the day and were a prominent feature of the festivities. But our cowboys were not of the type now pictured in the movies. The ten-gallon hat was unknown. Our cowboys took their work seriously” (p. 10). $45.00
1801. ELKINS, John M. Indian Fighting on the Texas Frontier.... Written for Captain Elkins by Frank W. McCarty. [Amarillo: Russell & Cockrell], 1929. 96 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original grey pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued). First and last leaves with small tears at staples (as usual), otherwise fine. With contemporary ink note “Written by Jess Brown” above the chapter on “The Mavericks of the Frontier.”
Some might consider this a “second edition.” (The very rare first edition was published at Beaumont in 1908 under title Life on the Texas Frontier; see Howes E90.) McCarty clearly had the original 1908 in hand and based this work on it, but in doing so, he substantially rewrote the original text, both embellishing for personalities and removing some of the boring details such as troop organization. McCarty made significant additions from other sources, probably the reminiscences of Elkins, then aged 88. Especially interesting is that McCarty identifies a white woman recaptured from the Indians (unnamed in the 1908 edition) as Cynthia Ann Parker, and rather than a short comment, he devotes a whole chapter to her in the present version (pp. 33-36). Also, three new chapters are added at the end, authored by Mrs. Ellen Johnson Elkins [Elkin’s wife]: “Old Phantom Hill and its Tragedies,” “The Story of Old Fort Chadbourne,” and “Interesting History of Old Camp Colorado.” Pages 92-96 are an additional new chapter by W. N. Alexander: “Born under the Lone Star Flag.”
Campbell, p. 177. Rader 1292. Tate, Indians of Texas 2366: “In addition to recounting his role in Texas Ranger duties along the northwestern Texas frontier during the 1860s and early 1870s, Captain Elkins offers his firsthand description of the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker by Rangers.” The author was a cattleman, Texas Ranger, and first sheriff of Coleman County. In an unvarnished manner Captain Elkins relates many violent encounters with Comanche rustlers and raiders who made ranching highly hazardous in the early days: “Battle of Marlin’s Ranch” (1860s); “The Fate of a Cruel Band” (raid of Wallis Brown Ranch, 1873); “The Fate of the Ranchman” (1864 attack on Mrs. Twiggs’ Ranch and the Bragg Ranch in which “several women used a gun equally as well as the men”); “The Courageous Frontier Women”; “The Shrewd Work of General Sherman” (1874 campaigns of Ranald Mackenzie).
“The Theft of a Thousand Cattle” describes one of the most abortive cattle drives in range history. In 1871 Richard “Uncle Rich” Coffee, whose ranch was forty miles southwest of Camp Colorado on the Concho River, rounded up his herd of more than a thousand cattle for a trail drive to New Mexico. Comanches watched preparations from their hiding places, and as the trail drive began, they attacked, killing one cowboy, wounding Coffee’s son, and stealing the entire cattle herd and fifty horses. “This left Uncle Rich practically no property at all. In one day this ranchman lost the savings of a lifetime” (p. 50). $125.00
1802. ELLARD, Harry. Ranch Tales of the Rockies by...”Poet Lariat of the Ranches.” Cañon City, Colorado, 1899. 103 [1] pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of author in fancy fringed buckskin), plates (photographic and humorous line drawings), text illustrations. Small 4to, original green pictorial cloth, t.e.g., bevelled edges. Gilt on front cover slightly dull, otherwise fine.
First edition, “Author’s edition.” Range verse, including “The Anglomaniac in the Rockies,” wittily addressing the “nuisance” of the influx of Englishmen on the Colorado range. Some of the unattributed photographs document working cowboys (roundup, branding, herding to Denver, “Volunteers for the Cowboy Regiment” [Wyoming Rough Riders]). $75.00
1803. ELLENBECKER, John G. The Jayhawkers of Death Valley. Marysville, Kansas: [Privately printed], 1938. [2] 130 pp., numerous photographic illustrations, one foldout. 8vo, original terracotta printed wrappers. Minor wear to fragile wraps and one small stain on title, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 155. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 75-76: “Contained in this remarkable book are numerous photographs of the Death Valley pioneers and their descendants.... A thesaurus of information.... An imperishable personal record of the majority of those intrepid pioneers who immortalized Death Valley.... Now hard to come by.” Howes E91. Mintz, The Trail 141: “A sought-after book that covers material not found in the Manly or Stephens narratives.... Contains the fragmentary diary of Asa Haynes, not found elsewhere.” Rocq 2301.
Ranching hospitality to the rescue—almost at the end of their rope, the Jayhawkers found succor in the Santa Clara Valley after a perilous journey through San Francisquito Canyon. At the Del Valle Ranch (also referred to as the San Francisquito Ranch), a “Spanish” ranching family living in an adobe house came to the Jayhawkers’ rescue, using sign language to communicate with the devastated travellers, giving them oranges, nursing them back to health, and even killing a steer for them to feast on (pp. 70-71). The author provides a short history of the 1840 Del Valle Spanish grant (54,000 acres), noting the ranch was the home of Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona and the upper portion of the grant became Newhall’s Ranch. The Jayhawkers sometimes held their reunions at the Newhall Ranch. $150.00
1804. ELLENBECKER, John G. Oak Grove Massacre, Oak, Nebraska, Indian Raids on the Little Blue River in 1864, As Printed in the Marysville Advocate-Democrat. Marysville, Kansas, n.d. (ca. 1930s?). [4] pp. Folio. Browned, otherwise fine. Rare (RLIN locates the University of Minnesota copy; OCLC traces four copies—University of Minnesota, Denver Public Library, Yale, and Nebraska Historical Society).
First edition. Decker 23:305. Not in Howes, Graff, etc. Privately printed account of Sioux and Cheyenne depredations between 1860 and 1869, with a chronicle of losses of life and property, including rustling and stampeding livestock, e.g.: “In the gigantic raid of August 7, 1864, practically all the stations and ranches were burned from Julesberg to Kiowa station with the exception of Little Blue station; in all about thirty stations and five times as many ranches.” $450.00
1805. ELLENBECKER, John G. The Pony Express [wrapper title]. N.p., n.d. 8 pp., photographic illustration. Narrow 12mo, original cream printed self-wrappers, stapled. Lightly worn and age toned, a few ink notations, overall very good.
First edition. Includes details on the Pony Express saddle and mochilla, Pony Express Bible, and biographical information on perhaps the most famous of the Pony Express riders, fifteen-year-old Bill Cody of later Wild West fame. $35.00
1806. ELLIMAN, SONS & COMPANY. The Uses of Elliman’s Embrocation for Horses, Dogs, Birds, Cattle. Slough, England: Elliman, Sons & Company, 1899. 184 [2] pp., engraved frontispiece, text illustrations (some full-page), ads. 8vo, original gilt-lettered purple cloth. Binding faded, spine damaged, lower hinge cracked and endpaper torn—fair copy only.
“Second edition” (according to title; RLIN, OCLC, and British Museum Catalogue show no earlier edition). A first-aid manual for animals, with descriptions of various cattle ailments and accidents, including choking, cramps, delirium, dislocations, glossitis, warbles, and lightning (no remedy for the latter, alas, but the author notes that in many cases fire insurance will cover the loss). Amazingly, many of the maladies described can be cured or eased by purchasing Elliman’s Embrocation. $35.00
1807. ELLIOT, W. J. The Spurs. [Spur, Texas]: The Texas Spur, 1939. [12] 274 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of author) and photographic plates printed on clay-coated paper (lime green on rectos, kelly green on versos), text illustrations. 12mo, original green cloth. A few minor spots and nicks to binding, small, closed tear to lower free endpaper, very good to fine in original glassine d.j. (much better condition than usually found).
First edition. Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 32. CBC 1406. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Western High Spots, p. 102 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Herd 757: “Scarce.... A history of this famous ranch by one connected with it. Privately printed and now quite difficult to come by.” Howes E100. Reese, Six Score 37: “While this book is rather crudely printed and written, it gives more of the flavor of the Spur Ranch than any other book. The author worked for the Spur outfit, and there are many tales of personal experiences of himself or his comrades.”
The author spends more time discussing the fantastic dinosaurs that roamed the vast prehistoric landscape that became the Spur Ranch than the Wanderers-Who-Make-Bad-Camps band of Comanche who dominated the region before being chased out by Ranald Mackenzie and losing their life sustenance to Anglo buffalo hunters with their omnipotent 40-70 Sharps Winchesters. The author glosses history: “It was only a very few years after the slaughter of the buffalo began until they were practically exterminated. Then the cowmen with the longhorn cattle took the place of the Indian and the buffalo. So short a time has passed, with such tremendous changes, and consequences in the evolution of an empire” (p. 5).
In 1883 Alfred M. Britton and S. W. Lomax established Spur (or Espuela) Ranch east of the Southern High Plains, quickly augmenting their holdings with 242,000 acres in Dickens, Kent, Garza, and Crosby counties purchased at $515,540 from the New York & Texas Land Company. The deal was sweetened by the fact that Britton and Lomax leased at a giveaway rate the blocks of state-owned land (327,000 additional acres) adjacent to their holdings (Texas had retained title to alternate sections in the surveyed block for railroads). The savvy entrepreneurs purchased most of their cattle from small ranchers who, no longer having access to the open range, were forced to sell to the Espuela.
Aware of keen British speculation in American cattle and range privileges, Britton scurried to London in 1884 and by 1885 sold the Spur Ranch to British capitalists (the Espuela Land and Cattle Company), who had twenty-two long, unprofitable years to regret their decision. In 1906 the Brits unloaded the ranch for $5 an acre (including livestock, improvements, and equipment) to E. P. and S. A. Swenson of New York (Spur Syndicate). The new goal was not to raise cattle, but to found towns. As for this venture, some idea of the success of the towns founded by the Spur Syndicate may be inferred from statistics on the town of Spur: “Spur had a population of 1,747 in 1970, 1,690 in 1980, and 1,300 in 1990. It is the largest town in the county” (Online Handbook of Texas: Spur, Texas). The present book ably documents the bright side of life on the Spur Ranch in its hey-day. $450.00
“The State of all States for the Stock Raiser”
1808. ELLIOTT, John F. All about Texas: A Hand Book of Information for the Home Seeker, the Capitalist, the Prospector, the Tourist, the Health Hunter, Containing a Description of the State...Its Live Stock Industries...Advice to Immigrants, How and When to Come, etc. Austin: Hutchings Printing House, 1888. [4, supplement] [2, railroad information] 47 [3] [20, ads] pp., two engraved portraits (Sul Ross and F. B. Chilton), ads with engraved illustrations (including Texas capitol, Driskill Hotel, Travis County Court House, University of Texas, small area map of North Texas, etc.), additional ads on inside of upper and lower wraps. 8vo, original full-color lithographed pictorial wrappers (by Gast of St. Louis). A few chips to fragile wrappers, lightly age-toned, upper cover with original light ink stamp of F. B. Chilton & Co. Real Estate Agents stamp on front wrapper (Chilton was also Secretary of the Immigration Bureau of Texas, and his portrait appears in the supplement). Very good to fine. Dudley R. Dobie’s laid-in ms. note: “This particular issue is superior to earlier ones. This is borne out through ‘Our Supplement’ devoted to Governor Ross and Secretary Chilton, also the plates...of Ross and Chilton.”
First edition, later and best issue (“first twenty thousand”), with additional material inserted at front (first issue was same year). Herd 755: “Rare.”
This extravagant promotional touts railroads, mining, cotton, agriculture of all kinds (including tobacco and grapes), educational institutions, and land, land, and more land. In the section on “Stock Raising” there is good period information on cattle, as well as horses, mules, jacks, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry, and bees. “The fertile plains where grow perennial grasses skirted by living streams of good water, and bordered by storm-sheltering forests, make this State of ‘magnificent distances’ and cheapest lands, the State of all States for the stock raiser” (p. 16).
A statistical table claims 7,081,976 head of cattle worth $51,008,550. The attractive lithographed wrappers show the industries and sacred-cow icons of Texas, including a cowboy with lasso chasing a herd of steers. The lithography is the work of the skillful Gast firm in St. Louis, who executed so many of the Texas General Land Office and railroad company maps of Texas counties at the end of the 1870s and through the 1880s. Among the many ads for real estate firms is that of DeCordova & Son of Austin. Another ad of interest is T. P. Robinson, Hides, Austin, Texas. $1,000.00
1809. ELLIOTT, Richard Smith. Notes Taken in Sixty Years. St. Louis: R. P. Studley & Co., 1883. [4] 336 pp., frontispiece portrait of author (artotype photographic process). 8vo, original green cloth stamped in gilt and blind. Some shelf wear, hinges cracked (but strong), light marginal browning to text, overall very good. Ownership ink stamp of Leila C. Elliott of Coffeyville. Scarce with the portrait.
First edition, first issue (with the artotype portrait present). Bradford 1634. Eberstadt 114:291: “Chapters on old-time mining, railroads of long ago, the first locomotive in Illinois, Indians, early California, etc.”; Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 156. Garrett, The Mexican-American War, p. 210. Graff 1236. Howes E111: “Port[rait] not in later issues.” Rittenhouse 186: “Elliott spent many years in Saint Louis and also went up the Missouri. He describes his trip over the Santa Fe Trail with Doniphan’s column during the Mexican War and his return east over the Trail in 1847.” Saunders 2876. Tutorow 3642.
Elliott includes a very humorous account of his aborted attempt to emigrate from Pittsburgh to Texas in 1837 when he encountered the fine and large steamer Constellation with a Lone Star flag captained by a German recruiting emigrants (or more likely cannon fodder). Elliott includes some mention of cattle and herdsmen, such as “The Herder’s Tale,” a droll poem written in dialect. “Ride round ’em, eh?—an’ head ’em back? Head back those Texas steers? Stranger, when you was made, was stuff a-runnin’ short for ears? But then, you’ve had no show to l’arn, jest comin’ out this fall; You’re like them Yankee chaps that gits round here, and knows it all!”
Moving on to something more enlightening, the artotype portrait was made by a process using metal or glass plates coated with dichromated gelatin to produce a printing surface. After exposure against a negative, the plate was washed and treated with glycerin. The gelatin surface becomes selectively absorbent, and greasy ink adheres more easily to the parts of the image containing the least water; the inked plate is then printed on paper. $150.00
1810. ELLIOTT, Richard Smith. Notes Taken in Sixty Years. St. Louis: R. P. Studley & Co., 1883. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original mustard cloth stamped in gilt and blind. Light shelf wear, covers soiled, hinges cracked, interior fine. $150.00
1811. ELLIOTT, Richard Smith. Notes Taken in Sixty Years. St. Louis: R. P. Studley & Co., 1883. [4] 336 pp. 8vo, original dark purple cloth stamped in gilt and blind. Light shelf wear, hinges cracked, internally fine.
First edition, second issue (without the portrait that appeared in the first issue). $75.00
1812. ELLIS, Amanda M. The Colorado Springs Story. [Colorado Springs: Dentan Printing Company, 1954]. 48 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original white printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Fine. Ownership label and inscription of Edith Blunk.
First edition. Wynar 934. The author’s pamphlets are packed with fascinating material on Colorado history. Here we find material on early ranchers, noting that some of the imports from Canada and Europe were a different breed: “One gay Lothario, so handsome and well bred the ladies called him ‘Adonis’ recited poetry instead of studying the market for sheep.... Among the well born ranchmen, ‘fit models of Remington cowboys,’ who by day urged their ponies to speed around sharp corners, who insisted on afternoon tea, and who at night correctly clad in evening clothes played escort to willing ladies, was young Claude Stanhope.... Young English sons, land hungry, came equipped with the finest of saddles, shot guns, rifles, correct riding clothes, and money enough to buy a sheep or cattle ranch.”
The author tells of Dirty Woman’s Ranch and cowpunchers who came to Colorado Springs driving immense herds of cattle and sheep along Pikes Peak Avenue, crossing Shook’s Run to the east of town, and letting their animals graze on the buffalo grass. $40.00
1813. ELLIS, Amanda M. Legends and Tales of the Rockies. [Colorado Springs: Dentan Printing Company, 1954]. 60 pp., text illustrations (one by Russell, mostly photographic). 8vo, original yellow printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Fine.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 8 (“Collecting Modern Western Americana”). Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:99. Among the legends is one of interest for ranching history: “The Post Hole Digger” about a young German from the old country who spoke no English but was hired to dig post holes on government land by the Massachusetts Yankee entrepreneurs of the Warren Live Stock Company in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. With a shovel, an eight-foot post bar, and a famous recipe for cooking jack rabbits, the energetic German set out digging, pointed toward the setting sun. He was so efficient that the host of men hired to follow behind him and fill the lengthy line of holes with posts and string barbed wire never could catch up with him. Sometimes Mormons in Utah and Wyoming would see the German posthole digger, but when they tried to talk to him, he would vanish. After a while, cattlemen even in Utah and Nevada reported seeing a ghostly figure digging a never-ending, imaginary line of fence posts.
As is sometimes the case with folklore, this whimsical and seemingly simple tale actually encapsulates a momentous event. The concept of extended fencing and the invention of barbed wire changed everything in the cattle country. Open range became well-defined ranches, big outfits gave way to smaller, more “democratic” ranches, and the great cattle trails disappeared. $50.00
1814. ELLIS, Amanda M. Pioneers. [Colorado Springs: Dentan Printing Co., 1955]. 52 pp., plates, portraits, facsimiles. 8vo, original gold printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). A few light stains to wraps, else fine.
First edition. Guns 673. Wynar 128. Another of Ellis’s historical pamphlets packed with fascinating meanders into Colorado history, this one excellent for women’s history. Among the pioneers whose stories are told is “Mrs. Bowman” (first name lost to history), who travelled with her infant from Atchinson, Kansas, to Denver in 1864 to join her husband. At first she encountered friendly Indians who “crowded about us begging for whiskey and swearing in pure English. They had acquired a Billingsgate vocabulary of unrivaled opulence.”
Soon, however, her wagon was attacked by a large war party of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho committing depredations against all the area ranches. Mrs. Bowman took the reins from the driver, who was paralyzed with fear, and made him hold her baby while she made hell-for-leather to Thompson’s Ranch. Before arriving she was met by a guard of sixty soldiers and a worried husband. “Exhausted, she took her baby and drew the veil that covered his face, that the father could see his son. ‘Like a piece of rare sculpture, he lay...dead.’ The attack on the Platte in the spring of ’64 seemed the climax in a series of tragedies. Almost every ranch from Fort Morgan to Fort Sedgwick...had been attacked.... Ranches, hay, and stock were burned; men, women, and children, killed and scalped” (pp. 32-33). $45.00
1815. ELLIS, Amanda M. The Strange Uncertain Years: An Informal Account of Life in Six Colorado Communities. Hamden, Connecticut: The Shoe String Press, 1959. xv [3] 423 pp., frontispiece, portraits, photographic text illustrations (including Remington and Russell). 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. Ink ownership signature.
First edition. Mohr, The Range Country 668: “Denver, Central City, Leadville, Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek, Four Corners.” Wynar 519. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:143. Lively local history with a crazy-quilt cast of characters including Coronado, Zebulon Pike, Oscar Wilde, Helen Hunt Jackson, Soapy Smith, Eugene Field, Baby Doe Tabor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and many others. Several unusual incidents are told of the 1864 Sioux-Cheyenne-Arapaho reign of terror against the ranch country along the Platte between Fort Morgan and Fort Sedgwick, including Cheyenne Old Two Face’s trade in captive Anglo women captured from ranches. Old Two Face had discriminating taste and chose only the most beautiful ladies, taking them to Fort Laramie where he would demand 3,000 pounds of flour, large amounts of coffee and sugar, and twenty beef steers in exchange for such a captive. Includes a chapter on Buffalo Bill Cody. $50.00
1816. ELLIS, Anne. Plain Anne Ellis: More about the Life of an Ordinary Woman. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin & The Riverside Press, 1931. [6] 264 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait of author in front of a tent with a group of men and women. 8vo, original blue cloth. Fine in lightly chipped and browned d.j. with portrait of author (price-clipped).
First edition. Dobie, p. 62: “Disillusioned observations, wit, and wisdom by a frank woman.” Herd 758: “Story of life in the cattle country.” Wilcox, p. 42. Wynar 3878. Sequel to Life of an Ordinary Woman by Ellis. With humor and candor, Ellis (1875-1938) describes the nitty-gritty of her experiences as a camp cook among Anglo and Mexico cowboys, sheep shearers, and construction gangs in Colorado. Because so many accounts of the American West are by and about men, Ellis’s book presents a fresh view from a voice seldom heard. Ellis went on to become treasurer of Saguache County. $40.00
1817. ELLIS, Edward S. Across Texas. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, [1893]. iv, 349 [1] 14 (ads) pp., frontispiece, plates. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth. Shelf-worn, lower hinge broken, text browned. ‘Wild Wood Series’ on cover and spine. Pencil gift inscription.
Texas fiction for boys of all ages by one of the most prolific of the dime novelists (see Johannsen, Beadle and Adams II, pp. 93-100). The potboiler includes young Nick’s sojourn among cattlemen and cowboys in West Texas. $20.00
1818. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch, Places and People. Clarendon: Clarendon Press, 1963. xii, 75 [1] pp., plates (photographic plates by Martha Ellis), text illustrations by H. D. Bugbee. 16mo, original red cloth. Very fine.
Limited edition (500 copies). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bugbee 70). A history of the Bell Ranch in New Mexico and the Pablo Montoya Grant (1824) from which it was created. About half of the book is devoted to range verse written by Martha Downer Ellis, whose husband George F. Ellis managed the Bell Ranch until his retirement in 1970. $50.00
1819. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch Recollections. Clarendon: Clarendon Press, 1965. xi [3] 95 pp., frontispiece, plates (photographic, by L. S. Cross, Harvey Caplin, et al.), text illustrations by Robert Lougheed, map (Pablo Montoya Grant and Baca Location No. 2, Property of the Red River Valley Co. Bell Ranch New Mex.) laid in. 12mo, original green cloth. Very fine.
First edition. Accounts by Bell Ranch employees and “alumni,” compiled by the wife of a Bell Ranch manager George F. Ellis. $75.00
1820. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch Sketches. Clarendon: Clarendon Press, 1964. xvi, 103 pp., plates (photographs by author and others), text illustrations by Robert Lougheed, endpaper maps. 12mo, original turquoise decorated cloth. Very fine.
First edition, limited edition (500 copies). History and poetic tribute to the New Mexico ranch focusing on the “cow camps which were so important when the ranch covered three-quarters of a million acres.” $70.00
1821. ELLISON, Glenn R. “Slim.” Cowboys under the Mogollon Rim. [Tucson]: University of Arizona Press, [1968]. [10] 274 pp., illustrated title and text illustrations by author, brands. 8vo, original gilt-lettered orange cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. with one small tear.
First edition. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 532: “Reminiscences in cowboy vernacular.” The story of an Arizona cowboy, trail driver, and homestead rancher, born in 1891. Chapters include “Cowboys at Work,” “Cowboys at Play,” and “Homesteading.” The latter two chapters are good on women and social history in the cattle country. $50.00
1822. ELLISON, Robert S[purrier]. Fort Bridger, Wyoming: A Brief History. N.p.: Historical Landmark Association of Wyoming, 1938. 79 [2] pp., illustrations, some by William H. Jackson, maps (1 foldout). 8vo, original beige wrappers with illustration of the Fort from a sketch by William Henry Jackson. Fine, with author’s signed dedication on title. Newspaper clipping from 1945 regarding author’s death laid in.
Second printing, revised and enlarged. Introduction by J. Cecil Alter, preface by Dan W. Greenburg. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 3. This little volume has some ranching material, such as Judge William A. Carter and his Elk Horn Ranche (including photos). Carter, stockman, post trader, retail merchant, lumberman, and contractor, unofficially presided over Fort Bridger in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Ellison documents the three distinct periods of the Fort: a privately owned and operated facility established by mountain man Jim Bridger; a military post; and a partially restored museum. $40.00
1823. ELLSWORTH, H[enry] L. Washington Irving on the Prairie; or, A Narrative of a Tour of the Southwest in the Year 1832. New York: American Book Co., 1937. xviii, 152 pp., map, 2 facsimiles. 8vo, original dark blue cloth gilt. Fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition, first printing (with W.P.I. on copyright page) of a previously unpublished journal. BAL V, p. 96 (an important firsthand source on Washington Irving, with editors’ notes pointing out passages of Ellsworth’s narrative that parallel Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies). Dobie, p. 87. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 157n: “Washington Irving...accompanied Indian Commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth and his party on a tour of the southern Great Plains in the fall of 1832.” Tate, Indians of Texas 2146. The goal of the mission was to study the situation in the Southwest after the Indian Removal Act, mark boundaries, and pacify the Native Americans. The party travelled to Fort Gibson and almost as far as the Canadian River. Ellsworth tells us a lot more about wild horses and buffalo in this book than Native Americans. He repeatedly describes Native Americans and the party’s Rangers chasing and lassoing mustangs (even including Ellsworth’s map of an encounter with wild horses; original map at Yale). Ellsworth, who was keenly interested in natural history, describes an unusual form of “rustling.” Some the party’s “gallant steeds” were lured away during the night by wild mustangs (p. 112). In his studies of mustangs, J. Frank Dobie refers to this phenomenon and cites Irving’s account of the expedition. Ellsworth comments extensively on Native horsemanship, particularly Pawnee. $50.00
1824. ELSENSOHN, Sister M[ary] Alfreda (ed.). Pioneer Days in Idaho County. Cottonwood & Caldwell: Idaho Corporation of Benedictine Sisters & Caxton Printers, 1951 & 1965. xx [2] 535 + xiv [2] 618 pp., plates (photographic, some ranch related), endpaper maps. 2 vols., 8vo, original tan cloth and original green cloth. Fine set in near fine dust jackets (minor wear and price-clipped). Signed by author.
First edition (first printing of vol. 2, second printing of vol. 1, which first issued in 1947); this two-volume set usually appears in a mixed edition because of the many years between publication of the first and second volumes (Vol. 2 is said to be the difficult one to locate). Herd 761n. Smith S2193. This work contains good detail on cattle-related events through the years, e.g. introduction of Herefords from Iowa; hard winter of 1892-1893 when so many cattle were lost; virtues of the Camas Prairie as a grazing ground; spring roundups; sheepherders vs. cattlemen. The author quotes from an 1890s newspaper accounts, including: “The sheep and mule men along Salmon River have been dancing war quadrilles and ghost schottisches since early winter which culminated in an outbreak a few days ago. They rolled rocks down the mountains at each other for two or three days.... A meeting of cattlemen was held...for the purpose of organizing a cattlemen’s association to devise ways and means to protect their property from rustlers and cattle thieves and to prevent encroachment of sheep on the cattle ranges of the Salmon and Snake Rivers”—I, p. 382). Included is material such as August Kopzczynski’s meticulous description of the old timber rail roundup corral used in the 1880s at Cottonwood and this understatement: “The cattle roundup was quite a little slower as cattle don’t drive quite so fast unless they are on a stampede and then, look out, for when the cattle stampede, they are hard to handle” (I, pp. 316-17). Perhaps the most startling animal tale found within this excellent local history is Harry Mason’s 1903 roundup of a load of cats sold at $10 apiece in Florence. Good women’s and social history. $150.00
1825. ELZNER, Jonnie Ross. Lamplights of Lampasas County, Texas. Austin: Firm Foundation Publishing House, [1951]. [4] ii [1] 6-219 pp., photographic text illustrations, maps. 8vo, original green gilt-pictorial cloth. Fine. Inscribed and signed by author.
First edition. CBC 2923. Guns 676. Herd 763. There is quite a bit of detail given on the history of the cattle industry in Lampasas County, from the earliest introduction of cattle by vaqueros to biographies of pioneer cattlemen like Tilford Bean, J. Ringer Kirby, “Snap” Bean, and others. “The condition of greatest importance in the development of the cattle kingdom was the growth of a market for cattle after the Civil War. Fat steers in Lampasas county which were worth only $6.00 and $7.00 before the Civil War commanded as high as $40 to $50 in northern markets” (p. 28). Some sections of interest: “Growth of Cattle Industry”; “Sheep and Wool Industries”; “The Goat Industry”; “Maverick and His Calves” (origin of the term); “Fence Cutting in Lampasas County”; “Horrell-Higgins Feud”; “The Early Cowboy” (“The cowboy of the pioneer days...was a sort of heroic figure who was dressed in boots, coarse trousers, bright shirt, chaps, spurs, sombrero, or ‘ten gallon hat’), bandana, and sometimes carrying a gun across the saddle or a revolver in his pocket. They had good saddles with saddle bags flapping”—p. 67). $55.00
1826. EMMETT, Chris. Fort Union and the Winning of the Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1965]. xvi, 436 [4] pp., plates (photographic and vintage prints), maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (illustrated by Charles Schreyvogel). From the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Schreyvogel 58). Rittenhouse 187: “Best book to date on this famous SFT fort.” Though primarily concerned with military history, some material on ranching and cattle is included: area ranches (Hatch, Maxwell, and others); U.S. military offer of livestock as reward to citizens for capturing Navajo who had left the Bosque Redondo; U.S. reneging on supplying beef to Ute and other tribes who then rustled stock; etc. Most important is Emmett’s discussion of the Comanchero, natives of northern and central New Mexico who conducted trade with the nomadic plains tribes and headquartered at Loma Parda near Fort Union. Increased demand for cattle in New Mexico in the 1870s led to Comanchero rustling (sometimes with tribal assistance) and trading in stolen cattle. Emmett quotes an 1871 New Mexico newspaper report: “This damnable and outrageous traffic must be stopped, and we cannot sufficiently thank the military for their laudable efforts in this direction... Horses and mules from New Mexico are stolen and taken to the Comanche to trade for cattle. The people on the Pecos have almost entirely neglected their ranches for this more profitable traffic... In the last three months more than 30,000 head of cattle have been brought to this country from that source alone!” (p. 358). Emmett describes the resulting army intervention launched from Fort Union in 1874 and the eventual demise of the Comancheros. $65.00
1827. EMMETT, Chris. Shanghai Pierce: A Fair Likeness. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1953]. xiii [1] 326 [2] pp., photographic plates, illustrations by Nick Eggenhofer, maps. 8vo, original brown cloth. Slight foxing along hinges, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. Author’s signed presentation copy: “For Dudley R. Dobie: Ever my good friend and Texas’ finest bookman. Chris Emmett.”
First edition. Adams, Burs I:122. Basic Texas Books 56: “One of the best biographies of a Texas cattleman.... After serving in the Confederate cavalry, he began to round up wild cattle on the open range and build a herd of his own.... His company sent untold thousands of cattle up the northern trails from Texas.... Material as well on cattlemen such as Ab Blocker and Ike Pryor.” Campbell, p. 82: “Lively and authentic biography about Abel Head Pierce, ‘the most widely known cattleman with the Río Grande and the British possessions’ as Andy Adams called him—the giant with the fog-horn voice who described himself as ‘Webster on cattle, by God.’” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #56. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer 70); Western High Spots, p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 678. Herd 764. Reese, Six Score 38: “Pierce was a grand original, the first cattle king of Texas. A well written biography.”
“How a penniless boy from New England built a Texas cattle empire. Pierce was the model for the popular conception of the cattle baron” (Taylor & Maar, The American Cowboy, p. 222). $150.00
1828. EMMITT, Robert. The Last War Trail: The Utes and the Settlement of Colorado. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. ix, 333 [1] pp., text illustrations (drawings by Bettina Steinke), maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian Series 40. Wynar 1802. The Ute trouble arose because of the tribe’s discontent with their reservation and controversy between Utes and ranchers over the desirable grazing lands adjacent to their reservation. The author relied on original government documents and manuscripts, along with Ute and Anglo sources. $75.00
1829. EMRICH, Duncan. The Cowboy’s Own Brand Book. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, [1954]. xiii [1] 75 [7] pp., text illustrations and brands by Ava Morgan. Oblong 12mo, original green cloth. Slight foxing to endpapers, else very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 6 (“Collecting Modern Western Americana”): “Informative and delightful reading for all boys from seven to seventy”; p. 85 (“A Range Man’s Library”). Herd 765. The author instructs the three fundamental rules for reading brands (read from left to right, top to bottom, and from the outside to the inside) and shows how to recognize the variety of letters, figures, numbers, and pictures in brands. $50.00
1830. EMRICH, Duncan. It’s an Old Wild West Custom. New York: Vanguard Press, [1949]. xiv, 313 pp., text illustrations (including brands). 8vo, original orange pictorial cloth. Fine in fine d.j. (illustrated with brands).
First edition. The American Customs Series. Guns 679. Herd 766. Paher, Nevada 563: “Compendium of Western customs, names, places and people. Among other things, the author tells of Virginia City, gambling and women dealers, drinking, violence, religion, western jargon, and Virginia City’s Julia Bulette.” This book also contains extensive information on cowboys, branding, and the culture of the cattle country. $45.00
1831. ENGELHARDT, Zephyrin. The Franciscans in California. Harbor Springs, Michigan: Holy Childhood Indian School, 1897. [4] xvi, 516 [1] pp., text illustrations (some full-page), map. 8vo, original black cloth. Spine with two-inch white stain, mild shelf wear, front free endpaper detached, preliminary and terminal leafs browned, hinges cracked. Bookplates in front and back.
First edition. Blumann & Thomas 4949. Cowan, p. 196. Graff 1250. Howes E153. Streit III:2929. Wallace, Arizona History III:7. Weber, The California Missions, p. 30: “‘The most complete work upon the colonization and evangelization of California by the Franciscans,’ this volume subsequently served as the ground-plan for the author’s more elaborate work on The Missions and Missionaries of California”(see Zamorano 80 #34). Michael Mathes (Volkmann Zamorano Eighty) points out that “Englehardt had access to the California Archives destroyed during the disastrous earthquake-fire in San Francisco in 1906. This simply means that Englehardt´s work contains information no longer available to researchers, and thus makes it an irreplaceable source.” Engelhardt includes material on the plight of the missionized California Native Americans after secularization of the missions. “They would return to the wilderness and join the wild Indians in stealing cattle and horses, in order to sell them to the New Mexicans and foreigners” (p. 175). Statistics show that between 1790 and 1800, mission herds of horses, mules, and horned cattle increased from 22,000 to 67,000, whereas small stock (sheep and goats) diminished. Similar statistics are given for other decades. $175.00
1832. ENGLISH, Mary Katharine Jackson. Prairie Sketches; or, Fugitive Recollections of an Army Girl of 1899. [Denver: Privately printed, ca. 1899]. 79 pp., photographic text illustrations (some full-page). 8vo, original green printed wrappers. Very fine. Scarce.
First edition. Graff 1251. Howes (1954) 3323. Huntington 292: “An interesting narrative of life and adventures in the far west, containing details on the Shoshones, Arapahoes, etc.” The author was a genuine early western “army brat,” who except for two years in the East at boarding school, grew up “on an Indian pony” in remote Western army posts, where her father served as a major in the 7th Cavalry. Mary’s high-spirited account commences in Rawlins, Wyoming, with her arrival by train from the East and boarding school with her mother and a female servant. A grizzled peg-legged stage driver meets the ladies with an army ambulance (photo included) to drive them overland 150 miles to join Mary’s father at Fort Washakie. It does not take very long for Mary to flee the confined ambulance and her female companions and grab the reins from the driver. Their stops along the route are Sheep’s Ranch (inhabited by a lone coyote); Lost Soldier Ranch (“a small pile of low adobe buildings, unsightly and gray with dust; not a tree or green thing in sight”); Sweetwater Ranch (“much of the land being fenced off with the deadly barbed wire allow no herds of antelope and deer as found in my girlhood”); and Wind River Ranch (dangerous ascent down steep Beaver Hill imperiled further by a rattlesnake that spooked the mules). Mary hilariously tells of their overnight sojourn at the rough headquarters of Lost Soldier Ranch, whose owner Tom proudly relates how he bought the ranch with savings from working as a cowpuncher. The ranch had two large rooms, one for sleeping and the other a bar-kitchen that reeked of beer (“Think of it! Beer for breakfast, beer for luncheon, beer for dinner”). The sleeping quarters contained four enormous beds, each large enough to hold six men. Tom had thoughtfully partitioned off one bed for the ladies, making a privacy screen with five-foot, paper-thin boards (for security there was a big glittery bowie knife under the bed, and light consisted of a candle in a broken beer bottle). Mary’s mother and the servant were so horrified at the immodesty of the sleeping arrangement that Tom, in a gesture of true ranching hospitality, graciously agreed that he and his cowboys would sleep in the other room on the floor. This is a wonderful account with much more to commend it than these ranching passages. This remarkable book written by a teenager should be reprinted. $350.00
1833. EPPERSON, Harry A. Colorado As I Saw It. [Kaysville, Utah: Inland Printing Co., 1944]. [6] 137 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original black and burgundy textured cloth gilt. Fine.
New edition (first edition Buena Vista, 1943). Herd 768. Wilcox, p. 43: “Reminiscences of ranch life in South Park.” Wynar 6406. A wealth of solid, firsthand information on ranch life in Colorado by native Coloradan Epperson (b. 1880). $125.00
1834. ERDMAN, Loula Grace. The Edge of Time. New York: Dodd, Mead, [1950]. [8] 275 pp. 8vo, original blue cloth. A few light spots to binding, endpapers mildly browned, otherwise fine in very good d.j. (very light wear). Author’s signed presentation inscription to J. Frank Dobie; also signed by author on half-title.
First edition. Campbell, p. 249: “Story of Missourians who pioneer in the panhandle of Texas where the author makes her home. The background of the novel is the conflict between the nesters and the cattlemen with all the hardships of drought, blizzards, wind, poverty, and loneliness.” See Handbook of Texas Online: Louise Grace Erdman; Tuska & Piekarski, Encyclopedia of Frontier & Western Fiction ( pp. 85-86); and WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 506. $50.00
1835. ERLANSON, Charles B. Battle of the Butte: General Miles’ Fight with the Indians on Tongue River, January 8, 1877. [Sheridan, Wyoming], 1963. 32 pp., photographic text illustrations, maps. 8vo, original red pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued). Fine. Privately printed, very scarce.
First edition. Smith S2633. For fifty years the author rode the range on the Flying V Ranch which, with the Circle Three outfit, ran 6,000 head of cattle on the Cheyenne Reservation. This range was where the Battle of Butte occurred on January 8, 1877 (Rosebud County, Montana). The author meshes together original printed and manuscript sources with oral histories by tribal members, including some interviews with survivors of the Battle. Only a few days before the Battle, raiding parties swooped down on a nearby U.S. military cantonment and drove off the majority of the beef herd and a good portion of the horses. (Approximately 2,500 people were in the camps of the Cheyenne and Crazy Horse Ogallala, and it took a large quantity of meat to keep them supplied since big game was not plentiful, due to the influx of miners, ranchers, and settlers.) In a blinding blizzard General Nelson Miles led his forces against the allied tribesmen. Surrender by the tribes soon followed. The author carries forward the history of the Cheyenne: “When the Indians came in, they were required to give up their ponies and arms. Later these ponies were sold and the proceeds used in purchasing a herd of cattle... Army teams were used by the Indians for plowing and cultivating the land, [and] when the Cheyenne finally were given a reservation, they were almost self-supporting.” At the end is a photograph of a Cheyenne cowboy with author’s caption: “My old friend John Stands in Timber. In our youth John and I rode together on the Cheyenne Reservation Roundup. Photo by author, taken a number of years ago at the Sheridan Wyoming rodeo.” $25.00
1836. ERSKINE, Gladys Shaw. Broncho Charlie: A Saga of the Saddle. The Life Story of Broncho Charlie Miller, the Last of the Pony Express Riders. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, [1934]. xiv [2] 316 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, portraits, maps by Broncho Charlie (1 folding), endpaper maps. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine. Bookplate on front pastedown
First edition. Guns 681: “Scarce.... Contains information on some Dodge City gunmen.” Herd 769. Howes E171. Smith 2878. Reminiscences of Broncho Charlie, written in dialect. “Ridin’ herd at night, you know, there’s four punchers...one to each side of the cattle, so that each man covers his territory back and forth, or sits still on his horse, watchin’ the critters chew their cud, and careful to keep his eyes and ears open, so that if any one of ’em gets to movin’ too fast out of the herd, he can ride up on him and tirn him back in. Then...another thing...the cattle’ll be lyin’ there, or millin’ peaceful as anything, and there’ll come thunder or lightnin’...or a gun shot, closeup...and before you can say ‘Jack Robinson,’ they’ll all be in a stampede” (p. 164). Born in a covered wagon moving toward Mount Shasta, Charlie Miller (1850-1955) was riding for the Pony Express by age eleven. He had many jobs in his exciting life, including bronco busting (which won him his nickname of “Broncho Charlie”), cow herding, stagecoach driving, and performing in Cody’s Wild West show (including his race with cyclist in London). $75.00
1837. ERSKINE, Michael. The Diary of Michael Erskine Describing His Cattle Drive from Texas to California, Together with Correspondence from the Gold Fields 1854-1859. Edited with Notes and Historical Introduction by J. Evetts Haley. [Midland: Designed by William H. Holman for] Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library, [1979]. 173 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (mostly full-page, some in color, from vintage prints such as the Gray and Emory reports). Large 8vo, original white pictorial linen. Fine copy of a handsomely realized Holman family imprint, from the library of Texas printer Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition, limited edition. Wallace, Arizona History III:63n. Firsthand account of an epic trail drive, embarked upon in the spring of 1854. Michael Erskine owned and operated El Capote Ranch in Texas, and from there set out with a herd of cattle for the California gold fields with the hopes that his own gold mine was accompanying him on hoof (clearly a case of temporary dementia in which Erskine confused his cattle with the oft-sighted elephant). From the first day’s entry: “Left Sandies with the herd on Sunday, the 23 or 24. First night stompeded on the Cibolo, lost some cattle. Stompeded next night, think we lost but few. Camped next night on the Salado (Seguin crossing). Cattle quiet.”
In his introduction Haley remarks on the “rather unique nature of cowboy records and their importance in history.... There is precious little material relating to the experiences of those sun-burnt sons of defiance who pushed the herds of Longhorns from Texas across half a hostile continent to feed them. One of the principal reasons for this scarcity of materials was inherent in the nature of the trail drivers themselves. In the first place, as a breed of men rather disciplined in the school of direct action, cowboys and cowmen were rarely lush with words, especially when they felt they had nothing much to say. And in the second, they usually shied away from writing anything down, especially with the idea of poppin’ off in print.... Thus original materials on that period are scant and widely scattered, and those that have survived assume added significance and importance.” $75.00
1838. ERWIN, Allen A. The Southwest of John H. Slaughter 1841-1922: Pioneer Cattleman and Trail-Driver of Texas, the Pecos, and Arizona and Sheriff of Tombstone. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1965. 368 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates, maps, facsimiles. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Western Frontiersman Series 10. Clark & Brunet 78. Guns 682: “Contains a foreword on the book by William McLeod Raine (perhaps the last writing he completed before his death), and a foreword on the author by Ramon F. Adams. It is the first, and a long-needed, book on the famous John Slaughter and shows much research.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 543.
Slaughter (1841-1922), sheriff, rancher, and Texas Ranger, descended from the Slaughter dynasty of pioneer ranchers of Texas and the Southwest. As a boy, he ranched with his father and brothers. He learned Spanish and the art of cowboying from Mexican vaqueros, and many lessons from Native Americans who still roamed the frontier of Texas. After the Civil War, he and his brothers formed the San Antonio Ranch Company in Atascosa County. Slaughter was one of the first to drive cattle up the Chisholm Trail. When Texas became too crowded for him in the 1870s, he moved to Arizona, eventually establishing San Bernardino Ranch near Douglas. In 1886 he was elected sheriff of Cochise County. “He was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s series of the late 1950s, ‘Texas John Slaughter.’” (Handbook of Texas Online: John Horton Slaughter). $150.00
1839. ERWIN, Marie H. Wyoming Historical Blue Book: A Legal and Political History of Wyoming, 1868-1943. Denver: Bradford-Robinson Printing, n.d. (ca. 1946). xxiii [1] 1,471 pp., color plates of Wyoming state flag, bird, and flower, frontispiece portrait of Governor Hunt, text illustrations (mostly photographic), maps, charts. Thick 8vo, original navy blue cloth gilt. Fine.
First edition. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 23: “Material on Wyoming as a territory and as a state.” This mine of information on Wyoming focuses on legislation and law, past and present. Early appeals for statehood and related legal history that are reprinted invariably refer to stock raising. Senate Bill 2445 (1888): “Much has been said on the grazing fields of Wyoming. There are no finer on the continent. The Stock Association of the Territory estimated there are 2,000,000 head of live stock, of which about 1,500,000 are neat cattle, owned and pastured in this Territory.” Inaugural address of Governor Warren, 1889: “We should deal fairly with...the stockman who as the pioneer has paid largely of the taxes and has made later settlement of the country possible, and who now divides the lands with the farmer.” Constitution of Wyoming (1889): “The legislature shall pass all necessary laws to provide for the protection of live stock against the introduction or spread of pleuro-pneumonia, glanders, splenetic or Texas fever, and other infectious or contagious diseases.... ”
Other ranching material includes State Livestock Boards, statistics, and biographies and photographs of stockmen who were signers, legislators and/or held public office, such as Caleb P. Organ (a charter member of the famous Cheyenne Club), Alexander L. Sutherland, Jonathan Jones, Hubert E. Teschemacher, Charles W. Burdick, Robert C. Butler, and many more. We also learn arcane information, such as the fact that the first state seal struck in 1891 was never used because it showed a nude woman. The second seal (1893) depicted a woman in modest toga, a rancher on the left, a miner on the right, and inscriptions of LIVESTOCK, MINES, OIL, GRAIN, and EQUAL RIGHTS.
Of Texas interest is a map and historical information relating to the Republic of Texas owning a little piece of Wyoming as part of its gigantic Panhandle based on the Emory map. Of interest for women’s history is Lester C. Hunt’s “Legislative History of Woman Suffrage in Wyoming” (Wyoming was progressive in granting women the right to vote and hold office thirty years before the feds). $100.00
1840. ERWIN, Marie H. Wyoming Historical Blue Book.... Denver: Bradford-Robinson Printing, n.d. (ca. 1946). Another copy, variant binding. Thick 8vo, original royal blue cloth gilt. Upper hinge cracked, but otherwise fine. $100.00
1841. ESCALANTE, Silvestre. Father Escalante’s Journal, 1776-77: Newly Translated with Related Documents and Original Maps. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1943. viii [1] 142 pp., photographic text illustrations, portraits, maps. 8vo, original brown textured cloth gilt. Very fine.
First edition of the first separate printing of Father Escalante’s journal of the first European exploration across the Great Basin. Appeared at the same time as Utah Historical Quarterly 11:1-4 (see below). Translated, edited, and with introductory remarks by Herbert S. Auerbach. Farquhar, The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon 8c.
As a later Spanish explorer in the West, Escalante’s journal is interesting for recording the increase in livestock first brought to the region by the Spanish in the late 1500s. One of the most significant human-induced changes affecting the biota of the Colorado Plateau has been the introduction and proliferation of domestic livestock. Escalante notes the warlike nature of Apache in the area adjoining the Gila River and the lower Colorado River and records their success in stampeding and stealing many of the Spaniards’ horses and cattle. Of the Moqui, Escalante notes: “All the pueblos have many sheep whose wool is usually black. They also have some cattle. Of these last there are many more in Araybe. In this one there are also many horses.” Other such references are found in Escalante’s journal, as well as the accompanying report by Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco. $125.00
1842. ESCALANTE, Silvestre. Father Escalante’s Journal, 1776-77: Newly Translated with Related Documents and Original Maps. Utah Historical Quarterly 11:1-4. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1943. Another copy, in wrappers. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Very fine.
First edition of the first separate printing. Appeared at the same time as a separate monograph (see above). Farquhar, The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon 8d. $100.00
1843. ESPINOSA, Aurelio M. The Spanish Language in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing Company, 1911. [4] 37 pp. 8vo, original slate blue printed wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Historical Society of New Mexico Publication 16. Saunders 3376. One of the vectors through which the Spanish language influenced English was ranching terminology: latigo, lariat, corral, bronco, vaquero and rancho are just a few familiar terms attributed to Spanish influence. The author explores the opposite situation with Hispanicized English terms, such as son-of-a-gun becoming sanamagón. Náhuatl and other indigenous linguistic elements are discussed, as well as special usages in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. $75.00
1844. ESPINOSA, Carmen. Shawls, Crinolines, Filigree: The Dress and Adornment of the Women of New Mexico, 1739 to 1900. El Paso: [Carl Hertzog for] Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso, [1970]. xiv [2] 61 pp., text illustrations (mostly full-page, some in color). 8vo, original half goldenrod cloth over purple cloth. Very fine in slightly worn d.j. Signed by printer Carl Hertzog, and Vivian Hertzog’s note paper laid in. Hertzog bookplate.
First edition. Lowman, Printer at the Pass 254. This elegant, scholarly work with introduction and design by Carl Hertzog contains wills of ten women dated from 1739 to 1831, documenting that New Mexico women owned ranches and extensive herds. $50.00
1845. ESPINOSA, Carmen. Shawls, Crinolines, Filigree.... El Paso: [Carl Hertzog for] Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso, [1970]. Another copy. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped). Extra d.j. present. $40.00
1846. ESPINOSA, Jose E. Saints in the Valleys: Christian Sacred Images in the History, Life and Folk Art of Spanish New Mexico. [Albuquerque]: University of New Mexico Press, 1960. xiii [1] 122 pp., frontispiece, photographic text illustrations, endpaper map. Folio, original terracotta cloth. Very fine in d.j. with light edge wear. Signed by author.
First edition of a basic book on the subject. Foreword by Angelico Chavez. This work contains fascinating information on lesser known consequences resulting from Spanish introduction of cattle into the Southwest, particularly the Oñate expedition, which herded approximately 7,000 cattle into New Mexico in the early years of the 1600s. Elements of the cow came to be included in New Mexico sacred art, e.g., braided leather was fashioned into the Crown of Thorns as a symbol for bultos representing Christ, and the first protective coat given to wood for santos consisted of a gelatinous substance made from cow horns or hoofs. We also learn that during the great famine of 1670, both Spanish and Native Americans in New Mexico fought off starvation by eating roasted hides (p. 12).
The author comments in general on the use of santos: “The myriad problems incident to the rugged life of farmers, sheep men, cattlemen, and horsemen, in short, the daily concerns of people living close to Mother Earth, called for special patrons from the long list of holy men and women whose lives reflected a special interest in or association with specific situations” (p. 84). John the Baptist was patron saint of shepherds, and Santa Iñez was invoked for the recovery of strayed livestock (perhaps Anthony of Padua, finder of lost articles, might have proven efficacious on those later trail drives, or even Rita of Cascia, advocate of the impossible). $150.00
1847. ESTILL, Julia. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz: His Heritage and Training. Fredericksburg: [Fredericksburg Publishing Company], 1942. [12] pp., photographs. 12mo, original white pictorial wrappers. Upper wrap slightly discolored due to acid migration from mailing envelope (present), else fine.
Offprint from the Fredericksburg Standard, December 25, 1941. The noted military leader mentions his Uncle Henke’s Wolf Creek Ranch between Kerrville and Fredericksburg, where, according to his own statement, he spent the happiest days of his early teens. $50.00
1848. [ESTILL, Julia]. Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country [wrapper title]. [Fredericksburg: Fredericksburg Publishing Company, 1946]. [36] pp., photographic illustrations, map. 8vo, original full-color photographic wrappers. Very fine.
First edition. CBC 1890. Guide and promotional issued for the Fredericksburg Centennial. Includes photographs of the Morris Ranch and a section on ranching in the region. $40.00
1849. EVANS, Joe M. Collecting Friends: My Hobby. [El Paso: Guynes Printing for the author, 1952]. [10] 150 pp., facsimiles. 12mo, original blue pictorial cloth. A few light stains to binding, interior fine. Author’s signed and dated inscription, “To Dave Cameron, with my best wishes, Joe M. Evans, 1962.” Carl Hertzog bookplate.
First edition. The author, a Baptist ranchman, writes brief sketches thanking his friends for their friendship, including West Texas open-range rancher Henry “Old Moss” Mayfield. He describes the fellowship of the Bloys Cowboys camp meetings in the Davis Mountains attended by cowboys and ranch families (see Handbook of Texas Online: Bloys Camp Meeting). Evans regales with platitudes about cowboys and ranch life, e.g.: “A good start is more than half the battle; that is the reason the cowboys and ranch people always get up early, so as to get a good start”; and “A horse is a cowboy’s first love.” $35.00
1850. EVANS, Joe M. The Cow: About All I Know I Learned from a Cow [wrapper title]. [El Paso: Guynes Printing, 1944]. 71 pp., photographic portrait of author on horseback at front, plates (photographic and cartoons). 12mo, original beige pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued). Minor wear to fragile wraps, otherwise a fine copy, signed by author.
First edition. Herd 775. A humorous homage to the cow. “The cow is a four legged animal with horns, hide, teats and tail. She produces beef and milk and calves, and is surrounded by cowboys and mortgages” (p. 7). Some of the cartoons are by J. R. Williams, noted comic artist of range life. $75.00
1851. EVANS, Joe M. The Cow: About All I Know I Learned from a Cow [wrapper title]. [El Paso: Guynes Printing, 1944]. 71 pp., plates, portrait, photographs, illustrations. 12mo, original beige pictorial wrappers, stapled. Small tape repair to upper wrapper and short, clean tear at spine, overall a very good copy. Ink ownership inscription on title page.
Second printing. $10.00
1852. EVANS, Joe M. (ed.). A Corral Full of Stories. [El Paso: McMath, 1939]. x, 66 pp., frontispiece plate (author and J. Frank Dobie looking very much in his cups), plates (photographic), text illustrations (some full-page) by Tom Lea, J. R. Williams, and others, brands. 12mo, original salmon pictorial wrappers with photographic illustration. Fine in d.j., with four order forms for the book laid in. Author’s inscribed and signed presentation copy to Dudley R. Dobie.
First edition. Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 153). Herd 774. These stories, often humorous, center on cowboys and range life, with subjects ranging from dogs to droughts and preaching to politicians. The documentary photos are excellent. The design and typography show the influence of Carl Hertzog. $75.00
1853. EVANS, Joe M. (ed.). A Corral Full of Stories. [El Paso: McMath, 1939]. Another copy. Moderate shelf wear, internally fine. Related newspaper clipping laid in. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. $40.00
1854. EVANS, Max. Long John Dunn of Taos. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1959. 174 [2] [1, ad] pp., plates (photographic), text illustrations, facsimile. 8vo, original red embossed pictorial cloth. Very fine in d.j. with minor marginal chipping and a few stains on lower panel (price-clipped. Jacket illustrated by Don Louis Perceval.
First edition. Great West and Indian Series 15. Guns 687. Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Perceval 24). John Dunn (1857-1953), cowboy, gunslinger, stagecoach driver, saloon and gambling den keeper, became a legend in Northern New Mexico. The author includes material on Dunn’s cowboying and trail drives. In the 1860s Dunn worked as a cowboy on the Halff Brothers’ Ranch (on the Rio Grande), “owned by several Jews who kept residence in San Antonio.” One of the enterprises John Dunn undertook was a trail drive from Texas to Montana in the 1880s with over two thousand cattle. “‘A feller learned to use a rope,’ John reminisced, ‘for more reasons than one. Sometimes it would save miles of hard riding after a steer, and it was always a good convincer when an ornery old steer wanted to make trouble” (p. 43). $60.00
1855. EVANS, Max & Candy Moulton (eds.). Hot Biscuits: Eighteen Stories by Women and Men of the Ranching West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [2002]. [8] 239 pp. 8vo, original light blue cloth. Fine in fine d.j. Editor Moulton’s signed presentation copy.
First edition. Short stories by cowboys and cowgirls, all of which are united by the fact that each includes something about biscuits. $20.00
1856. EVANS, Will F. Border Skylines: Fifty Years “Tallying Out” on the Bloys Round-Up Ground. Dallas: Baugh for the Bloys Camp Meeting Association, [1940]. xiv [6] 587 [1] pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic and full-page), brands. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth stamped in silver. Light outer wear, hinges and a few signatures starting, light water staining to margins of a few leaves, overall good to very good. Author’s signed presentation inscription to W. A. Dodson: “A Pioneer who has seen the West in the making and knows what it is all about.”
First edition. Dobie, p. 66: “Chronicles of the men and women—cow people—and cow country responsible for the best known campmeeting held annually, Texas has ever had.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Herd 777: “Much on cowboys and the Bloys cowboy camp meetings.” $75.00
1857. EVANS, Will F. Hunting Grizzlys, Black Bear, and Lions, “Big-Time” on the Old Ranches. [El Paso: McMath, 1950]. 109 [1] pp., frontispiece, text illustrations. 8vo, original beige wrappers with photographic illustration. Tape stains on endpapers, otherwise very good. Author’s signed presentation copy.
First edition. Herd 778. Comprised of reprints from magazines and newspapers, these are tales of big game hunting on ranches, interspersed with some ranching stories. Inevitably, the extermination of large predators such as bears and mountain lions has been justified in the name of protecting livestock interests. $65.00
1858. EVERETT, Donald E. San Antonio Legacy. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, [1979]. [10] 121 pp., illustrated by José Cisneros. Large 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (illustrated by Cisneros). José Cisneros’ signed presentation inscription to Vivian and Carl Hertzog in Cisneros’ beautiful calligraphy. Hertzog bookplate.
First edition. These are stories of early San Antonio, giving a nice overview of the various cultures that contributed to the city’s cultural mélange. There is a chapter entitled “Barbed Wire Man” that discusses Pete P. McManus who “has the record of having sold many times more barbed wire than any man in the world.” $40.00
1859. EVERETT, George G. The Cavalcade of Railroads in Central Colorado. Denver: Golden Bell Press, [1966]. [16] 235 pp., photographic illustrations, portraits. 8vo, original turquoise cloth. Very fine in slightly worn d.j.
First edition. Wynar 6542. Ranching interest lies in the chapter entitled “The Rancher and the D & RGW Railroad” in which the author recalls the impact the railroad had on his ranch and the surrounding community. $75.00
Rare History of Hood County, Texas
1860. EWELL, Thomas T. A History of Hood County Texas from its Earliest Settlement to the Present, Together with Biographical Sketches of Many Leading Men and Women among the Early Settlers, As Well As Many Incidents in the Adjoining Territory. Also a Sketch of the History of Somervell County. Granbury: Granbury News, 1895. [4] [4, ads] 64 [4, ads] 65-76 [2, ads] 77-128 [2, ads] 129-160 [1] [1, ad] [6, Supplemental Sketch of Somervell County] pp., ads on pastedowns. 8vo, original black gilt-lettered cloth (neatly rebacked with sympathetic cloth). Light outer wear, text browned (due to the cheap paper on which it was printed), overall a very good to fine copy of one of the rarest Texas county histories.
First edition. CBC 2475. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 18. Graff 1279. Herd 779: “Rare.” Howes E239. Vandale 62. In the early years of the 1850s Anglo stock raisers and farmers began to settle in Hood County on the north central plains of Texas, and in 1866 the County was established. There is scarcely a page in this quaintly printed, marvelous county history that does not in some way touch on ranching history, with a great deal on early ranchers, cowboys, trail drives, Comanche and Kiowa rustlers, women’s and social history in the cattle country, etc. Our favorite passage is the following account of an 1870s trail drive that is almost Joycian in flow (original spelling and absence of paragraph breaks retained):
“W. H. Kingsbury...often collected up considerable herds of marketable cattle, which he drove to the markets beyond the Indian territory. These long drives to markets having become things of the past, a short description of one with its difficulties and perils will scarcely be deemed out of place here. For several weeks beforehand the numerous cattlemen are negotiated with to deliver certain grades of steers—usually 2 to 4 years old—to Kingsbury, who announces that he will start with a herd on a given date. At the appointed time often one to two thousand head of such steers, sleek and fat from the range are put into the herd, driven by some ten or fifteen cowboys, with three or more ponies to each, following the herd for reliefs and pack horses. An experienced man is employed as ‘boss’ and under this direction they proceed; Kingsbury accompanies the herd with his wife, who desires to make a trip to the cities. There are no wire fences or other incidents of civilization to obstruct their way, and the grass being abundant they drive from twelve to fifteen miles daily, only having to take care that water is duly reached at proper intervals. Finally on a hot, sultry evening they draw near the bottoms of the Red river. The experienced eye detects signs of a stormy night and every precaution is taken, the cattle are carefully ‘rounded-up,’ the guards are placed at advantageous stations, and instructed to keep the herd soothed if possible, by song and refrain. Kingsbury takes his wife to a remote grove and they go into camp. After they have retired to rest the storm approaches, the thunder rolls and the lightnings play through the heavy timber of the bottom the uneasy herd have been lowing for some time and the cowboys have grown hoarse with keeping up their constant refrain as they ride about the outskirts of the herd; the night is dark and nothing seen save when the glare of the livid lightning is thrown upon the scene. Kingsbury is on the watch, his own horse is saddled and several of his men with him. Presently an ominous silence prevails in the great herd, instantly followed by the dreadful tramping of thousands of hoofs and loud clashing of horns; they have stampeded, in what direction nobody knows, till the lightnings reveal their course, then every man in his saddle urges his pony through the darkness to gain their front, and finally a few fearless cowboys have placed themselves in the lead of the onward moving herd, and in the darkness and storm lead them in the circling movement. Presently it is discovered by Kingsbury that the herd is now heading toward the station where he is guarding his family. No time is lost; with a few of his men they make to the head of the angry, surging column, which no human power could check in its irresistible career, and succeed by their soothing voices to lead them in a circling line from their direction; so that by the time the camp is reached, the dashing mass pass it but a few feet to one side, then to avoid further danger, the herd is led on far away to the prairies, where after they have been severed into several bodies, and have finally exhausted themselves, they are left till the morning light enables the cowboys to again gather them up for the trail, which is resumed and accomplished without further serious adventure. But through the wild uninhabitable plains, meeting here and there parties of half civilized Indians, and the many adventures and diverting scenes passed on the long overland trail, made by short daily rides, possessed no doubt much to fascinate the spirited and brave little woman who had chosen to accompany her husband on this trip, yet it is not likely she again ventured to share the perils from which, by the cowmen’s skill, she had such a narrow escape. But though such stampedes were common, the cowboys’ experience and skill were usually sufficient for his own protection, however burdensome and fatiguing the task of night-herding on stormy nights. When he reached Kansas City or Chicago, he, with his broad-brimmed sombrero, mounted upon his bronco, with elaborate trappings dangling from his saddle, and quirt in hand, was an object of sufficient attraction to insure him a good time; thus accoutered, and hailing from Texas, he possessed immunity from interference by the ‘cops’ enjoyed by few other classes. And most of the cowboys relished these trips kept up till railroads and wire fences destroyed their trade.” $2,000.00
1861. EWERS, John C. The Blackfeet, Raiders on the Northwestern Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1958]. xviii, 348 [2] pp., photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original black cloth. One corner very slightly bumped, otherwise very fine in very fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian Series 49. Smith S2636. Mentions briefly cattle raising by both Native Americans and Anglos, and examines the connection between the wholesale slaughter of buffalo and the introduction of cattle. $45.00
1862. EWERS, John C. Indian Life on the Upper Missouri. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1968]. xviii, 222 pp., portraits, photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original goldenrod cloth. Very fine in slightly rubbed d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian Series 89. Smith S2637. Chapter 12 (“The Last Bison Drive of the Blackfoot Indians”) discusses the Native American version of ranching: buffalo jumps at which entire herds were driven over cliffs, allowing for large-scale harvest by the tribe. Chapter 13 (“Food Rationing—From Buffalo to Beef”) discusses the dietary transition as the Blackfeet lost their buffalo hunting ground and went to reservations where beef was rationed. $75.00
1863. FAIRFIELD, Ula King. Pioneer Lawyer: A Story of the Western Slope of Colorado. [Denver: W. H. Kistler Stationery Co.], 1946. x [2] 156 pp., frontispiece, plates, portraits, facsimiles. 8vo, original red cloth. Fine.
First edition, limited edition (300 copies). Guns 692. Wilcox, p. 43: “Biography of lawyer, Alfred Rufus King, 1857-1916.” Wynar 7107. Material on ranching in Delta County, including a documentary photograph of George McGranahan’s ranch house with caption: “Typical ranch house in Delta County.” Pioneer attorney Fairfield quotes from an early promotional for Delta County published by the Delta County Board of Trade: “In Delta there are great possibilities for making a living in poultry-raising, bee-keeping, fruit-growing, and cattle-raising, and if one has plenty of capital, will find profitable occupation for it in cattle-raising and fruit-growing on a large scale.” $75.00
1864. FALL, Albert B. The Memoirs of Albert B. Fall. El Paso: University of Texas Press, 1966. 63 [1] pp., illustrations. 8vo, original blue pictorial wrappers. Fine.
First printing. Southwestern Studies Monograph 15. Edited and with annotations by David H. Stratton. Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1861, Fall was an important New Mexico politician whose involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal brought about his imprisonment and downfall. Fall served as Secretary of the Interior from 1921-1923. Included are text and photographs relating to Fall’s Three River Ranch. Fall employed noted military man, Henry O. Flipper as authority on land mining law. $15.00
1865. FALLIS, Edwina H. When Denver and I Were Young. Denver: Sage Books, [1956]. [1] 198 pp., text illustrations by Jeannie Pear, endpaper maps. 8vo, original maize cloth. Fine copy in fine d.j. (price-clipped d.j.) Contemporary ownership signature of Edith Williams Blunk.
Second edition, revised. Wynar 850n. The author reminisces about Denver in the 1880s, including a brief account of her uncle Will’s experiences on the Wilson Ranch southeast of Denver. $20.00
1866. FARBER, James. Texans with Guns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1950]. xi [1] 196 pp., text illustrations by R. L. McCollister. 8vo, original yellow cloth. Binding stained at joints and edges, light foxing to endpapers and prelims, good to very good copy, in near fine d.j. with one small chip. Signed and inscribed by author on half-title. Small printed label of O. Henry Book Store of San Antonio on back pastedown.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:125. Dykes, Kid 408. Guns 695: “Covers most of the Texas gunmen.” In this volume, which explores the role of guns in forming the society of Texas, the chapter on “Winchester Quarantine” describes violence due to Texas fever and Texas trail herds in the early 1880s. The author quotes a letter written by Charles Goodnight admonishing a neighboring rancher against driving his cattle through Goodnight’s land: “I hope you will not treat this as idle talk, for I mean every word of this. My cattle are now dying of fever contracted from cattle driven through here and therefore do not have any hope you can convince me your cattle will not give mine the fever. This we will not speak of. I simply say you will not pass through in good health” (p. 96). $35.00
1867. FARBER, James. Texans with Guns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1950]. Another copy. Very fine in very fine d.j. $35.00
1868. FARBER, James. Those Texans. San Antonio: Naylor, [1945]. xi [1] 171 pp., frontispiece, illustrations by John H. McClelland. 8vo, original gold cloth. Endpapers browned, otherwise fine in fine d.j. Signed by author on title page. Dudley R. Dobie’s note laid in book states: “Autographed, special binding.”
First edition. Adams, Burs I:126. Campbell, p. 105. Guns 696: “Has a chapter on gunplay in which the author gives short sketches of many of the outlaws of the Southwest.... Nearly all of his information on gunmen is unreliable.” Herd 783: “Has a chapter on the cowboy but the author knows little of what he writes about.” Over 150 popular-style sketches of Texas and Texans from Cabeza de Vaca to Belle Starr. $30.00
1869. FARISH, Thomas Edwin. History of Arizona. Phoenix: Filmer Brothers Electrotype [for the author], 1915-1918. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 7, each volume complete, frontispieces, plates (mostly photographic), maps. 5 vols., 8vo, original maroon cloth. Occasional light staining to bindings, very faint water staining to a few leaves of Vols. 2 and 3, overall good to very good. It is difficult to find the entire 8-volume set together, but each volume is complete in itself, including index (vols. 1 & 2 are the most common, and vols. 5-8 are seldom offered).
First edition. Flake 3305. Howes F37. Laird, Hopi 771: “Farish was, for a number of years, State Historian for Arizona. He had access to records not readily available to others...a general, but detailed, history of the state.” Mohr, The Range Country 671 (vol. 1); 672 (vol. 2). Wallace, Arizona History 20. There is much on early Spanish exploration, Native Americans, mining, pioneer life, opening the Santa Fé Trail, Confederate occupation of Arizona, politics, etc. The real strength of this set is found in the many biographies of pioneers, based on Farish’s actual interviews with old-timers, such as Thomas Jonathan Jeffords (scout, Indian agent to the Cochise Apache, and blood brother of Cochise; includes a great photograph of Jeffords at his Owls Creek Ranch). Ranching interest: Oñate expedition that brought large numbers of cattle to the region (“his [1597] expedition cost him the equivalent of a million dollars before it stirred a step”); Father Kino (father of the cattle industry in the Southwest); Navajo stock raising; Native American rustling skill (especially Apache); Lucien Maxwell and Kit Carson’s ranching partnership; early ranches and ranchers (Pete Kitchen, Woolsey, Peeples, et al.).
In the chapter on the “Conquest of California,” Farish describes Pastoral California: “[The Californians] lived on horseback. Horse-racing, gambling, and dancing were their chief occupations. Cattle and horses were introduced, the latter said to be of the Arabian breed, and their flocks and herds increased wonderfully upon the rich grasses in California’s most favorable climate, while horses soon overran the land, and, in 1826, it was common for men to join together to drive them into great pens prepared for the purpose, and, when thus confined, after securing of the finest animals, to slaughter the rest. Trade in hides and tallow was established in 1816; an annual ship came from Boston, and...in 1822 near forty thousand hides and about the same number of arrobas (twenty-five pounds) of tallow were exported. Hides became known as California bank notes, of the value of two dollars.” $250.00
1870. FARNHAM, Eliza W. California In-Doors and Out; or, How We Farm, Mine, and Live Generally in the Golden State. New York: Dix, Edwards & Co., 1856. xiv [2] 508 [8, ads] pp. 12mo, original purple cloth. Binding rubbed and spine light, interior fine. Contemporary ownership signature in pencil.
First edition. Byrd 47. Cowan, p. 203. Hill, p. 418n. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 232: “Farnham, the pioneer California feminist and widow of Thomas Jefferson Farnham [provided] important observations of California.” Rocq 16835. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 72. See Notable American Women (pp. 598-600).
Farnham (1815-1864), feminist, prison reformer, author, and lecturer has left us “one of the most important books of the Gold Rush and 1850s” (Gary Kurutz in Volkmann Sale, Zamorano Eighty 36n). She arrived in Santa Cruz in 1849 and includes thoughtful descriptions of subjects relating to ranching (“Setting up on the Rancho,” “Wild Cattle,” “Night at a Spanish Rancho,” “Old Californians...Their Cattle...Raising Calves,” “Practical Equestrianism, “How Beef Is Got,” “Official Beef-Eating,” etc.).
Farnham’s El Rancho La Libertad at Santa Cruz was actually more of a feminist farming venture. This description of her problems at La Libertad with wild cattle gives a flavor of this sprightly, intelligent distaff account: “There were...enemies to our peace and prosperity: these were the immense herds of huge cattle, which, now that the grass had lost its freshness, were intent upon the appropriation of whatever invited their appetites. The ranch was under my own personal charge for some three or four weeks of June and July, the men being absent sawing lumber.... Before they left the place, a boy, some fourteen or fifteen years of age...was engaged to ride Jenny about in pursuit of the intruders.... He departed on the second morning...and Charlie and I took the field against the besiegers. How we toiled, raced, watched, and kept up an active preventive service on the outskirts...this narrative can never adequately convey.... After several days of this sort of skirmishing, I willingly resigned my post, let it not be reckoned dishonorable that my successor was an Indian.... This gentleman occupied a seat distant from the ranch about seventy or eighty rods, and as his house gave him a view of most of the field...after the first day or two [he] remained at home until the cattle were fairly into the crop, when he would run lazily up, walk them out, and set out on his return. Once, and only once, was I guilty of the rashness of urging him to quicken his steps, when thirty or forty bullocks were rushing into a distant part of the field. He laid his hand upon his heart, and protested, in the blandest tones, that señora must excuse him; for running made his heart beat mucho.”
Farnham in her travels often spent the night at ranches along her route. The best account of these sojourns is her long, interesting description of her stay on the Castro Ranche in the Valley of San Juan, in which at moments the reader can almost see her Yankee nose turning up squeamishly. On departure she comments: “I offered a silent thanksgiving that home was so near.... This, then, was a Spanish rancho and the manner of life in it. These people were the owners of a great estate here, and another up the coast, on which were hundreds, if not thousands, of horned cattle and horses. Not a drop of milk nor an ounce of butter could be had in their house. Their chief articles of food are beef and beans.... The simplicity of their external lives is quite in harmony with that of their natures.... They are a simple-hearted people, whose contentment flowed out in acts of continual hospitality and kindness to all who came to them before their peaceful dream of life was broken in upon by the frightful selfishness of the late emigration. It is difficult for us to imagine contentment in the idle, aimless life of these rancheros, or cheerfulness in the dark, dirty, naked houses they inhabit; but they have sufficed for them, and it must be confessed, that their domestic condition does not, in most parts of the country, promise any very rapid improvement from the example of their new neighbors.” $350.00
1871. FARNHAM, Thomas Jefferson. Travels in California with Map. [Oakland]: Biobooks, 1947. xv [1] 166 [1] pp., 2 maps (one folding), foldout facsimiles. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine.
Limited edition (750 copies, signed by Joseph A. Sullivan, author of foreword); first published in New York, 1844. The California Centennial Editions, vol. 10. Barrett, Baja California 829n. Cowan, p. 203n. Edwards, Desert Voices, p. 57. Graff 1293n. Howes F49. Plains & Rockies IV:107n. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 73n. Zamorano 80 #36. “[Farnham] presented a superb synopsis of [California’s] geography, climate, cattle, crops, missions, presidios, harbors, and Indians” (Gary Kurutz in Volkmann Sale, Zamorano 80).
In Chapter 7 Farnham delves extensively into subjects of ranching interest (detailed descriptions of architecture, clothing, and other material culture): mission practices with regard to “ranchios” and cattle tendered as taxes; “los Californios” (“a Californian is never the half of himself unless he be on horseback...they are excellent horsemen, the very best in North America”); California horses (“there is no better animal than the Californian cavallo”); equestrian equipage (e.g., “his spurs are a curiosity; their weight is a pound and a half; the part holding the rowel is five inches long; and the teeth of the rowel wheels are one and a half inches in length!”); “Rodea” (“the whole country side is usually assembled to engage in the sports of the day, unfed except by the joys of brandy and beef and beans”); hide and tallow gathering on ranchos and missions; and the final wrap-up: “Californians are an imbecile, pusillanimous race of men, and unfit to control the destinies of that beautiful country.... The ladies, dear creatures, I wish they were whiter...a pity it is that they have not stay and corset-makers’ signs among them.” $50.00
1872. FARNHAM, Thomas Jefferson. Travels in the Great Western Prairies, the Anahuac and Rocky Mountains, and in the Oregon Territory [caption and wrapper title]. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1843. 112 pp., printed in double column. 8vo, original brown printed wrappers within typographical border, sewn. One-inch segment at foot of spine detached (but present), fragile wraps in fine condition, occasional very mild foxing to text. Overall, a fine copy, much better than usually found.
Second American edition (first edition Poughkeepsie, 1841; British edition published the same year as the present edition). Campbell, p. 137. Field 525. Flake 3306 (early mention of Mormons). Howes F50. Plains & Rockies IV:85:3: “Streeter quotes Herschel V. Jones as saying: ‘This is the first and most interesting of his several books on the West. It is the best account of the first overland-to-Oregon migration of settlers.’ The popularity of the book is attested by three separate editions in 1843. Farnham was the leader of a group of Oregon-bound settlers, known as the ‘Peoria Party.’” Rittenhouse 201n: “Farnham may have been a U.S. agent bound for Oregon, which would account for his careful description of the route and comments on Indian tribes met.” Smith 3001. Tweney, Washington 89 #20. Wynar 217.
Farnham’s Travels in the Californias (Zamorano 80 #36) is considered the sequel to this work. Farnham’s early account of Oregon proved potent propaganda for advocates of U.S. rule in Oregon. Descriptions of the various regions and settlements in Oregon include prospects for the hide and tallow trade and stock raising, occasional statistics for cattle, depredations of stock by wolves, etc. Discussing the Willammette settlements, Farnham mentions the herds of California cattle brought to Oregon earlier and notes that “although little progress has been made in the conversion of the Indians to Christianity, yet they have done much good in reforming some of the vices and teaching some of the useful arts.... The men now rear and tend their cattle.”
In the New Mexico section there is a short account of an unusual captivity ca. 1780 in which Comanche warriors stole the daughter of the Governor-General at Chihuahua, who purchased her ransom. But she refused to return to her parents, advising that the Comanche had tattooed her face, given her to a young warrior by whom she was “enciente,” and that since she was happy in her new life, she preferred not to return. According to the story, she lived out her days in the Comanche nation and raised a family of children (p. 32). $500.00
1873. FARQUHAR, Francis P. The Books of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon: A Selective Bibliography. Los Angeles: [Ward Ritchie Press for] Glen Dawson, 1953. xi [1] 75 [1] pp., frontispiece. 12mo, original red cloth, printed paper label on upper cover. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy. Ownership signature of scholar L. R. Hafen (Thrapp II, p. 604).
First edition. Early California Travels Series 12. Designed by Ward Ritchie. Clark, Arizona, p. 48: “Spans the 16th to 20th centuries, and include[s] such special topics as Mormons on the Colorado, geologic studies, dams and development, and others.” Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 82: “One of my high-ranking favorites.” Paher, Nevada 579. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 559. Wallace, Arizona History 56. More than a few notable range-country books are to be found in this excellent bibliography. $150.00
1874. FARRIS, Francis Bramlette. From Rattlesnakes to Road Agents. Rough Times on the Frio. Fort Worth: TCU, 1985. 137 pp., text illustrations (photographs). 8vo, original pictorial wrappers (by Barbara Whitehead). A worn copy with some staining to wraps and first and last few leaves. Signed by editor Sonnichsen.
First edition. No. 3 in the Chisholm Trail Series. Introduction by C. L. Sonnichsen. Farris relates growing up in Frio County in post-Civil War Texas. She spent part of that time on a ranch, enduring raids by Native Americans, neighborhood feuds, drouths and floods, and challenging times. The book contains good material on Texas Rangers. Big Foot Wallace lived with the family for a while, and McNelly’s Rangers visited, too. The real strength of the work is social history and women’s history. $15.00
1875. FARROW, Marion Humphreys. Troublesome Times in Texas [1859-1883]. San Antonio: Naylor, 1959. ix [1] 106 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original red cloth. Light foxing to endpapers, otherwise fine in fine d.j. with only slight wear.
Second edition and best edition, augmented and with added index (Glegg Company in San Antonio published the first edition in 1957). Adams, Burs I:127. Guns 699: “This edition has an added index...and more notes. It has material on the Texas Rangers and on cattle thieves, Sam Bass, John Wesley Hardin, the Taylor-Sutton Feud, the Kingfisher gang, and other lawlessness.”
The book includes material on and a portrait of Juan N. Cortinas, mayor of Matamoros and “Prince of Mexican Cattle Thieves.” “It was estimated that he had three thousand organized and licensed raiders for stealing stock. To handle his traffic in stolen cattle, he had seized in various ways control of twenty large cattle ranches facing the Rio Grande. Here he pastured his stock in preparation for the Cuban markets” (p. 71). The recurring depredations, cattle rustling, and the general chaotic state of the border leading to the U.S. and Mexican investigating commissions of the 1870s are discussed. “The range was in such a condition that any man could have a cattle iron and possessed the ‘nerve to use it.’” (p. 59). $35.00
1876. FAULK, Odie B. Destiny Road: The Gila Trail and the Opening of the Southwest. New York: Oxford University Press, [1973]. [8] 232 pp., numerous text illustrations from photographs and vintage prints (many full-page), maps. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. History of the Gila Trail from Texas to San Diego, covering cattle drives in their two phases: drives to the California gold fields, and post-Civil War drives to stock ranches and supply beef to Native Americans on reservations and soldiers at army posts. Faulk provides information on and a photograph of early Arizona cattleman Henry Clay Hooker, who made one of the more unusual livestock drives. Hooker, a refugee from the California Gold Rush, earned his nest egg for entering the cattle business with his 1866 drive of 500 turkeys he had purchased for $750. With one helper and several dogs, he drove his turkey flock overland from Placerville to the Nevada mining camps, where he sold them for $2,500. Other cattle barons discussed are Slaughter and Chisum. $25.00
1877. FAULKNER-HORNE, Shirley. Mexican Saddle. London: H. F. & G. Witherby, [1947]. 182 pp., plates (sketches by Peter Beigel). 12mo, original magenta cloth. Fore-edges lightly foxed, endpapers browned. Very good in lightly worn d.j.
First edition, second printing (first printing, 1946). D.j. blurb: “A thrilling mystery story centred round a Mexican saddle which makes its appearance at a village jumble sale.” $15.00
1878. FEAGLES, Elizabeth. Talk Like a Cowboy: A Dictionary of Real Western Lingo for Cowboys and Cowgirls. San Antonio: Naylor, [1955]. ix [1] 82 pp., text illustrations in sepia tone, brands. 12mo, original yellow cloth. Endpapers lightly foxed, otherwise fine copy in fine d.j.
First edition. Herd 795. From d.j. blurb: “Not like the usual dictionary, Talk Like a Cowboy is written in an easy flowing narrative that tells the story of a cowboy’s day along with explaining the real, everyday, working language of the man on the range.” The author, who also wrote under the pen name Beth Day, was the wife of Donald Day. $30.00
1879. FEDER, Sid. Longhorns and Short Tales of Old Victoria and the Gulf Coast. Victoria: Victoria Advocate Publishing Company, 1958. 128 [1] pp., text illustrations (portraits, photographs, facsimiles). 8vo, original green wrappers printed in silver, stapled (as issued). Very fine. Signed by author.
First edition. CBC 2993, 4574. Guns 702. An informal, rambling history of the Gulf Coast of Texas, with much information on cowboys and cattlemen. Includes a chapter on the Republic of Texas horse marines (“Meet the Horse Marines: The Cowboys Who Nabbed a Navy”). Among those supplying history and folklore is Mrs. Kate O’Connor. $30.00
1880. FEHRENBACH, T. R. Seven Keys to Texas. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1983. ix [1] 140 pp. 8vo, original half brown cloth over beige linen. Very fine in very fine d.j. Carl Hertzog bookplate.
First edition. Fehrenback attempts to dispel some of the mythology and stereotypes surrounding Texas history. The author discusses the cattle industry extensively. “Texans who owned livestock had previously herded them on foot in the time-honored British fashion. But on the frontier, they seized upon the entire Mexican cattle culture, even its jargon, from lariat (la reata) to buckaroo (vaquero)” (p. 25). “Texas ‘cattle barons,’ the men who emerged, sometimes seemingly from nowhere, to organize big ranches and move thousands of beeves to market, were never anything like the hacendados or latifundistas of Mexico, or the aristocratic landowners on the European continent.... They were a form of businessmen” (p. 53). $30.00
1881. FELLOWES, Georgina de Valcourt Kendall. A Biographical Sketch of My Family [cover title]. [San Antonio]: Privately Printed, 1939. 32 pp. 8vo, original green printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). A few minor stains to wraps, otherwise fine. Author’s copy, with occasional ms. notes and updated information. Typed family tree and printed notes laid or tipped in.
First edition. Genealogy of the Kendall family written by the daughter of George Wilkins Kendall, founder of the New Orleans Picayune, member of the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition, first modern war correspondent, and pioneer Texas sheep rancher. Kendall is considered the father of the sheep industry in Texas. $50.00
1882. FELTON, Harold W. New Tall Tales of Pecos Bill. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, [1958]. xvi [2] 164 pp., comic text illustrations printed in red and black (some full-page) by William Moyers. 8vo, original beige pictorial cloth. Light abrasions and foxing to binding, overall very good.
First edition. Not in Herd (but see Herd 797 for Felton’s Pecos Bill, Texas Cowpuncher, New York, 1949). More tall tales about the cowboy version of Paul Bunyan. $20.00
1883. FENIN, George N. & William K. Everson. The Western from Silents to the Seventies. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973. xviii [2] 396 pp., numerous photographic text illustrations. Small 4to, original blue cloth. Very fine in near fine d.j. with a few short tears.
Second and best edition, updated and expanded (first published in 1963). Taylor & Maar, The American Cowboy, p. 223. A thorough exploration of the cinematic Western, the medium that helped propel the cowboy to mythological status, with many excellent photographs. This new edition has added chapters on Italian and Japanese Westerns. $30.00
Florence Fenley’s Canyon Country Histories
1884. FENLEY, Florence. Grandad and I: A Story of a Grand Old Man and Other Pioneers in Texas and the Dakotas As Told by John Leakey to Florence Fenley. [Leakey, Texas: Privately published by John Leakey, 1951]. 179 pp., text illustrations (mostly full-page & photographic, including portraits and ranching environments). 12mo, original ecru cloth. Fine in fine d.j. Signed by John Leakey.
First edition, “first printing” on title verso. Guns 705: “Rare.... Contains a chapter on King Fisher, relating some of his escapades not found in other books.” Herd 798. This is an excellent history of the Uvalde area from the 1850s to the 1890s, as told by John Leakey. In 1851, his grandfather (also named John Leakey; 1824-?) arrived in the splendid Sabinal and Frio Canyon area near Fort Inge, raised crops and cattle, and struggled with Lipan and other local and nomadic populace.
“The first raid into the Canyon occurred in 1856 at the Richard Ware Ranch.... On this raid the Indians [Lipans] were evidently after horses, as they struck the ranch of Uncle Johnny Fenley and stole two head, going from there to Gid Thompson Ranch and killing his work oxen. The settlers followed the Indians and recovered the horses, but the six Indians they had counted scattered and made a get-away. This seemed to start the raids. In less than a month, the Indians were back again, killing a cow belonging to Aaron Anglin and loading the meat on a horse they brought along for that purpose. Several horses were stolen, too...” (pp. 28-29). And so it goes in opening the ranching county, until “The Last Indian Raid in the Frio Canyon” ca. 1880 (pp. 71-75).
The narrated history goes forward in time from Grandfather Leakey to the two next generations. The grandson and narrator of this account worked as a ranch hand in the Canyon country and elsewhere, and later owned his own ranch. This work is filled with most excellent ranching content: early ranchers and ranching in southwest Texas; suitability of the brush country and canyons for cattle thieves; border depredations and rustling; King Fisher’s compadre Pancho Escuadro (“as good a vaquero as ever threw his rope over a longhorn steer”); social history; women in the cattle country (e.g., “riding sidesaddles [the women] were good riders no matter whether they were on an easy gallop to a dance or after the livestock on their father’s ranch”); education (“In those days, we couldn’t see where an education would benefit us very much. There was cattle work to be done as long as a man could ride and rope, and count his cattle and the money they brought, it didn’t seem that much more was needed”—p. 78); cattle drives (e.g., from New Mexico to Charley Dole’s ranch north of the Yellowstone River); working as a cowboy in the Dakotas (1893), Wyoming, and Montana (much on “Myles City”; brands of big outfits Leakey saw; Leakey’s personal acquaintance with Teddy Roosevelt; passing of the open range country; financial woes of 1920 with Wibaux Cattle Loan Company; return to Texas in 1946. Includes supplemental material on the Buckalew captivity, Billy the Kid; Seminole Scouts at Fort Clark; much more. $250.00
1885. FENLEY, Florence. Oldtimers of Southwest Texas. Uvalde: Hornby Press, 1957. 318 [1] pp., numerous text illustrations (mostly photographic). 4to, original red pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Author’s signed presentation inscription on front flyleaf dated 1960.
First edition. Dobie, p. 51: “Faithful reporting of realistic details. Southwest Texas, mostly ranch life.” Adams (Herd) lists Fenley’s earlier works on the Southwest Texas, but this title may have been a little late for inclusion. This regional history of Uvalde County and the surrounding ranch country contains stories told by the old-timers themselves in their own language. Included is good material on Ike Pryor and cowboys who worked for him. In addition to new oral histories gathered from pioneers, Fenley searched the files of the Uvalde Leader-News and the Cattleman magazine for additional biographies.
This well-illustrated volume is rich not only in ranching history, but women’s history and social history. This one is a favorite of ours, because it contains an interview with Kate Anderson Rogers, ranching matriarch of Rogers Rafter 7 Ranch on Montell Creek. Rogers grew up in the saddle looking after stock in Eastland County and later Big Bend, finally settling on Montell Creek. An excellent markswoman, Rogers while still in her teens killed a panther that was preying on their stock. When Fenley asked Rogers if she rode sidesaddle when doing dangerous ranch work like breaking wild horses and hunting, Rogers replied: “Certainly! We girls wouldn’t have thought of riding astride.” Rogers concludes: “We like it here, and except for the drought, there couldn’t be a better place to ranch.... The life we children led was wholesome, and the knowledge we gained taught us how to live a great deal closer to the Creator. You feel that BIGNESS of a land where you are only a little human being and I know that the years my eyes look on the beauty I saw everywhere, were years added to my life.” $300.00
1886. FENLEY, Florence. Oldtimers of Southwest Texas. Uvalde: Hornby Press, 1957. Another copy. Very fine in lightly worn d.j. $250.00
1887. FENLEY, Florence. Oldtimers: Their Own Stories. Uvalde: Hornby Press, 1939. 8, 254 pp., frontispiece map, text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original red cloth. Fore-edges lightly foxed and light marginal browning to text, otherwise fine in near fine d.j. Author’s signed presentation inscription: “By special request of Miss Mabel Kincaid, this volume of Oldtimers is presented to Dudley Dobie, with best wishes from the author. Florence Fenley June 20, 1949.”
First edition. Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 33. CBC 1426 (plus 7 additional entries). Dobie, p. 51: “Southwest Texas, mostly ranch life.” Herd 799: “True stories of real cattlemen. Privately printed in a small edition and now becoming scarce.” See Roach, Cowgirls, pp. 32, 44. Winegarten, pp. 37, 110.
Almost half of the oral histories are by Texas women pioneers. Some owned their own cattle and ranches; some even went up the cattle trail. In her introduction, Fenley tells of her youth on the Murlo Ranch in Zavala County in the early years of the 20th century and her grandfather, Joel C. Fenley:
“When a girl I followed him, already an old man, through mesquite brush and spiney prickly pears, on my own pony which had been bred on that very range, so in this work I have been acquiring new love of the smell of horseflesh and the smoke of campfires fanned by stray breezes of an unsettled land. He taught me to build fires in wet weather when nothing dry seemed available—nothing much, perhaps, to you woodsmen but something of an accomplishment for a girl at that. He told me of the habits of range cattle. I heard from him how the terrified bawling of a cow could bring the herd running to her. I heard from him of the intelligence of horses and dogs, deserving to be loved for their valiant and faithful deeds.”
In Fenley’s essay of pioneer rancher W. S. Wall (“When a Wedding Could Take Place in a Cow Camp and a Boy Could watch a Wild Calf Afoot”), Wall recalls: “Boys come up wild as mavericks and could take care of themselves, too. Girls could ride and rope as well as handle a gun.... I have seen some good women cowpunchers in my time and I believe I could safely say that Mattie Leakey and my sister, Mary Lizzie, were two of the best. Those girls were real riders and they rode wide saddles. If the girls then had rode a man’s saddle like they do now, no horse could have throwed ’em. They could stay on a horse like an Indian and they hooked their knees under those side saddle horns and it was a pretty hard thing to unseat them. They wore guns too. Riding out on the range like they had to do, it was necessary” (p. 156). $300.00
1888. FENLEY, Florence. Oldtimers: Their Own Stories. Uvalde: Hornby Press, 1939. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine in very good d.j. (slight wear). $250.00
1889. FENNER, Phyllis R. (comp.). Cowboys, Cowboys, Cowboys: Stories of Roundups and Rodeos, Branding and Bronco-Busting. New York: Franklin Watts, [1950]. 287 pp., text illustrations (some full-page) by Manning DeV. Lee, illustrated endpapers. 8vo, original terracotta pictorial cloth. Binding slightly worn, otherwise fine in lightly worn and price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Cowboys for the juvenile reader, including Will James’s “Lone Cowboy,” “Midnight,” and “His Spurs.” $20.00
1890. FERGUSON, Charles D. The Experiences of a Forty-Niner during Thirty-Four Years’ Residence in California and Australia. Cleveland: Williams Publishing Company, 1888. xviii, 7-507 pp., frontispiece portrait, engraved plates, text illustrations. 8vo, original maroon gilt-stamped decorative cloth. Light shelf wear, a few spots to edges of text block, otherwise fine.
First edition. Cowan, p. 206. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 159. Flake 3324. Graff 1305. Guns 707: “Scarce.” Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 235a. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 443. Mintz, The Trail 148: “Ferguson worked in such California mining towns as Nevada City, and (on the Feather River) Gold Run. He describes his overland sojourn via South Pass and Salt Lake City, which he actually undertook in 1850.” Rocq 5986. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 74.
This standard California Gold Rush book is one of few works covering both the American and the Australian gold rushes. It is also contains one of the few firsthand accounts of the Eureka Stockade Rebellion that took place in New Zealand in 1850. We have a rather unusual cattle drive to report: While mining in Australia, Ferguson and his partner, realizing the scarcity of cattle in the Beechworth mining district, decided to purchase cattle in New South Wales and drive them back to the mines. Because there were no banks on the 350-mile road to their destination, they took cash. They were well aware of the presence of robbers on the road (“The country was full of bush-rangers, and there was not a week but someone was stuck-up, so it was necessary for us to be well mounted” p. 340). Ferguson and his partner encountered fellow cattle-trader and drover Canadian Dan Sweeney and decided to join forces for protection and unite the herds they intended to buy into one drove. At Bombaloo, they purchased five hundred cattle at $12.75 a head. “We had to be with [the cattle] night and day, especially at night, in case of a stampede. We gave them their own time in driving, for they were all prime beef and we wanted them to hold their own, for if we rushed them they were sure to waste” (pp. 342-43).
In chapter 25 Ferguson tells his experiences in Australia relating to wild horses and how he took up horse-taming based on his childhood experiences in Ohio and by applying the principles found in Rarey’s famous book (see Herd 1863). The author served as foreman of the 1860 Victorian Exploring Expedition, the first transcontinental survey of Australia. The caravan Ferguson oversaw was exotic, with respect to both men and animals, including twenty-six camels overseen by two East Indiamen. “The caravan caused no little commotion in traversing the settled portion of the country.... Cattle and horses along the route stampeded from terror at the sight, and even at the smell of the camels, wafted on the breeze in advance of their appearance. It was said that some wild horses on the ranches ran thirty miles before stopping.”
We’ve handled copies of this book numerous times without realizing fully what resides within. And we didn’t even mention Lord Trotter’s sheep empire, the cattle kings of Australia, lynch law Down Under, or stock breeding and noted horses in Australia. This riveting book with amusing illustrations is required reading for anyone conducting comparative research on the American West and Australia in the nineteenth century. $175.00
1891. FERGUSON, Charles D. California Gold Fields. Oakland: Biobooks, 1948. xvii [2] 163 [1] pp., chapter heading illustrations by Victor R. Anderson, folding map (facsimile of John B. Trask’s 1853 Topographical Map of Mineral Districts of California). 8vo, original gold cloth. Very fine.
Limited edition (750 copies), with only the California portion of Ferguson’s narrative. California Centennial Editions 14. Foreword by Joseph A. Sullivan. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 235c. Rocq 5988. The first edition is rich with material on ranching and trail driving Down Under. The California portion of Ferguson’s book contains occasional references of ranching interest, such as Adams of Long Bar, who drove small herds of cattle from the Sacramento flats and was almost eaten by a grizzly bear when he was counting and salting down his cattle (pp. 88-89). $40.00
1892. FERGUSSON, Erna. Albuquerque. Albuquerque: Merle Armitage Editions, [1947]. [10] 87 [2] pp., text illustrations from drawings by Li Brown. 8vo, original black cloth lettered in red. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in slightly rubbed d.j.
First edition. Campbell, pp. 121-22: “History, description, and memories of old-timers. Interpretive and anecdotal.” Guns 709: “Some short, but new, stories about Elfego Baca.”
Fergusson asserts that Albuquerque is the microcosm of the Southwest: “Sitting at the crossroads of the centuries, Albuquerque has seen every phase of Southwestern life, has participated in most of it, still has walking up and down its streets people who represent every period of its long history—Indians, Mexicans, cattle and sheep men, modern booster, and Easterners in what they consider Western garb.” Fergusson discusses Native American cowboys, how the large land grants created a hacienda life style, and the evolution away from a rural-centered culture (Chapter 4: “From Rodeo to Rotary”), etc. $35.00
1893. FERGUSSON, Erna. Murder and Mystery in New Mexico. Albuquerque: Merle Armitage Editions, [1948]. 192 [4] [8, photographic plates] pp., frontispiece by Peter Hurd, silhouettes by Al Ewers, endpaper map. 8vo, original black cloth. Fine in d.j. with Hurd illustration (d.j. neatly reinforced with cloth tape on verso at spine and with one tear). Bookplate of Father Stanley (Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola) and author’s signed letter to Stanley asking a research question (taped to lower pastedown).
First edition. Campbell, p. 71 “Billy the Kid, among others. Very readable”; p. 167: “Nine well-sifted historically true accounts of killings which took place in New Mexico...from 1890 to 1935.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Hurd 72). Guns 710. In addition to Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid coverage, included is a chapter on Albert J. Fountain (served as attorney for the New Mexico Stock Association following “The Kid” era), Black Jack Ketchum (discussing his propensity to seek work as cowhands when laying low from the law), etc. $50.00
1894. FERGUSSON, Erna. Murder and Mystery in New Mexico. Albuquerque: Merle Armitage Editions, [1948]. Another copy. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. A few light stains to fore-edges, otherwise fine in slightly worn d.j. $35.00
1895. FERGUSSON, Erna. Murder and Mystery in New Mexico. Albuquerque: Merle Armitage Editions, [1948]. Another copy. Light shelf wear, bookplate on front pastedown, fine in worn, soiled and chipped d.j. The Josey copy, with Dorothy and Clint Josey’s bookplate on endpaper. $35.00
1896. FERGUSSON, Erna. New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples. New York: Knopf, 1951. [1] xii [2] 408, vi [1] pp., tinted frontispiece map, photographic plates, text map. 8vo, original pale green pictorial cloth. Spine slightly darkened and with a few abrasions, otherwise fine in chipped d.j. Leaf with author’s signature laid in.
First edition. Campbell, p. 106. Dobie, p. 19: “Essayical in form, it treats only of the consequential. It evaluates from the point of view of good taste, good sense, and an urbane comprehension of democracy.... A cultivated mind can take pleasure in this interpretation of New Mexico—and that marks it as a solitary among histories of neighboring states.” Herd 801.
A general history of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the cultural dynamics among and between Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos, with cattle and sheep raising constituting a pervasive background. Included is material on Oñate’s bringing cattle to New Mexico, the Bell Ranch, Eusebio Kino (father of cattle ranching in the southwest), Albert B. Fall, Albert J. Fountain, John Chisum, Agnes Morley Cleaveland, the “Rawhiders,” etc. The excellent documentary photographs include several relating to ranching. $50.00
1897. FERGUSSON, Erna. New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples. New York: Knopf, 1951. Another copy. Front endpapers with some offsetting from a related newspaper article laid in (book review by J. Frank Dobie), otherwise fine in slightly worn d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate. $40.00
1898. FERGUSSON, Erna. New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples. New York: Knopf, 1951. Another copy. Binding slightly discolored, otherwise a fine copy in price-clipped d.j. with a few small voids on rear panel. $35.00
1899. FERGUSSON, Erna. Our Southwest. New York: Knopf, 1952. [13] 376, vi [2] pp., photographic plates (by Ruth Frank and Laura Gilpin), foldout maps, colored double-page map by Miguel Covarrubias, endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. illustrated by Miguel Covarrubias (price-clipped). Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition, fourth printing. Campbell, p. 106. Dobie, p. 14. Guns 711. Herd 802. Saunders 4083n: “History, description, manners and customs, language, industries.” Fergusson opens with that perennial question, “What is the Southwest?” Fergusson includes information on the range cattle business as it evolved in the Southwest (Charlie Goodnight, Will C. Barnes, Lincoln County War, John Chisum, Jesse Chisholm, Maxwell grant, cattle trails, etc.). Some of the excellent photographic plates relate to ranching. Includes material on Big Bend. $20.00
1900. FERGUSSON, Harvey. Rio Grande. New York: Knopf, 1936. [3] x, 296, viii [2] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original tan pictorial burlap. Slight shelf wear, small spot to upper fore-edge. Otherwise fine in torn and worn d.j.
First edition, fourth printing (first printing 1933). Campbell, pp. 106, 167: “History of the valley of the Rio Grande and the Southwest region, beginning with the Pueblo builders and continuing to the present day.” Dobie, p. 40: “Best interpretation yet written of upper Mexican class.” Guns 712n: “Has quite a bit of material on Elfego Baca, as well as some on Billy the Kid, Joel Fowler, and others.” Herd 803n. Saunders 4086n.
The chapter “Longhorns and Six Shooters” has information on the cattle industry in the Rio Grande Valley: “With the buffalo went the Indian and with the cattle came the cowboy. Created by that northward sweep of the longhorned herds he was briefly the dominant figure in the whole southwest as the mountain man had been before him and the Mexico rico before that” (p. 240). $10.00
1901. FERGUSSON, Harvey. Rio Grande. New York: Knopf, 1945. [2] x, 296, viii pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original dark blue cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy. Carl Hertzog bookplate. Dallas bookseller McMurray’s printed label on rear pastedown.
First edition, fifth printing. $10.00
1902. [FERRIL, Will C. (ed.)]. Sketches of Colorado in Four Volumes, Being an Analytical Summary and Biographical History of the State of Colorado.... Volume 1 [all published]. Denver: Western Press Bureau Co., 1911. 419 pp., illustrations, portraits. 4to, original black gilt-lettered leatherette. Hinges cracked and slight outer wear, otherwise fine and fresh, much better than usually found.
First edition. Wilcox, p. 44. Wynar 33. This mug book includes biographies and photographs of prominent Colorado stockmen, such as John Iliff, among the first of the Colorado ’59ers seeking gold. Realizing that the vast army of gold-seekers must be fed, Iliff quickly turned his attention to supplying provisions and within a year and a half invested all he had in a small herd of cattle that was the beginning of his vast fortune on the hoof.
“[Iliff] made the cattle business a study, giving to it his almost entire attention and best efforts. He mastered its every detail, gaining experience as the business developed. The influence of his life upon the pastoral interests of Colorado and the West cannot be overestimated. He blazed the cattle trails for the great industry from Texas to the ranges of Montana. His operations were bold and daring. He was a man of indomitable will and perseverance. Whether facing the blizzards of the mountains and plains, or sweltering in the heat of the southern trails, or with courage checking a stampede of startled or storm-driven herds, he was quiet and unassuming, but always the man of nerve and steel. He declined to carry the weapons borne by many a cowboy of a later period, and at all times refused to take intoxicating liquors. He lived on friendly terms with the Indians and they with him. In business tact, integrity, and good morals his name was a synonym for all that is best in a business career and that, too, amid the wild life of the Far West. At the time of his death, he owned perhaps the best cattle range in the world, containing 20,000 acres of pasturage, and some of the finest springs and grazing valleys of the West” (pp. 282-83). $350.00
1903. FERRIS, Benjamin G. Utah and the Mormons: The History, Government, Doctrines, Customs, and Prospects of the Latter-Day Saints. From Personal Observation during a Six Months’ Residence at Great Salt Lake City. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854. 347 pp., wood-engraved frontispiece portrait of Joseph Smith and numerous text illustrations (7 attributed to Theodore Rabuske, all engraved by Richardson-Cox). 8vo, original blue embossed cloth. Shelf-worn, mild to moderate age-toning to endsheets and first and last few leaves, hinges loose, internally fine.
First edition. Flake 3328. Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 1174. Howes F98. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1164. Mintz, The Trail 149: “The plates include many of the well known overland scenes such as Chimney Rock and Devil’s Gate, plus a number of scenes of Mormon life.” Paher, Nevada 589. Plains & Rockies IV:238b:1: “Ferris served in the Utah Territorial government in 1852-53. His wife...accompanied him and also wrote of Utah and the Mormons.” Brief mention made of various cattle enterprises of the Mormons in Utah, including the unsuitability of the saltwater basins of northern Utah for livestock. $250.00
1904. FERRIS, Benjamin G. Utah and the Mormons.... New York: Harper and Brothers, 1854. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original purple embossed cloth. Spine sunned, one spot on upper cover, front endpaper removed, internally fine. $225.00
1905. FERRIS, Mrs. B. G. [Cornelia] . The Mormons at Home; with Some Incidents of Travel from Missouri to California, 1852-3. In a Series of Letters. New York & London: Dix & Edwards, Sampson Low, 1856. viii, 299 [4, ads] pp. 8vo, original dark brown ribbed embossed cloth, spine gilt decorated and lettered. Slightly shelf-worn and slanted, extremities lightly chipped and frayed, spine a bit faded, intermittent light stains and spotting to text, small piece missing from upper corner of front flyleaf and pastedown with four abraded spots where bookplate was removed, overall a good copy. Contemporary ink ownership inscription of Lucy Ellsworth on front free endpaper.
First book edition (first issued in a series of letters in Putnam’s Monthly under the title “Female Life among the Mormons”). Bradford 1652. Cowan, p. 207. Flake 330. Graff 1308. Howes F99. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1165: “In her cultivated journalistic style, she dwells on the peculiarities of some of her traveling companions as well as sharp vignettes from the vantage point of a non-emigrant.” Mintz, The Trail 150. Plains & Rockies IV:274. The author, who was the wife of the late U.S. Secretary for Utah, includes much of interest for women’s history (“Elder Snow and his Six Wives,” “A Wife’s Confession,” “Conversation with a Wife of Brigham Young,” “A Wedding,” “A Woman’s Martyrdom”). Her account encompasses several cattle-related incidents and observations during her overland journey: stampedes, roundups, presence of imported breeds in Mormon herds, Capt. Egan’s cattle drives from Utah to California, corrals constructed in stockade style, white hunter at Ogden Hole who married a chief’s daughter and gathered a large herd he drove to California, etc. $200.00
1906. FETLER, John. The Pikes Peak People: The Story of America’s Most Popular Mountain.... Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1966. [2] 296 pp., frontispiece after an 1879 print, photographic plates. 8vo, original aqua decorative cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition. Wynar 549. Introduction by Marshall Sprague. The section on trail rides from Colorado Springs to Pikes Peak includes descriptions of area ranches along the way. Chapter 39 is devoted to the establishment in 1949 of the riding club known as the Range Riders. $40.00
1907. FIELD, Maria Antonia. Where Castilian Roses Bloom, Memoirs.... [San Francisco: Grabhorn Press] Privately printed, 1954. [12] 142 [1] pp., frontispiece, numerous plates. 4to, original beige linen over gilt decorated blue boards, paper label on spine. Gift inscription on front free endpaper, otherwise a fine copy.
Limited edition (500 copies). Grabhorn 548. Rocq 5685. Memoirs of Maria Antonia Field, a lifelong resident of Monterey who descended from a family of rancheros. $60.00
1908. [FIELD, Matt]. Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail, Collected by Clyde and Mae Reed Porter. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1960]. xxix [1] 322 pp., photographic plates (scenes, views, portraits). 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by editor.
First edition. Rittenhouse 470: “In 1839 Matt Field went over the Santa Fe Trail with a caravan.” See Plains & Rockies IV:104. Tate, Indians of Texas 2240: “Contains some discussion of Comanches along the Santa Fe Trail and around Bent’s Fort.” There is a good section on the Mexican ranchero, including their method of roping buffalo (pp. 244-247). $65.00
1909. FIELDING, Loraine Hornaday. French Heels to Spurs. With an Introduction by Will James. New York & London: Century Company, [1930]. viii [2] 203 pp., numerous text illustrations by Eve Ganson (author of Desert Mavericks). 12mo, original blue cloth over orange diced cloth with title and illustrations of bucking horse and rider, gilt-lettered and illustrated spine. Binding with a few spots and abrasions, interior fine. J. Frank Dobie’s signed comment on front flyleaf: “The girl who wrote this book is much more real and sincere than the one introducing it—Will James. The illustrations by Eve Ganson, author & illustrator of delicious Desert Mavericks, are delightful. J. Frank Dobie. Aug. 3, 1942.”
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Dufault [James] 114). Herd 804. Smith 3053: “Author’s experience on TZ Ranch in Montana.” A humorous and enthusiastic account of life on a Montana dude ranch by a seventeen-year-old girl from the East, including rodeo, roundup, branding, Native American dances, etc. $100.00
1910. FIERMAN, Floyd S. The Impact of the Frontier on a Jewish Family, the Bibos. [El Paso]: Texas Western College Press, 1961. 32 pp., photographic plates, facsimiles. 8vo, original brown wrappers with map by Cisneros, stapled. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine.
Limited edition (300 copies, one of 275 in wrappers). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 134B. Nathan Bibo, one of the subjects of this study, owned a herd of sheep in the Bernalillo area, and the author quotes Arthur Bibo in discussing a land feud concerning the Acoma Cattle company. $50.00
1911. FIERMAN, Floyd S. Peddlers and Merchants—on the Southwest Frontier 1850-1880 [caption title]. [El Paso: El Paso County Historical Society, 1963]. 17 [1] pp., photographic illustrations. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Fine. Carl Hertzog’s printed slip on colophon.
First separate printing, limited edition (150 copies). Lowman, Hertzog 159. Reprint from the Password of the El Paso County Historical Society 8:2 (ca. 1962), with two appendices, footnotes, and corrections. Includes brands and brief mention of area cattlemen. $30.00
1912. FIERMAN, Floyd S. Some Early Jewish Settlers on the Southwestern Frontier. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1960. [2] 58 [2] pp., text illustrations by Russell Waterhouse. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in d.j. with José Cisneros illustration. Second d.j. folded and laid in. Signed by Fierman and designer Carl Hertzog. Very scarce.
Limited edition (250 copies, of which 30 were bound in cloth and signed by Fierman and Hertzog). Lowman, Hertzog 120. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 571: “The Lesinsky, Solomon, and Freudenthal families.” The cattle industry is always a background feature in any history of the Southwest. Here that author mentions the change that occurred in area banks as they transformed from “cattle banks” to banks dealing with copper and other mineral wealth. $200.00
1913. FIERMAN, Floyd S. “The Spiegelbergs of New Mexico, Merchants and Bankers, 1844-1893” in Southwestern Studies 1:4 (Winter 1964). 48 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original grey pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
First edition. Lowman, Hertzog 173. The entire issue is devoted to the author’s article discussing trials of frontier life, the economy of New Mexico Territory, conflicts with Native Americans, land grants, mining, hide trade, etc. $25.00
1914. FIFE, Austin [E.] & Alta [S.] Fife. Saints of Sage and Saddle: Folklore among the Mormons. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956. xiv [2] 367 pp., photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in price-clipped d.j. with some wear and short tears.
First edition. Mormon history, legends, and lore, including ranching, particularly Native Americans and their rustling of sheep, cattle, and horses. $45.00
1915. FIFE, Austin E. & Alta S. Fife (eds.). Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, [1969]. xii, 372 pp., illustrations by J. K. Ralston, printed music. 4to, original maize cloth. Fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Two hundred songs with printed music, guitar chords, lyrics, commentary, notes, lexicon, and variants of words and melodies. $50.00
1916. FINERTY, John F. War-Path and Bivouac, or the Conquest of the Sioux, a Narrative of Stirring Personal Experiences and Adventures in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition of 1876, and in the Campaign on the British Border, in 1879. Chicago: [Donohue & Henneberry, 1890]. 460 pp., frontispiece photogravure in sepia of Mulvany’s painting of “Custer’s Last Rally,” plates (portraits), folding map printed in sepia ink: U.S. Service Map of the Seat of War, 34.2 x 24.5 cm. 8vo, original dark blue gilt-pictorial cloth, designs in black on upper cover and spine, marbled edges. Moderate shelf wear (mainly to corners and spinal extremities), one light spot on spine, hinges starting (but strong), overall a very good and bright copy.
First edition. Dustin 105: “Contains much on the Custer battle; reliable; has lists of killed and wounded.” Graff 1325: “Copyrighted 1890, apparently published by the author.” Howes F136. Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 62. Larned 636: “Contains a very good map of the scene of operations, and several portraits of notable participants.” Luther, High Spots of Custer 38: “A newspaper correspondent’s account of expeditions and campaigns that cannot be overlooked.” Rader 1384. Smith 3064.
Finerty includes descriptions of good grazing land and prospects for livestock in Wyoming and Montana, as well as accounts of Crow depredations and livestock rustling, firsthand information on Buffalo Bill Cody, mention of Captain Jack Crawford, Native American horsemanship, bad women and worse whiskey, etc. $275.00
1917. FINGER, Charles J. The Distant Prize: A Book about Rovers, Rangers, and Rascals. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935. ix [1] 330 pp., text illustrations by Henry Pitz. 8vo, original gilt-lettered red cloth. Light foxing to edges of text block, otherwise fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Guns 719: “Scarce.... Has some mention of such outlaws as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Bob Ford, and Sam Bass.” Chapter IX includes sections on the origins of Texas cattle, hide trade, wheat vs. beef, Mason County War, “Cattle Thief Kings,” “Tremendous Ranches,” etc. $35.00
1918. FINGER, Charles J. Foot-Loose in the West: Being the Account of a Journey to Colorado and California and Other Western States. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1932. viii [4] 302 pp., text illustrations and sketch maps of the route by Helen Finger. 12mo, original orange blindstamped cloth. Ex-library of the Lotos Club of New York: presentation label with signature on front pastedown, library label on front flyleaf, ink stamp on title and dedication page. Binding moderately soiled and spine shelf-slanted, edges of text block foxed.
First edition. Guns 720: “Scarce.... Has material on Captain Jack, the Modoc outlaw, and some slight mention of the Jameses and the Daltons, as well as the California outlaws Vásquez, Murieta, and Black Bart.” Paher, Nevada 596. Rader 1386. Saunders 4090. The chapter on California includes the author’s visit with cowboy-artist Edward Borein. $20.00
1919. FINGER, Charles J. A Note on Texas. [Austin]: Privately printed [by John S. Mayfield], 1927. [11] pp. 8vo, original tan pictorial wrappers, purple cord tie. Except for one short tear to lower wrap, very fine. Presentation card signed by J. Frank Dobie tipped onto title page.
First edition, limited edition (71 copies). Stream-of-consciousness sketch of Texas in the early days by this fascinating author, privately issued on his seventy-first birthday. Pungent vignettes of the social life and entertainments of a vanished Texas, from the heyday of the cowboy to the early oil boom and Mollie Bailey’s circus to Paderewski bravely performing for a rowdy, rebel-yelling Confederate Reunion in Dallas. See Major & Smith (The Southwest in Literature) for a short sketch on the author. $150.00
1920. FISHER, A. T. Through the Stable and Saddle-Room. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, 1890. xx, 302 pp. 8vo, original brown gilt pictorial cloth. Light to moderate outer wear, spinal extremities with a few short tears and fraying, front hinge broken, scattered mild foxing, overall a good copy with contemporary purple ink stamp on title “Property of the Field” and a few contemporary pencil notations in margins.
First edition. Major A. T. Fisher (lat of the 21st Hussars) gives comprehensive instructions for running a stable and managing horses. Chapter XIII is devoted to saddles and spurs. $60.00
1921. FISHER, H. D. The Gun and the Gospel: Early Kansas and Chaplain Fisher. Relation of Kansas to Freedom. John Brown. Jim Lane. Days that Tried Men’s Souls. Circuit Riding in the Fifties. Quantrell’s Raid. Army Life in the Southwest. Work among the Contrabands. Church Life among the Mormons. Congressional Chaplaincy Canvass. Chicago: Kenwood Press, 1896. 317 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic portraits). 8vo, original navy blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Binding dull, rubbed, and stained on lower cover, text browned.
First edition. Dary 2633. Flake 3363. Rader 1393. Reverend Fisher of the Methodist faith ministered in the cattle country, and although he does not engage in any extensive discussions of ranching, his work is an important background text for developments and events in the West during that time. According to Dary, the author was born in Ohio, came to Kansas in 1858 to serve as a minister at Leavenworth and in 1861 at Lawrence, where he was chaplain of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry. He witnessed Quantrill’s raid in August 1863, and later served churches at various posts in the West. $125.00
1922. FISHER, H. D. The Gun and the Gospel...Second Edition. Chicago & New York: Medical Century Company, 1897. xi, [9]-344 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic portraits). 8vo, original navy blue gilt-pictorial cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Binding faded and rubbed, interior fine. Contemporary ink ownership inscription on back of frontispiece. Rubber ink stamp of Acres of Books on front pastedown.
Second edition of preceding. $75.00
1923. FISHER, H. D. The Gun and the Gospel...Fourth Edition. Kansas City: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co., 1902. xii, [9]-347 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic portraits). 8vo, original brown gilt-pictorial cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Spine a bit light, otherwise fine and bright.
Fourth edition of preceding, with some re-writing. $75.00
1924. FISHER, Harrison. Untitled portrait of a romanticized cowgirl measuring 34.7 x 26 cm. The front cover from The Saturday Evening Post, June 19, 1915. Very short tear at lower left and faint coffee cup stain at lower right, not affecting image.
Profile of a dark-haired, fine-featured woman with rosy cheeks wearing a red bandana. In her gloved right hand, she holds her hat and quirt. $15.00
1925. FISHER, O. C. It Occurred in Kimble. Houston: Anson Jones Press, 1937. 237 [3] pp., frontispiece, full-page text (photographs and illustrations by Lonnie Rees). 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Mild marginal staining to binding, endpapers browned, text block split (but strong), mostly unopened. Very scarce.
First edition, limited edition (500 copies, this copy not numbered). CBC 2825. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 118 (“Ranger Reading”). Guns 722: “Scarce.” Herd 805. Not in Tate. Includes many chapters on fighting Native Americans, as well as sections on “The Big Outlaw Roundup of ’77,” “Outlaws and Trigger-Pulling,” and “Some Early-Day Killings,” “Creed Taylor.” $200.00
1926. FISHER, O. C. The Texas Heritage of the Fishers and the Clarks. Salado, Texas: Anson Jones Press, 1963. 241 [1] pp., frontispiece, photographic illustrations. 4to, original white pictorial cloth. Fine, partly unopened, in publisher’s brown slipcase.
Limited edition. Guns 723: “Has a section on John King Fisher and gives some new information on his early life.” Much of the book is devoted to the trail drive experiences of Fisher’s father, Jobe. $125.00
1927. FISHER, O. C. & J. C. Dykes. King Fisher: His Life and Times. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1966]. xvii [1] 157 [1] pp. 12mo, original red boards, spine gilt. Top fore-edge lightly foxed, else very fine in d.j.
First edition. Guns 724: “One of the few original publications in the Western Frontier Library Series. Has material on King Fisher, Ben Thompson, Bat Masterson, the Taylor-Sutton feud, and the Texas Rangers.” This account, by a relative of Fisher, insists that the King had reformed, that the last several charges which he beat were manufactured by an overzealous Lee Hall, and that Fisher would have remained a model citizen had he not been shot soon after his exoneration. Fisher was an outlaw turned lawman who operated a sprawling ranch in South Texas near the Rio Grande. $30.00
1928. FISKE, Frank Bennett. Life and Death of Sitting Bull. Fort Yates, North Dakota: Pioneer-Arrow Print, [1933]. [8] 72 pp., photographic text illustrations (portraits and scenes). 12mo, original orange pictorial wrappers. Fragile wraps moderately worn, interior fine. Rare.
First edition. The author, who is sympathetic to the “raw deal” meted out to Native Americans by the U.S. government, mentions cattle raising by the Standing Rock Sioux, stating that they prospered before the land was invaded by whites and their own operations subverted. Against the pervasive backdrop of the Marlboro-man Anglo cowboy mythos, accounts such as this, of “Indian cowboys” are uncommon.
Frank Bennett Fiske (1883-1952), born at Fort Bennett, Dakota Territory, spent most of his life in the Fort Yates area, arriving there in 1889 with his father, who worked as a civilian wagon master with the U.S. Army. Young Frank learned the photography trade from S. T. Fansler, operator of the post studio. When Fansler abandoned the studio in 1900, the teenage Frank Fiske took over, and continued to operate primarily at Fort Yates until his death in 1952.
Fiske, best known for his Indian portraits, won the North Dakota Art Award in 1950. His portraits appeared on postcards and calendars as well as in art exhibitions. Fiske’s photographs (about 7,000 extant images are housed at North Dakota State University) richly document life in central and southern North Dakota during the first half of this century, with particular emphasis on people and everyday life in and around the Fort Yates area. Although the photographs in this book are unattributed, it seems likely they are the work of Fiske. $450.00
1929. FITCH, Michael Hendrick. Ranch Life and Other Sketches. Pueblo: Franklin Press Company, 1914. 309 [2] pp. 8vo, original gilt-lettered dark olive green cloth. Binding shaken and worn, spine varnished, gilt lettering dull, front hinge cracked, front endpapers abraded from bookplate removal, interior very good. Bookplate. The condition problems are somewhat ameliorated by the presence of J. Frank Dobie’s signed commentary in ink on front flyleaf: “Not much ranching, and what there is, is mostly of sheep. Horses from Texas are mentioned rather than treated of. This is a range item all right, but nothing more. The writer was educated and not provincial. J. Frank Dobie April 5, 1949.”
First edition, limited edition (150 copies). Herd 807: “Scarce. Most of this book is comprised of patriotic speeches and miscellaneous writings, but it contains a good chapter on ranch life in Colorado. Privately printed in an edition of 150 copies, 50 of which were given away by the author, hence its scarcity.” Howes F157. Wilcox, p. 44. Wynar 6408.
Michael Fitch rose through the ranks during the Civil War from First-Sergeant to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Twenty-First Wisconsin Infantry. Two of Fitch’s other books deal with that war: Echoes of the Civil War and The Chattanooga Campaign. $350.00
1930. FITZHUGH, Bessie Lee. Bells Over Texas. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1955. xi [1] 159 [1] pp., frontispiece, photographs, illustrations by José Cisneros. 8vo, original “brass” pictorial cloth with illustration of bell in dark green on upper cover, spine lettered in gilt and with gilt vignette of bell. Very fine in double dust jackets. Signed by Hertzog. Laid in are a promotional brochure, a photocopy of a handwritten document by Hertzog describing production of the book (“This project had more scholarship than most Ph.D.’s ...so it qualifies for publication”), describing the overcritical editor who made Bessie Lee Fitzhugh cry, (“If I had known this...I would have killed him.... ”), plus acerbic denunciation of the binder whose sloppy work “probably shortened my life”. Also laid in is a carbon copy of a 1975 letter to Bess Davis about Mrs. Fitzhugh and the Alamo Bell (including the statement that the Haley Library paid $125,000 for the Alamo Bell).
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Cisneros 73). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 94: “The ‘brass-colored’ cloth binding offers an interesting, refreshing, and appropriate change of pace for this subject”; (quoting Lon Tinkle): “Everything here is of masterly simplicity and perfectly proportioned.” One chapter (“Camel and Cow Bells,” pp. 112-119) deals with the cow bell: “Texas and the cattle industry have developed concurrently. In the early days, during the long cattle drives, a bell fastened to a leather strap around the neck of a lead cow helped to keep the herd together as all other cattle habitually followed the tinkling tones of their leader’s bell” (p. 111). $200.00
1931. FITZHUGH, Bessie Lee. Bells Over Texas. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1955. Another copy. Some stains to endpapers, otherwise fine in moderately soiled and worn d.j. Author’s signed presentation copy. $75.00
1932. FITZPATRICK, George (ed.). Pictorial New Mexico. Santa Fe: Rydal Press, 1949. 191 pp., numerous photographic illustrations (some in color). Small folio, original tan buckram with lettering and vignette in dark brown. Binding slightly discolored, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 72 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #116). There are some ranching photographs among the many images of the state. $30.00
1933. FITZPATRICK, George (ed.). This Is New Mexico. Santa Fe: Rydal Press, [1948]. x [2] 328 [1] pp., text illustrations by Wilfred Stedman, endpaper maps. 8vo, original tan cloth. Light shelf wear, small dent to first twenty leaves.
First edition. Campbell, p. 106. Guns 729. Herd 809: “A collection of stories from the New Mexico Magazine, among which are some about cowboys.” McVicker B70. Includes J. Frank Dobie’s “Don Quixote of the Six-Shooter.” $25.00
1934. FLAGG, Oscar H. (Jack). A Review of the Cattle Business in Johnson County, Wyoming, since 1882, and the Causes That Led to the Recent Invasion. Cheyenne: The Vic Press, [1967]. 50 pp., 2 full-page illustrations (photographic). 8vo, original orange pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
First book edition, limited edition (#410 of 500 copies). Guns 2481: “Scarce.... Articles which originally appeared in the Buffalo Bulletin about the Johnson County War [in 1892], the hanging of Jim Averill and Cattle Kate and the killing of Nat Champion and Nick Ray.” $150.00
1935. FLANAGAN, Sue. Trailing the Longhorns: A Century Later. Austin: [Designed by Ward Ritchie for] Madrona Press, [1974]. xix [1] 209 [3] pp., frontispiece, numerous photographic illustrations, illustrated maps by Cisneros. 4to, original dark brown calf over orange linen, spine gilt-lettered, photographic label of longhorn drive on upper cover. Mint, with original packing box. With the book four prints by José Cisneros to accompany this limited edition (“Trailing the Longhorns”; “Goodnight-Loving Trail 1866-1886”; “Western Trail 1876.... ”; and “Chisholm Trail 1867-1884”). Each print measures 40.0 x 30.5 cm. Very fine. All are signed. “Trailing the Longhorns” is inscribed: “Para Vivian y CH [Hertzog device], nuestros buenos amigos. Vicenta y José.” The suite of plates is seldom found with the book.
First edition, limited edition (#131 of 250 copies). Foreword by Wayne Gard. The author focuses on three major trails: Goodnight-Loving, Chisholm, and Western. The history of these trails is enhanced by excellent contemporary documentary photographs of surviving trail landmarks. $400.00
1936. FLANAGAN, Sue. Trailing the Longhorns: A Century Later. Austin: Madrona Press, [1974]. xix [1] 209 [3] pp., frontispiece, numerous photographic illustrations, illustrated maps by Cisneros. 4to, original brown pictorial cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Very fine in fine d.j.
First trade edition of preceding. $50.00
1937. FLEMING, E. B. Early History of Hopkins County, Texas: Biographical Sketches and Incidents of the Early Settled Families. N.p., 1902. 183 pp. 8vo, original blue cloth. Binding abraded and moderately stained, slightly shelf-slanted, acidic paper browned. A few contemporary ink corrections.
First edition. CBC 249. The author interviewed the early pioneers of Hopkins County in northeast Texas in order to compile this history. Included are biographies of early cattlemen (Lodwick Vaden, J. R. Lindley, John B. Sparks, B. R. Cargile, et al.), a directory of businesses in Sulphur Springs and Nelta (including Warrick France, “the only gin man in the place”), and a chapter on women and their social activities (washing, soapmaking, and quilting). These intrepid pioneers feared the wolves, bears, panthers, and other wild animals more than the Native Americans. The second murder in the county occurred when Mr. Crook enclosed some water holes on White Oak Creek, to the extreme displeasure of Bushrod Musgrove, who was unable to water his herd of cattle. $500.00
1938. FLENNER, John D. Syringa Blossoms. [Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1912]. [4] 225 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, decorative title page in color, photographic plates (portraits). 8vo, original green limp suede wrappers, title in gilt on upper wrapper, dark green satin moiré wrappers). Fragile binding beginning to deteriorate and faded, interior fine and bright. Because of the fragile nature of the binding material, the book is difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition. Smith 3160. This book is a series of essays on events and people in early Idaho history, some of which first appeared in the Idaho Daily Statesman (a second volume appeared in 1915). There are some references to cowboys and ranching, including biographies of ranchers such as John Hailey, who migrated from Oregon to Idaho in 1862 and wrote a history of Idaho (q.v.). Another biography of note is that of Walter Edgar Pierce, who was born on a ranch in Waco in 1860 and went on to be a leading citizen of Boise.
This unusual book was published by the Caxton Printers, who published so many books of interest for ranching and the West and who continue their good work to the present time. The book is a fairly early and ambitious Caxton imprint, founded in 1896 by J. H. Gipson, who declared: “Books to us never can or will be primarily articles of merchandise to be produced as cheaply as possible and to be sold like slabs of bacon or packages of cereal over the counter. If there is anything that is really worthwhile in this mad jumble we call the twentieth century, it should be books.” $100.00
1939. FLETCHER, Herbert (ed.). Harris County, Republic of Texas, 1839-45. Houston: Anson Jones Press, 1950. 30 pp. 8vo, original white self-wrappers. Very fine. Signed by author on front wrapper.
First edition. CBC 2232. In 1842 farms and ranches were feeling a shortage of manpower due to on-going conflicts with Mexico. Advertisements called for sober, capable, industrious men who knew how to raise cotton or corn, or handle cattle. Cattle drives to New Orleans were inaugurated that year, and immigrants poured into Texas. Cattle were cheap, and even poor men could stake a claim and work with established cattlemen, receiving part of their pay in calves. “Many vast heards [sic] of later days were started in this way by men of scanty financial resources.” $35.00
1940. FLETCHER, Robert H. Free Grass to Fences: The Montana Cattle Range Story. New York: University Publishers, [1960]. xii [8] 233 [3] pp., photographic plates, numerous text illustrations and endpaper illustrations by Charles M. Russell, Large 8vo, original half grey linen over tan boards with blind-stamped brands. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #67: “Sponsored by the Montana Stockgrowers Association, this book is not only a good account of Association activity over a period of 75 years but of the whole of Montana cow country history.... Historically, cowmen, beginning with the roundup, have worked together in solving their mutual problems. Books about their Associations are a part of the story of the range.” Mohr, The Range Country 676. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:146. Smith S2643. $75.00
1941. FLETCHER, Sydney E. The Big Book of Cowboys. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1950. [26] pp., color illustrations by the author. 4to, original orange pictorial boards. Very fine. Difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition. Colorful juvenile pandering to the usual stereotypes. $37.50
1942. FLETCHER, Sydney E. The Cowboy and His Horse. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1951]. 159 [1] pp., frontispiece, sepia-tone illustrations by author-artist, brands, map, printed music, endpaper map of the Chisholm Trail (with descriptive paragraph on front flyleaf). 4to, original blindstamped brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed inscription by J. Frank Dobie on front flyleaf: “Better than most juveniles on brands, equipment, etc., most of brand material being swiped from me. J. Frank Dobie 7/5/56.”
First edition. Herd 813: “An excellent example of western art illustrating some of the technical points of the cowboy’s life.” $75.00
1943. FLETCHER, Sydney E. The Cowboy and His Horse. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1951]. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in lightly worn d.j. $25.00
1944. FLINT, Thomas. Diary of Dr. Thomas Flint: California to Maine and Return, 1851-1855. [Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 1923]. 78 pp., frontispiece (portraits), foldout map. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Fine.
Reprinted from the Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California. Cowan, p. 215. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 165. Flake 3378. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 245a: “Flint left Maine for California via the Panama route on May 31, 1851.” Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1370: “A brisk businesslike account of three men who took sheep to California on speculation. In this they succeeded, despite inroads by wolves, hawks, icy rivers, desert mountains, ‘bloodsuckers’ and alkali and plant poisoning.” Plains & Rockies IV:242n. Rocq 7002n. $125.00
1945. FLINT, Thomas. Diary of Dr. Thomas Flint: California to Maine and Return, 1851-1855. N.p., [1924]. [4] 49 pp. 8vo, original wrappers bound into blue cloth gilt. Some buckling and wear to pages, otherwise a fine copy. Bookplate inside upper cover.
Reprinted from the Evening Free Lance, Hollister, California. $100.00
1946. FLIPPER, Henry O[ssian]. Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper, First Negro Graduate of West Point. El Paso: [Designed by Carl Hertzog for] Texas Western College Press, 1963. x, 54 pp., frontispiece portrait, illustrations. 8vo, original beige cloth. Very fine in near fine d.j. with one small abrasion on upper panel, plus printer’s variant trial d.j. and two printed review slips laid in.
First edition, limited issue (125 copies bound in cloth). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 161A.
Born into slavery, Henry Flipper (1856-1940) became the first black graduate of West Point in 1877. He served on frontier duty in the Southwest. In 1881 he was accused by his commanding officer of “embezzling funds and of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” Acquitted of the former, he was convicted of the latter and dismissed from the Army. Flipper maintained his innocence until his death (in 1999 President Clinton pardoned Flipper of all charges). As a civilian Flipper distinguished himself in governmental and private engineering positions (including work for two ranchers, William C. Greene and Albert B. Fall). Flipper became an authority on Mexican land and mining law, and in 1891 the community of Nogales employed him to prepare the important Nogales de Elias (Rancho Casita) land grant case. In 1913 while living in El Paso he supplied information on conditions in revolutionary Mexico to the Senate subcommittee on Mexican internal affairs; national media falsely reported that he was in league with Pancho Villa (to which accusation Flipper wrote a blistering reply). See Handbook of Texas Online: Henry Ossian Flipper.
We include Flipper in this catalogue because he was an active, influential, and most interesting player in the cattle country of the Southwest and borderlands (Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico). Flipper opens his exceedingly frank, unedited Western Memoirs relating his very first duties upon joining the Army in 1877. Posted at Fort Sill in Indian Territory, Flipper was ordered to ride to the Wichita Indian Agency to inspect and receive cattle for issue to Native Americans. “I rode 32 miles in four hours with my white soldier orderly [and] was given the only vacant room in a combination of frontier saloon and hotel, and my orderly a place in a grain room in the stable.... It stormed that night and grew intensely cold.... The cowboys came in the night with their cattle and were put in the dining room to sleep on the floor.... They raved and swore when they knew a ‘nigger officer’ was there to inspect and receive the cattle and was occupying the only bed.... I got up, dressed and...brought my orderly into the room and made him spread his blankets on the floor alongside of my bed.... I inspected the cattle the next day and then rode back to Fort Sill in four hours, in the cold.... My cook, Mrs. Matthews, had to cut my cowhide boots from my feet.... I was sent again to the agency for the same purpose, but my shyness and greenness had disappeared and my confidence had reasserted itself.” Plenty other references to cowboys, ranchers, and rustling are found in this incredible memoir. $375.00
1947. FLIPPER, Henry O. Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper.... El Paso: Texas Western College Press, 1963. x, 54 pp., frontispiece portrait, illustrations. 8vo, original rose pictorial wrappers. Light wear to wraps, otherwise a fine copy. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition, wrappers issue (500 copies in wrappers). Designed by Carl Hertzog. Edited with an introduction by Theodore D. Harris. $150.00
1948. FLORIN, Lambert. Boot Hill: Historic Graves of the Old West. Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., [1966]. 192 pp., profusely illustrated with photos. 4to, original slate blue cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Western Ghost Town Series 6. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 85-86: “In Mr. Florin’s books the ghost town enthusiast can find material abundantly sufficient to satisfy his most exigent demands. First and foremost, Mr. Florin is a master-photographer, and his photographs of historic old ghost town buildings capture all the flavor and atmosphere of his chosen subject. A concomitant pleasure...derives from his editorial and descriptive comment.” Guns 738: “Tells about the Earp-Clanton fight and the killing of Billy the Kid.... Many of the outlaws of Arizona and New Mexico are mentioned.” $50.00
1949. FLORIN, Lambert. Ghost Town Treasures. Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., [1965]. 192 pp., numerous photographic text illustrations. 4to, original green cloth. Very fine in lightly worn but fine d.j.
First edition. Western Ghost Town Series 5. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 85-86. Ghost towns from California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and British Columbia. The primary focus is mining, but there are some references to ranching, such as the case of rancher J. B. Dawson of New Mexico who came into conflict with the Maxwell Land Grant Company, but whose land eventually ended up as a large cattle operation run by Phelps Dodge (pp. 136-139). $35.00
1950. FLORIN, Lambert. Tales the Western Tombstones Tell. Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., n.d. 191 [1] pp., numerous photographic text illustrations. 4to, original light green cloth. Fine in near fine d.j.
Bonanza reprint (first edition published by Superior Publishing). Western Ghost Town Series 7. Adams, One-Fifty 55n: “Material on some western characters, outlaws and gunmen. There is some information on Calamity Jane, Pearl Hart and Joe Boot, Jack Gallaher, George Ives, Boone Helm, Club-Foot George Lane, Haze Lyons and the hanging of the Plummer outlaws at Virginia City by the vigilantes.” Chapter on the Pleasant Valley War between the Grahams and Tewksberrys. $20.00
1951. FLORY, J. S. Thrilling Echoes from the Wild Frontier: Interesting Personal Reminiscences of Author.... Chicago: Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, 1893. [6] 17-248 [2, ads] pp., woodcut frontispiece and plates. 12mo, original red cloth gilt. Light shelf wear, covers soiled, lower hinge cracked, front free endpaper separating, interior age-toned and quite brittle. Overall a very good copy.
First edition. Graff 1365. Herd 814: “Scarce.” Howes F216. Wynar 340. The work includes descriptions of cowboys in Wyoming (pp. 60-62) and comments about a sheep ranch (pp. 237-240). $100.00
1952. FOGHT, H. W. The Trail of the Loup: Being a History of the Loup River Region with Some Chapters on the State. N.p., 1906. 296 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic illustrations (including 2 foldout panoramas of Ord, Nebraska), maps. 8vo, original red gilt-lettered cloth. Binding slightly abraded, stained, and worn, occasional inoffensive pencil notes to text, otherwise a very good copy of a scarce book. Contemporary ownership inscription of Harry E. Weaver on front pastedown.
First edition. Guns 741: “Scarce.... Has some information on cattle stealing; I. P. Olive and his feud with Mitchell and Ketchum.” Herd 816. Includes information on Native Americans of Nebraska (Sioux War of 1862-69, the Creek Massacre, Custer’s last stand, Sioux War of 1890-91), grasshopper problems of the 1870s, development of Loup County, as well as a chapter on the “cowboy regime.” $350.00
1953. FOHLIN, E. V. Salt Lake City, Past and Present: A Narrative of Its History and Romance, Its People and Cultures, Its Industry and Commerce.... Salt Lake City: E. V. Fohlin, [1908]. 208 pp., frontispiece, photographic text illustrations, portraits. 8vo, original blue cloth. Shelf-worn, upper hinge cracked, lacks front endpaper.
First edition. Flake 3384. Local history and guide, including a small section on the livestock industry. $50.00
1954. FOLEY, Thaddeus J. Memories of the Old West. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1927-1928]. 54 pp. 12mo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine in original mailing envelope. Scarce.
First edition. Graff 1369. Herd 817: “Scarce.... A chapter on the cattle industry in Nebraska.” Around 1870 the author traveled from New York to Omaha. He includes comments on cattle drives in which he participated, such as an 1874 drive of 400 head from Ogalalla (“at the end of the Texas trail [and] the biggest and last market for the sale of Texas cattle”) to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies on a previously untraversed route via North Platte River, South Loup, Dismal, and Foley Lake (named for the author), where the cattle stampeded. The trip was so rough that it was decided to seek a different route in the future. Foley laments the demise of the cattle industry in Nebraska because of the rise of farming (pp. 30-31, “The First Irrigation Ditch in Nebraska and the Passing of Range Cattle”). He also gives a dramatic account of how an 1869 surveying party of which he was a member fought off a determined attacked by Native Americans. The obligatory buffalo hunt is included in a chapter entitled “A Buffalo Hunt on the South Platte.” $275.00
1955. FOOTE, Stella Adelyne. Letters from Buffalo Bill, Taken from the Originals Now on Exhibit at the Wonderland Museum, Billings, Montana. Billings: Foote Publishing Co., 1954. 80 pp., photographic text illustrations, portraits, facsimiles. 8vo, original white wrappers with photograph portrait of Cody. Fine.
First printing, “Museum Edition.” Guns 742: “Has some mention of Wild Bill Hickok.” This interesting series of letters from Buffalo Bill to his sister from 1873 until his death in 1917 includes commentary on Annie Oakley, the TE Ranch, Buffalo Hunting, Wild West Show, Custer, etc. $75.00
1956. FORBES, Mrs. A. S. C. [Harrie Rebecca Piper Smith]. Mission Tales in the Days of the Dons. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1909. [12] 343 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, illustrations by Langdon Smith (nine plates and marginal illustrations in green on every page). 8vo, original dark green pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, hinges loose, interior fine.
First edition. Cowan, p. 217. Weber, California Missions, p. 39: “The initial ninety-three pages of this work are devoted to foundations in Peninsular California.” For more on the author, who energetically worked to preserve the missions, see Walker, A Literary History of Southern California (p. 172). Historical fiction set in Pastoral California. The chapter on “The Penance Bell of Los Angeles” includes descriptions of ranching activities and the hide trade in and around Mission San Gabriel. $40.00
1957. FORBES, Alexander. California: A History of Upper and Lower California from Their First Discovery to the Present Time; Comprising an Account of the Climate, Soil, Natural Productions, Agriculture, Commerce &c.; A Full View of the Missionary Establishments and Condition of the Free and Domesticated Indians. With an Appendix Relating to Steam Navigation in the Pacific. Illustrated with a New Map, Plans of the Harbours, and Numerous Engravings. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1839. xvi, 352 pp. (printed errata slip at p. 339), lithographic frontispiece of Father Antonio Peyri, 9 lithographic plates, text illustrations, folding lithographic map of California on thin paper with original outline coloring in red, green, and yellow: The Coasts of Guatimala [sic] and Mexico, from Panama to Cape Mendocino; with the Principal Harbours in California. London, Smith Elder & Co. 1839. John Arrowsmith (37 x 50 cm; 14-1/2 x 19-3/4 inches), with insets: (1) Harbour of San Francisco, by Captn. Beechey R.N.; (2) Sketch of Puerto de S. Diego by Captn. John Hall; (3) Sketch of Monterrey Harbour, by Captn. John Hall; (4) Sketch of St. Barbara Harbour by Captn. John Hall; (5) Sketch of Port S. Gabriel, or S. Pedro by Captn. John Hall. 8vo, early twentieth-century three-quarter tan sheep over brown cloth, spine with raised bands and gilt-lettered maroon leather labels, edges sprinkled. Binding rubbed, frontispiece with mild to moderate foxing, otherwise fine. Overall a very good copy, with engraved armorial bookplate of the Bodleian Library (with ink deacession stamp).
First edition. Barrett 866. Cowan, p. 217. Graff 1377. Hill, p. 107. Howell 50, California 83. Howes F242. LC, California 42. Van Nostrand & Coulter, California Pictorial, pp. 22-27 (illustrating one lithograph and watercolors on which two other plates were based). Zamorano 80 #38: “The book is of value as being the first one printed in English to relate exclusively to California.”
This classic book contains a section on California cattle, and interspersed comments on livestock throughout, sometimes including quotations from earlier visitors’ accounts, such as Langsdorff: “Numerous herds of horses and cattle were running wild here, without any attention being paid to them; the horned cattle even render the country not very safe for foot passengers” (p. 174). Chapter 5 with a section on missionary establishments discusses presidial soldiers’ “ranchios” (“depositories of tithes to be collected in cattle and grain by the government”); land grants to soldiers “to commence their new occupation of husbandry...with the aid of the natives”; arrangement of mission grounds with “part left in its natural condition and occupied as grazing ground”; virtual slavery of the missionized indigenous population; etc. Chapter 6 contains a section on livestock, including statistical table enumerating numbers of cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock at each mission followed by the statement: “In addition to the above there are a great number running wild, particularly mares, which they hunt and kill in order to prevent their eating up the pasture from the useful [domesticated] cattle.”
Forbes goes on to discuss cattle management, mentioning cattle drives of around a thousand head to Mexico City (for use in bullfights!). Forbes describes the wild cattle and the California method of using the lasso to capture them: “Although it is in general a useful and necessary occupation to secure cattle in this way, yet it is by the lookers-on, and even by those engaged in it considered as an amusement, and to which they are passionately attached.” The “rodea” (roundups), horsemanship, and equipage are explained, and the author provides details on the accompanying lithograph (“Californian Mode of Catching Cattle with a Distant View of the Mission of St. Joseph”) after the famous painting by William Smyth. $2,000.00
1958. FORBES, J. Alexander. The Golden West Souvenir: Primitive Years in California. [Los Angeles?: J. Alexander Forbes and I. C. Funetes, 1919]. 103 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic text illustrations. 12mo, original grey pictorial wrappers, stapled. Light wear to cover, text block detached from binding, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. Cowan, p. 217. Rocq 16849. Weber, The California Missions, p. 39: “Historical memoir concerned predominantly with the missions.” Included is discussion of the vast mission herds of such livestock as cattle and sheep and the fact that many of the missions slaughtered all their livestock when secularization occurred. $25.00
1959. FORD, Gus L. (ed.). Texas Cattle Brands: A Catalogue of the Texas Centennial Exposition Exhibit 1936. Dallas: Clyde C. Cockrell Company, [1936]. xx, 240 pp., 4 plates (historical maps of Texas), text illustrations (hundreds of brands), endpaper maps of cattle trails with descriptive text. 8vo, original gilt-lettered red cloth with navy blue vignette of cow on upper cover, navy ruling on spine and upper cover. Very fine and bright, signed by author on title page.
First edition. Campbell, p. 130. Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 34. CBC 4962. Dobie, p. 102. Herd 818. History of brands and brand law, with brief discussion of cattle breeds and the cattle trade. A “Hall of Cattle Kings” gives biographies of fifty-three ranchers, including Gail Borden, Oliver Loving, Richard King, Robert J. Kleberg, et al. $425.00
1960. FORD, Gus L. (ed.). Texas Cattle Brands.... Dallas: Clyde C. Cockrell Company, [1936]. Another copy, variant binding, original maroon cloth with gilt lettering, ruling and vignette in orange. Binding slightly abraded, otherwise fine. $350.00
1961. FORD, Thomas W. A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Austin: Steck-Vaughn, [1968]. ii [2] 44 pp. 12mo, original beige printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
First edition. Southwest Writers Series 15. Review and analysis writings. $15.00
1962. FORD, Tirey L. Dawn and the Dons: The Romance of Monterey. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1926. xiii [3] 236 pp., text vignettes and sketches by Jo Mora, endpaper maps. 8vo, original half black cloth over tan pictorial boards, paper spine label. Slight shelf wear, upper margin of pages 79-80 torn (no losses), otherwise fine.
First edition. Cowan, p. 218. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Mora 9). Guns 743: “Scarce.” Herd 819: “Chapter on cattle raising in California.” Rocq 5693. $75.00
1963. FOREMAN, Carolyn Thomas. The Cross Timbers. [Muskogee, Oklahoma: The Star Printery], 1947. 123 [9, index] pp., folding map of the Cross Timbers. 8vo, original green cloth. Binding lightly worn, otherwise fine, signed by author.
First edition. History of the exploration and settlement of the Cross Timbers region of north-central Texas and south-central Oklahoma, with descriptions of cattle rustling by Kiowa and Comanche and details on early trail drives through the Cross Timbers. “During the winter of 1865-1866 large herds of cattle were assembled at points in Texas to be driven north in late March or early April when the grass should be high enough for feed. These herds numbered from one to three thousand steers and each herd was in charge of a ‘boss’ and from eight to fourteen cowboys; a cook drove the chuck wagon containing the food and bedding. The usual route from central Texas passed west of Fort Worth, and crossed the strip of prairie between the Upper and Lower Cross Timbers, via Denton and Sherman, and the Red River. North of that stream the road crossed Indian Territory, past Fort Gibson and on to the Kansas line south of Baxter Springs” (p. 110). $60.00
1964. FOREMAN, Carolyn Thomas. Oklahoma Imprints 1835-1907: A History of Printing in Oklahoma before Statehood. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1936. xxiv [2] 499 [1] pp., frontispiece, plates (some foldout), foldout maps, facsimiles. 8vo, original black patterned cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 187. Mohr, The Range Country 677: “An excellent bibliography.” Books, newspapers, pamphlets, and periodicals dealing with the various Native American tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Osage, Peoria, Seminole) of the Oklahoma Territories, Legislative journals, statutes, Supreme Court decisions, and various religious presses. Inroads to research on ranching. $100.00
1965. FOREMAN, Carolyn Thomas. Park Hill. [Muskogee, Oklahoma: The Star Printery, 1948]. 186 [7, index] pp., frontispiece, photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in lightly worn and foxed d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Heavy emphasis on printing and social history, but with scattered references to livestock, especially to depredations during the Civil War. Also, has some references to trade in hides and to cattle being fed on the prairies (p. 156). $75.00
1966. FOREMAN, Grant. Advancing the Frontier, 1830-1860. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1933. 363 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, maps (some folding and foldout), plans, photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. Signed by author, and with related news clipping laid in.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian Series 4. Dobie, p. 29: “Grant Foreman is prime authority on the so-called ‘Civilized Tribes.’” Saunders 2900. Tate, Indians of Texas 220: “Includes a chapter on the Five Civilized Tribes and their efforts to negotiate with...other tribes of East Central Texas during the 1840s. Other chapters outline the problems that the Comanches created for these ‘emigrant tribes.’” Account of the resettlement of Eastern tribes into the Transmississippi West after their removal by Jackson, examining clashes between various tribes and impacts of the extirpation of bison and transition to stock raising. $150.00
1967. FOREMAN, Grant. Down the Texas Road: Historic Places along Highway 69 through Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1936. 46 [2] pp., maps. 12mo, original yellow printed wrappers, stapled. Light wear, but generally fine.
First edition. Historic Oklahoma Series 2. Campbell, p. 102. Classic account of this highway that was a major thoroughfare through Oklahoma cattle country, with reference to the hundreds of thousands of cattle passing from Texas to the Pikes Peaks Rush. $50.00
1968. FOREMAN, Grant. The Five Civilized Tribes. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1934. 455 [1] pp., 13 photographic plates (including frontispiece), folding map. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian Series 8; introductory note by John R. Swanton. Rader 1432. To Grant Foreman, above any other writer, credit is due for developing, through intensive study and research, the engrossing story of these tribes, the first permanent citizens of Oklahoma. Foreman’s sympathetic discussions of the Five Civilized Tribes include material on their activities as livestock herders and growers and on cattle drives to California. $75.00
1969. FOREMAN, Grant. Lore and Lure of Eastern Oklahoma. Muskogee, Oklahoma: Muskogee Chamber of Commerce, n.d. (ca. 1947). 78 pp., photographic text illustrations, folding map. 8vo, original orange and white wrappers with map. Fine. Signed by author.
First edition. Cover title is Muskogee and Eastern Oklahoma. Contains references to the introduction of cattle into Eastern Oklahoma and discussion of the great herds of cattle that went down the Texas trail (pp. 57-58) before the construction of the railroads. Prior to that, Muskogee was the terminus of the cattle drives from Texas. At pp. 47-49 is an account of the devastating Confederate raid on Fort Davis in 1863, in which a thousand Union horses and mules were rustled and twenty herdsmen murdered. $60.00
1970. FOREMAN, Grant. Lore and Lure of Eastern Oklahoma. Muskogee, Oklahoma: Muskogee Chamber of Commerce, n.d. (ca. 1947). Another copy. Wrappers lightly worn, otherwise fine. $45.00
1971. FOREMAN, Grant. Lore and Lure of Eastern Oklahoma. [Muskogee, Oklahoma: Muskogee Chamber of Commerce], n.d. (ca. 1947) 78 pp., photographic text illustrations, map. 8vo, original green and white wrappers with map. Very fine.
First edition, variant issue, with cover title: Muskogee and Eastern Oklahoma and The Battle of Honey Springs, the map being a reduced version reproducing only a portion of the map in the issue above. $25.00
1972. FOREMAN, Grant. Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926. 349 pp., 4 photographic plates (including frontispiece), foldout map. 8vo, original red cloth, t.e.g. Spine sunned, very light water damage and wear to covers.
First edition. Campbell, pp. 177-89: “One of the best books ever written about the Southwest. Much on Texas Indian warfare before the Texas Revolution.” Clark & Brunet 86: “Study of the early exploration and development of Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. It is based primarily on original research of unpublished manuscripts and contemporary newspapers dealing with the period between the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War.” Howes F260. Rader 1436. Saunders 2904. Tate, Indians of Texas 222: “Excellent source of information on Indian relations in Indian Territory and northern Texas between 1800 and 1848. Special emphasis is given to Comanches and Cherokees, especially Sam Houston’s close relationship with the latter.” Wallace, Arizona History IV:28.
Occasional forays into subjects of interest for ranching. The chapter on “Border Warfare” documents Seminole removal from Florida to the junction of Canadian and North Fork Rivers. “Some of them removed to that location, but a thousand of them under their leader, Alligator, remained on the bottom lands near the post, unwilling to leave; destitute, they fed themselves by killing the live-stock of the Cherokee, until they became a serious menace to the peace” (p. 292). $125.00
1973. FOREMAN, Grant (ed.). Marcy and the Gold Seekers: The Journal of Captain R. B. Marcy, with an Account of the Gold Rush over the Southern Route. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939. xiv, 433 [1] pp., plates, folding map. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j.
First edition. The American Exploration and Travel Series 2. Campbell, pp. 66, 192. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 87-88: “A fundamental work.” Saunders 2903. Tate, Indians of Texas 2166: “Grant Foreman’s excellent editing and the added index make this much easier to use than Marcy’s original document. Frequent comments on Comanches and their threat to the expedition fill Marcy’s report, and with good reason—Comanches attacked the civilian party that was traveling with the army escort.” Wallace, Arizona History IV:52. Includes a long footnote on p. 96 about Captain Forrest’s large trail drive of “thousands of sheep and cattle” from Indian Territory to California in 1850, and other drives of that era to supply California miners with food (pp. 96-97). $85.00
1974. FORREST, Earle R. Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1936. 370 pp., 23 photographic plates (including frontispiece), endpaper maps. 12mo, original red cloth gilt. Fine in fine d.j. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to William MacLeod Raine “in appreciation for the introduction so generously contributed and suggestions made in preparation of the manuscript.... ”
First edition. Introduction by William MacLeod Raine. Dobie, p. 141. Dykes, Kid 224. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 80 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Entertaining account of the Pleasant Valley War in Arizona.” Guns 747: “Perhaps the best and most complete history of the Graham-Tewksbury feud, this book reveals intelligent research. It has some accounts of the Apache Kid, Billy the Kid, Tom Pickett, and the killing of Andy Copper by Commodore Owens.” Herd 823. Howes F265. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 596n. Wallace, Arizona History X:27. $250.00
1975. FORREST, Earle R. Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1936. Another copy. Fine in d.j. with one short tear (no losses). Publisher’s bookmark with instructions on how to open a book laid in. Signed by author. $175.00
1976. FORREST, Earle R. Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1936. Another copy, review copy. Fine in fine d.j. Review copy label with stamped publication date tipped onto front pastedown. $150.00
1977. FORREST, Earle R. Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1936. Another copy, not a review copy. Moderate shelf wear, internally fine, in price-clipped d.j. with a 7-cm tear and minor chipping. $100.00
1978. FORREST, Earle R. Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1950. 382 pp., 23 photographic plates (including frontispiece), endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth gilt. Very fine in fine d.j. Author’s signed and dated presentation inscription “To my friend and fellow Westerner (Britz) Homer E. Britzman, With the best wishes.... ”
Second edition, revised and enlarged. $85.00
1979. FORREST, Earle R. Missions and Pueblos of the Old Southwest: Their Myths, Legends, Fiestas, and Ceremonies, with Some Accounts of the Indian Tribes and Their Dances; and of the Penitentes. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929. 386 pp., frontispiece, plates. 8vo, original blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine, t.e.g. Very fine, mostly unopened.
First trade edition (Clark published a 2-vol. limited issue of 100 copies in 1928; the second volume was an atlas). Campbell, p. 102. Clark & Brunet 87: “Forrest spent twenty-five years researching this work. He traveled extensively throughout the Southwest visiting historic ruins, pueblos, and tribes. Much information of an ethnographic nature is contained in the work. Forrest gathered together an important collection of photographs of the missions and pueblos before modern changes were made.” Laird, Hopi 920: “Much of Forrest’s Hopi material is firsthand from his visits to the mesas soon after the turn of the century but he has also done his homework. This is a good readable survey of the Indians and churches of the Southwest.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 597n. Saunders 2172. Wallace, Arizona History III:19.
This work contains valuable information on Father Kino and his work (Kino is considered to be the Father of Ranching in the Southwest). Information on cattle ranches is provided, including San Bernardino Ranch, C O Bar, and the Gandara Ranch, the latter one of the most famous of the old Spanish ranches in the entire Southwest in the 1830s and 1840s: “From his great adobe mansion, surrounded by an army of peons and vaqueros, Don Manuel ruled like a feudal baron of old while his cattle grazed on a thousand hills, until a change in political fortunes forced him to flee from Mexico to California” (pp. 259-61). $200.00
1980. FORREST, Earle R. & Edwin B. Hill. Lone War Trail of Apache Kid. Pasadena: Trail’s End Publishing Co., [1947]. 143 [1] pp., 8 photographic plates (1 in color by Charles M. Russell), endpaper maps by Clarence Ellsworth. 8vo, original gilt-lettered tan calf gilt with a gilt reproduction of an illustration by Charles M. Russell on back cover. Other than minor shelf wear, a very fine copy.
Limited deluxe edition (#23 of 250 copies, signed by authors). Guns 748: “A well-written history, and up to the time of its publication the most nearly complete work on this notorious Arizona Indian outlaw.” Wallace, Arizona History X:39. Yost & Renner, Russell I:50.
A trusted Indian scout for Al Sieber and General Crook during the 1880s, the Apache Kid murdered another Indian in 1887. When he attempted surrender, an excited melee occurred and Al Sieber was shot in the foot. The Apache Kid fled but again returned and surrendered. He and three other Apaches were charged and convicted of attempted murder in the incident. While transporting the Apache Kid and four other prisoners, the guards were overpowered, and with two guards dead and the other severely wounded, the Apache Kid fled. Although suspected of other murders, the remainder of the Apache Kid’s life remains a mystery. Some of the action takes place on Milt Hall’s Ranch in Cochise County and other area ranches. $200.00
1981. FORREST, Earle R. & Edwin B. Hill. Lone War Trail of Apache Kid. Pasadena: Trail’s End Publishing Co., [1947]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original maroon cloth gilt. Very fine in fine bright, bright d.j. with a few little nicks (no losses).
Limited deluxe edition (#25 of 250 copies), signed by both authors. The binding is often described as morocco or leather, but it is cloth impregnated to resemble those substances. $125.00
1982. FORREST, Earle R. & Edwin B. Hill. Lone War Trail of Apache Kid. Pasadena: Trail’s End Publishing Co., [1947]. 143 [1] pp., 8 plates (mostly photographic, 1 in color after Charles M. Russell), endpaper maps by Clarence Ellsworth. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in slightly chipped d.j.
First trade edition. $40.00
1983. FOSSETT, Frank. Colorado: A Historical, Descriptive and Statistical Work on the Rocky Mountain Gold and Silver Mining Region. Denver: Daily Tribune Steam Printing House, 1876. [2] 470 [ix, appendix] [8, ads] pp., frontispiece, wood-engraved plates (scenes, views, equipment), maps. 8vo, original dark green gilt-lettered cloth. Moderate shelf wear, lightly shaken, overall a very good copy, contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Printed on various stocks of paper and not bound well, this work is difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition. Bradford 1743. Herd 826: “Rare.” Howes F281. Wilcox, p. 45. Wynar 3336. Important early guide to Colorado, with a heavy emphasis on mining. $150.00
1984. FOSSETT, Frank. Colorado: A Historical, Descriptive and Statistical Work on the Rocky Mountain Gold and Silver Mining Region. Denver, 1876. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original brown cloth. Binding worn, hinge broken, intermittent browning. $100.00
1985. FOSTER, C[larence] D[elmer]. Foster’s Comic History of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City: Publishers Press, [1916]. 138 [5] pp., cartoon illustrations by Merle St. Leon. 12mo, original beige pictorial wrappers. Wrappers worn at spine, back wrapper stained, ink stamp on title page causing stain to verso of front wrapper, back wrapper loose at hinge, overall a good copy in original mailing envelope. J. Frank Dobie’s copy, with his ink note on upper wrapper: “Trails & Ranches - 118-119.”
First edition. This quasi-serious history, somewhat in the vein of Texas History Movies, includes chapters on ranches and cowboys. $75.00
1986. FOSTER, James S. Outlines of History of the Territory of Dakota and Emigrant’s Guide to the Free Lands of the Northwest, Containing a Description of Towns, Climate, Soil...Stage Routes, Railroads. And a Complete Business Directory of the Upper Missouri Valley...Accompanied with a New Sectional Map. By James S. Foster, Commissioner of Immigration for Dakota Territory. [Colophon: Pierre: Hipple Printing Company], 1928. 110 [1] pp. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers. Wrappers slightly worn (one small chip from one corner) and a bit discolored along one edge, overall a very good copy.
Reprint of the rare Yankton, Dakota Territory, edition of 1870, a genuine Northwest rarity (the last copy of the 1870 edition at auction was the Streeter copy in 1968 which fetched $950.00). Bradford 1748n. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 18n. Graff 1389n. Herd 829n. Howes F289. Includes sections on fencing, stock raising, and wool growing. $50.00
1987. FOSTER-HARRIS. The Look of the Old West. New York: Viking Press, 1955. x, 316 pp., profusely illustrated by Evelyn Curro. 4to, original half beige pictorial cloth over brown marbled boards. Very fine in very fine d.j. A common book, but not in collector’s condition and with the d.j.
First edition, first printing, without notice of Viking participation on verso of title, and sheets to bulking to 2.8 cm. Guns 751: “Has some information on many of the outlaws of the West, such as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Bill Carver, Jim Courtright, King Fisher, John Wesley Hardin, the James boys...and such gunmen as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short, and Dallas Stoudenmire.” Herd 828. Extensive discussions of the material culture of ranching, trail drives, cowboys, horses and equestrian equipage, cattle breeds, managing herds, barbed wire and fencing, architecture, etc. $40.00
1988. FOSTER-HARRIS. The Look of the Old West. New York: Viking Press, 1955. x, 316 pp., profusely illustrated by Evelyn Curro. 4to, original tan illustrated cloth. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First edition, later printing, with notice of Viking participation on verso of title, and sheets to bulking to 1.9 cm. $20.00
1989. FOWLER, M. V. B. The California Journal of M. V. B. Fowler, 1851. Los Angeles: The Historical Society of Southern California, 1968. [2] 113-265 pp. 8vo, original goldenrod cloth. Fine.
First separate printing, limited (125 copies), reprinted from The Southern California Quarterly (June & September 1968). Edited and with introduction by Mary Joan Elliott. Includes detailed views of ranchos and missions in the area. $40.00
1990. FOX, Lawrence K. (ed.). Fox’s Who’s Who among South Dakotans, Vol. 1, 1924-1925. Pierre, South Dakota: Statewide Service Company, 1924. xxix [1] 238 pp. 8vo, original green cloth gilt. Light shelf wear, hinges cracked, text browned, ownership inscription of Walter A. Simmons (who has an entry in the book). Overall a good copy.
First edition. Quite a few ranchers among the many entries. $20.00
1991. FRACKELTON, Will. Sagebrush Dentist, As Told by Dr. Will Frackelton to Herman Gastrell Seely. Pasadena: Trail’s End, [1947]. 258 pp., portrait. 8vo, original gilt-lettered red leather. Very fine. Frackelton’s signature and inscription tipped in at half-title, Seely’s signature on verso of title page.
Revised and enlarged edition, with Sheridan Stationery Company notation on verso of title. Guns 755n: “The author spins an interesting yarn, and among other things tells of his experiences with Butch Cassidy, Harry Longabaugh, Tom O’Day, and the rest of the Wild Bunch in their own lair. He gives some new material on both Calamity Jane and Soapy Smith.” Herd 834n. Luther, High Spots of Custer 138: “Frackelton relates of what he learned from the Crows concerning the fight.” Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 25n: “In the 1890s a young Wisconsin dentist set up business first in Sundance and shortly in Sheridan, Wyoming. Whimsical reminiscences of his life in the Sheridan community among the early ranchers and the Indians on the nearby Crow reservation.” $100.00
1992. FRACKELTON, Will. Sagebrush Dentist.... Pasadena: Trail’s End, [1947]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original gilt-lettered tan sheep with gilt illustration by Charles Russell on back cover. Light edge wear, otherwise a fine copy.
Revised and enlarged edition, without Sheridan Stationery Company notation on verso of title. The Russell illustration is the same that appeared on the limited edition of Forrest & Hill’s Lone War Trail of Apache Kid (q.v.). $100.00
1993. FRACKELTON, Will. Sagebrush Dentist.... Pasadena: Trail’s End, [1947]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original red cloth with black lettering. Very fine in very fine illustrated d.j.
Revised and enlarged edition, with Sheridan Stationery Company notation on verso of title. $75.00
1994. [FRANCE, Lewis B.]. With Rod and Line in Colorado Waters. Denver: Chain, Hardy & Co., 1884. 151 pp., frontispiece map, text vignettes. 8vo, original brown cloth decorated in gilt and black, bevelled edges. Light shelf wear mainly to corners and extremities, otherwise a fine copy of a scarce book. Contemporary ownership inscription of Henry E. Breman of Greeley in ink on front free endpaper.
First edition of a classic of Rocky Mountain angling. Wynar 8835. The author, a judge in Denver who wrote under the pseudonym “Bourgeois,” describes in an amusing fashion his experiences angling in Grand Lake and Grand River and its tributaries in northwestern Colorado. Some of his angling took place on the “old Brown and Stuart’s ranches.” He includes a tale of being rudely awakened one morning by a trail drive that he describes as consisting of 300 cattle and 600 cowboys. $450.00
1995. FRANK, Herman W. Scrapbook of a Western Pioneer. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, [1934]. [14] 256 [8] pp., 37 photographic plates (including frontispiece) of portraits, scenes, architecture. 4to, original gilt-lettered blue cloth. Minor shelf wear, overall a fine, bright copy. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy: “It is my pleasure to present this book of which I am the Author to my good neighbor Mrs. Clarence—my friend I hope for all time—Her real name is Mrs. Clarence Smith.... ”
First edition. Rocq 3827. Smith 3248. The author was a Jewish retail merchant in Los Angeles for fifty years and owner of the Harris & Frank Department Store. His memoirs give good early local history (such as an account of the first automobiles in Los Angeles), along with details on his travels drumming up business in Idaho and the West. In the section entitled “Cowboy Days” (pp. 12-15), Frank describes how as a young man he worked in Walla Walla for George Guthridge, a butcher, helping him round up cattle and other livestock for slaughter. Many of the photographs document early Los Angeles. $60.00
1996. [FRANKLIN, William Suddards]. A Tramp Trip in the Rockies of Colorado and Wyoming by S. [Lancaster, Pennsylvania: New Era Print Co. for] the author, 1903. 56 pp., hand-colored plates. 12mo, original grey pictorial cloth, gilt-lettered burgundy leather spine label. Fine and bright. Bookplate of Rt. Rev. Nathaniel S. Thomas.
First edition. Wynar 2112. Privately printed in a small edition for family and friends, this scarce account covers a trip from Iowa to Laramie via Denver and Loveland, with details on the Unitas, Long’s Peak, Estes Park, Grand Lake, Michigan Fork, and the Medicine Bow Mountains. Includes information the author’s stay at Sprague’s Ranch in Estes Park. $450.00
1997. FRANKS, J. M. Seventy Years in Texas: Memories of the Pioneer Days, Indian Depredations, and the Northwest Cattle Trail. Gatesville, Texas, 1924. 133 [1] pp., photograph of author on verso of title page. 8vo, original beige printed wrappers, stapled. Discoloration to upper wrap, wrappers browned, generally very good, signed by J. Frank Dobie on title page.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:137. Campbell, p. 97. CBC 233 and 6 additional entries. Graff 1408. Guns 759. Herd 839: “Scarce.” Howes F339. Parrish, Civil War Texana 31. Rader 1466. Tate, Indians of Texas 2370: “Memoirs of life in North Central Texas from the 1850s through the end of the frontier era.... Pioneer families, their hardships, and their constant problems with Comanche and Kiowa raiders. Most of these personalized stories are not found in any other sources.” Authentic account of early life in Texas and the heyday of the cattle drives and ranching. $200.00
1998. FRANKS, J. M. Seventy Years in Texas.... Gatesville, Texas, 1924. Another copy. Edges sunned, small tears on lower cover and blank margin of last four leaves, otherwise fine. $175.00
1999. FRANKS, J. M. Seventy Years in Texas.... Gatesville, Texas, 1924. Another copy, variant wrappers. 8vo, original brown printed wrappers, stapled. Preserved in yellow cloth chemise. Very fine, signed by Dudley R. Dobie. $200.00
2000. FRANKS, J. M. Seventy Years in Texas.... Gatesville, Texas, 1924. Another copy, variant wrappers. 8vo, original green printed wrappers, stapled. Text detaching from cover, small snag at head of spine, interior fine. $150.00
2001. FRANKS, J. M. Seventy Years in Texas.... Gatesville, Texas, 1924. Another copy. Top corner of upper wrapper bent, title page foxed, otherwise a fine copy. Contemporary ownership signature of George W. Tyler of Belton, Texas, dated April 1924 on cover and title page. Tyler (1851-1927) was a prominent historian, lawyer, and politician who pursued a career as a legislator and educator. (see Handbook of Texas Online: George W. Belton). $150.00
2002. FRANTZ, Joe B. Gail Borden: Dairyman to a Nation. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1951]. xiii [1] 310 [2] pp., plates, map. 8vo, original light blue cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 65: “One of the most interesting of all Texas biographies.... A man who...founded an industry,...who played a large behind-the-scenes part in the birth of free Texas.... He later pioneered the packing and other industries in Texas, and in fact could justly be called the father of Texas industry. Frantz’s biography never lags, imbued as it is with a splendid understanding of his subject.” Campbell, p. 90. Dobie, p. 51: “This biography of a newspaperman and inventor brings out sides of pioneer life that emphasis on fighting, farming, and ranching generally overlooks.”
In his early days, Borden was a stock raiser and later pioneered the beef biscuit intended for California ’49ers and travelers in distress, such as the Donner party (opposite p. 94 is a facsimile of a broadside touting Borden’s beef biscuit). Borden’s most important invention was the process of condensing milk, and, yes, Gail Borden is the Borden of Borden’s milk. See Handbook of Texas Online: Gail Borden, Jr. $125.00
2003. FRANTZ, Joe B. Texas: A Bicentennial History. New York & Nashville: W. W. Norton & Company and American Association for State and Local History, [1976]. xiv, 222 pp., photographic plates by A. Y. Owen, maps by Harold Faye. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine in d.j. Ownership label on back pastedown.
First edition. The book is part of a series on “The States and the Nation,” published for the national Bicentennial of the American Revolution. Frantz attempts to dispel some of the myths and stereotypes about Texas, and covers facets ranging from the Texas Revolution to cattle drives, and notable characters such as LaSalle, Sam Houston, the Texas Rangers, and L.B.J. $20.00
2004. FRANTZ, Joe B. & Julian Ernest Choate, Jr. The American Cowboy: The Myth and the Reality. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1955]. xiii [1] 232 pp., photographic plates (by noted photographer Erwin E. Smith). 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:138. Guns 760. Herd 840. The authors state that “we have sought here to issue a sort of short handbook which will depict the cowboy as a part of the whole Western panorama, instead of looking at him, as most previous works have done, in isolation from his larger environment.” A chapter on “The Lawless” discusses the mythic role of the cowboy in the West, pointing out that Billy the Kid “was a product of the range war and may furnish an extreme example of a fourth-rate cowboy becoming a first-rate killer.” The second part of the book “concerns itself with critical interpretations of the earlier literature of the cowboy and with his later critics.” “Still the most comprehensive treatment of the subject” (Taylor & Maar, The American Cowboy, p. 223). $50.00
2005. FRASER, Chelsea. Heroes of the Wilds. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, [1923]. x [2] 372 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, fore-edges and endpapers lightly foxed, small ownership label on front pastedown, overall very good.
First edition. Popular history dedicated “to the red-blooded men who, menaced daily by danger, earn an honest living under the wide roof of the sky,” with chapters on cowboys, Texas Rangers, loggers, etc. The chapter on cowboys has a vintage photo of a cowboy twirling his lariat (by Underwood & Underwood). $20.00
2006. FRASER, James. Cattle Brands in Arizona: A Bibliography of Published Territorial and State Brand Registration Books. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1968. 45 [1] pp., facsimiles, brands. Tall narrow 8vo, original brown boards, printed paper label of brands on upper cover. Very fine.
First edition. Introduction by Don Perceval. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Perceval 25a): “[Perceval] drew, researched and described the brands used on the title label and in the text.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 609: “Unusually handsome.” $75.00
2007. FREDERICK, J. V. Ben Holladay: The Stagecoach King; A Chapter in the Development of Transcontinental Transportation. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1940. 334 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates (counted as part of pagination), folded map. 8vo, original green cloth, t.e.g. Very fine, unopened.
First edition. Western Frontiersman Series 2. Campbell, pp. 90-91: “Holladay, Mark Twain declared, would have got the Hebrew children through the wilderness in forty hours.” Dobie, p. 79. Clark & Brunet 99. Guns 762: “Tells of some of the early stagecoach robberies, and has material on Joseph Slade and Broncho Jack.” Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 25: “Not so much a biography of Ben Holladay as a history of the freighting and stagecoach business he owned.” Rocq 15813.
Holladay holds a permanent place in history as the man who maintained the steady movement of freight, mail, and passengers between the Missouri Valley and Pacific Coast during the Civil War. Contains information on the livestock trade, feats of horsemanship, Buffalo Bill Cody, etc. $225.00
2008. FREEMAN, Charles J. Early History of Central Nebraska and Old Plum Creek, Now Lexington. [Lexington, Nebraska: Lexington Clipper, 1956]. 16 pp., printed in double column on rectos only. Large oblong 8vo, original cream printed wrappers, stapled at top. Text and wrappers lightly browned, one corner bumped, overall a fine copy. An amazing survival.
First edition. Not in standard bibliographical sources. RLIN locates two copies (Museum of American West and Yale); OCLC (Denver Public Library). This little rarity, apparently reprinted from standing newspaper type, tells in part of Texas cattlemen moving stock into Custer and Dawson Counties in the 1870s. $400.00
2009. FREEMAN, Dan A. Four Years with the Utes: The Letters of Dan A. Freeman. Waco: W. M. Morrison, 1962. [5] 7 [2] pp., illustrated title (by author), text illustrations. 8vo, original charcoal boards with pictorial paper label on upper cover by Joan Lanham. Very fine.
Limited edition (#36 of 125 copies), edited by W. M. Morrison. Wynar 1804. Freeman was adopted by the Utes after the Meeker Massacre. Includes information on the controversy over grazing rights between Utes and Anglo settlers that led to the Ute War. $75.00
2010. FREEMAN, G. D. Midnight and Noonday; or, The Incidental History of Southern Kansas and the Indian Territory, Giving Twenty Years Experience on the Frontier; also the Murder of Pat. Hennesey, and the Hanging of Tom. Smith, at Ryland’s Ford, and Facts Concerning the Talbot Raid on Caldwell. Also the Death Dealing Career of McCarty and Incidents Happening in and around Caldwell, Kansas, from 1871 until 1890. Caldwell, Kansas: G. D. Freeman, 1892. 406 pp., 16 plates (photographs, a few from engravings), including frontispiece portrait of author. 8vo, original blindstamped red cloth, spine gilt-lettered (neatly rebacked, original spine preserved). Binding soiled and darkened, overall a good copy. The Library of Congress deposit copy, with their purple ink library stamp with their accession and deaccession stamps on title verso and date stamp on rear free endpaper.
Second edition, first issue, with caption on plate at p. 40 incorrectly reading “First White Child Born in Caldwell” corrected by printed pasteover to read: “First White Child Born in the Cherokee Strip” (the first edition published at Caldwell, Kansas, in 1890 is exceedingly rare and has only 4 plates).
Adams, One-Fifty 56 (citing the 1890 first edition): “Reprinted in 1892...with the addition of a certificate signed by seven old-time pioneers attesting to the truth of the narrative.... The first [edition] is so rare that many collectors think that the 1892 edition was the only one published.... I was fortunate enough...to pick up a copy of the first edition...the only one I have ever seen.” Campbell, p. 166. Dobie, p. 121. Dykes, Kid 21: “Very rare”; Rare Western Outlaw Books, p. 11. Eberstadt 114:316: “The period of outlawry, lynch law, and Indian warfare.” Graff 1411. Guns 763n. Herd 843n. Howes F353. Rader 1472. Reese, Six Score 39n: “History of Caldwell during this vital period, when it was an important cattle town, and a firsthand account of one of the roughest of the shipping terminals.... All editions are rare.”
Two of the photographs document ranching and cowboys: “Cattlemen at Dinner” (opposite p. 128) and “Ranch in Indian Territory” (opposite p. 288). $250.00
2011. FREEMAN, G. D. Midnight and Noonday.... Caldwell, Kansas: G. D. Freeman, 1892. 406 pp., 16 plates (photographs, a few from engravings), including frontispiece portrait of author. 8vo, original blindstamped red cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Mild staining to fore-edges, otherwise fine, tight, and bright.
Second edition, second issue, with caption on plate at p. 40 correctly reading “First White Child Born in the Cherokee Strip.” $300.00
2012. FREEMAN, Harry C. A Brief History of Butte, Montana: The World’s Greatest Mining Camp. Chicago: Henry O. Shepard Company, 1900. 123 [5, ads] pp., frontispiece (tinted photogravure of miners), numerous text illustrations (numerous photos and 4 half-tones by Charles Russell). 4to, original terracotta pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, top corner bumped, a few spots to covers, internally fine and bright.
First edition of an early Charles Russell item. Eberstadt 136:446. Yost & Renner, Russell I:12. Smith 3285. Scarce local history profusely illustrated with early photographs, mainly focused on mining, but also covering early businesses, churches, city and county institutions, railroads, and prominent citizens, including Granville Stuart, one of the great cattle barons of the Northwest. One of the Russell illustrations shows cowboys shooting up the town, with chickens and a Chinese man on the run. $125.00
One of the Big Four
2013. FREEMAN, James W. (ed.). Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry of the United States. With Outlines of the Original and Ancient History of our Live Stock Animals. Volume I [all published]. Issued in Three Volumes. Illustrated. Prepared by Authority of the National Live Stock Association. Denver & Kansas City: National Live Stock Historical [Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., 1905]. Association. [2] 757 pp., 10 engraved plates (mostly portraits), hundreds of text illustrations. 4to, original blind-stamped black morocco, gilt lettered, t.e.g. Binding worn, restored, and recased, occasional mild to moderate foxing and staining to interior, overall a very good copy of a rare book. This copy does not have the certificate of ownership (“Most copies were issued to members of the association, with their name stamped in gold on the front cover and a certificate giving the number of their set and their name bound in. However, I have seen a copy, apparently in original binding, which had neither”—Reese, Six Score).
First edition. Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 35. Dobie, p. 114. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 12; Kid 41: “Contains a chapter on ‘The Range Rustler’ in which the Lincoln County War is called ‘the most famous of the troubles of the cattlemen in the Southern country’”; Western High Spots, p. 27 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West”); pp. 86-87 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “An exceedingly rare book.” Graff 1412. Guns 764. Herd 844: “One of the most important and most sought-after books on the cattle industry.” Howell 40:37: Howes P636 (“c”). McCracken, 101, p. 28. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 53. Streeter Sale 2391: “One of the rarest, most important, and thorough books on the American cattle industry.” Vandale 136.
Reese, Six Score 41: “The most desired and desirable book on the range cattle industry. This book contains an incredible collection of information on men and events concerned with cattle. This volume is the only one of the three projected that was ever published, since its publication bankrupted the printing company and nearly broke the association.” $15,000.00
2014. FREEMAN, James W. (ed.). Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry of the United States.... With a New Introduction by Ramon Adams, Illustrated. Prepared by Authority of the National Live Stock Association. New York: Antiquarian Press, 1959. [2] 757 pp., plates (mostly portraits), numerous text illustrations. Small folio, original half dark brown calf (blindstamped with brands) over brown buckram, upper cover with gilt vignette of cow, gilt-lettered spine, t.e.g. Very fine in mylar d.j., cardboard edge protector, and publisher’s green cloth slipcase. Original prospectus laid in.
Second edition, limited edition (#232 of 500 numbered copies in an edition of 550 copies); facsimile of the extremely rare 1905 first edition, with a new introduction by Ramon F. Adams. $350.00
2015. FREEMAN, James W. (ed.). Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry of the United States.... New York: Antiquarian Press, Prepared by Authority of the National Live Stock Association, 1959. Another copy, not numbered. Mild foxing to fore-edges, otherwise very fine. Slipcase not present.
Second edition, limited edition (550 copies produced, with 500 numbered). $200.00
2016. FRÉMONT, Jessie Benton. Mother Lode Narratives. Ashland: Lewis Osborne, 1970. 156 [1] [2, index] [1] pp., text illustrations (mostly full-page), pages with excerpts from author’s letters are printed on blue paper, endpaper maps. 12mo, original half navy cloth over gilt-stamped decorative boards. Very fine in d.j.
Limited edition (“Printer’s Edition” of 650 copies); edited and annotated by Shirley Sargent. Cowan, p. 222n. Flake 3450n. Rocq 5105n. Smith 3341n. Sketches from magazine articles (also published in the author’s 1890 book, Far West Sketches) and previously unpublished letters from the period 1858-1860, documenting the Frémont family’s life on their 45,000-acre Las Mariposas rancho near the mining community of Bear Valley. This edition incorporates important new material on early settlements in Oregon. $50.00
2017. FRÉMONT, Jessie Benton. A Year of American Travel: Narrative of Personal Experience.... Voyage to California in 1848: Impressions of Panama, San Francisco, Monterey, San José &c., and a Letter from Colonel John Charles Frémont, Describing His Expedition to the Rocky Mountains Made during the Winter of 1848-49. San Francisco [& Los Angeles]: [Saul and Lillian Marks, the Plantin Press for] The Book Club of California, 1960. xi [5] 121 [1] pp., woodcuts by Ernest Freed. 8vo, half terracotta cloth over decorative linen boards, printed paper spine label. Fine in plain d.j.
Limited edition (450 copies). Introduction by Patrice Manahan. Graff 1427n. Howell 50, California 1338. Howes F363n. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 255b: “Jessie Benton Fremont, the illustrious wife of John, traveled to California via the Isthmus of Panama in April 1849 to meet her husband. The coincidental events of the California gold discovery combined with her own travel adventures make her recollections doubly interesting.” Rader 1477n. Rocq 15815. Shortly after her arrival in San Francisco, Mrs. Frémont notes that in the year since gold had been discovered nearly all the foodstuffs had been consumed and there was none to replace it because all the cattle had been bought and the vaqueros and other flocks and herds had all disappeared (p. 69).
During her stay at San José, Mrs. Frémont witnessed a grandiose three-day California wedding among vaquero families and gives a wonderful description of the splendor, skill, and vivacity of the event, including a cavalcade with about five hundred horses and even more riders, followed by spirited rivalries in feats of horsemanship. Equipage, clothing, and material culture of the vaqueros are described in minute detail. One of the engravings in the book illustrates the cavalcade. $125.00
2018. FRÉMONT, John C. Geographical Memoir upon Upper California...Addressed to the Senate of the United States. Washington: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, Printers (30th Congress, First Session, Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 148), 1848. 67 pp. (wants map). 8vo, original blue printed wrappers, stitched. Wrappers with moderate marginal chipping, old tape repair to spine, moderate water staining to lower right of text, overall a good copy.
First edition, with appendix that did not appear in the House edition. Munk (Alliot), p. 83. Cowan, p. 223. Flake 3451. Graff 1429. Howes F366. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 256: “Provided Gold seekers with a reliable summary of the terrain they were about to encounter.” LC, California 102. Plains & Rockies IV:150. Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 78; Mapping the Transmississippi West III:559. “The only detailed reports ever made by Frémont on his expedition of 1845-1846; his journals subsequently were burned.”
Frémont in this brief but significant report on his third expedition describes the natural characteristics of California, including the stock of the prospering Mormon settlements, wild cattle at Cow Creek which are hunted for game, plants that could be used to graze cattle, Cordua’s ranch on the Yuba River and other ranchos between the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, the beautiful herds in the Sacramento Valley, and the horses and cattle around San Pablo. $300.00
2019. FRÉMONT, John C. Geographical Memoir upon Upper California.... San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1964. xxxi [1] 65 [2] pp., frontispiece portrait, folding map in grey paper pocket at rear. 8vo, original grey boards illustrating the map. Very fine in plain d.j. with title written in pencil on spine.
Limited edition (425 copies); reprint from the 1848 edition, with introductions by Allan Nevins and Dale L. Morgan. Schwartz & Ehrenberg, plate 171, p. 278: “Frémont’s epochal map of Oregon and Upper California...added many new place names to the geographical nomenclature of the West, including the Humboldt River, Lake, and Range in present-day Nevada...San Francisco’s ‘Chrysopylae or Golden Gate’...and the phrase ‘El Dorado or Gold Regions,’ one of the earliest graphic announcements of the discovery of gold in California.” $100.00
2020. FRÉMONT, John Charles & Jessie Benton Frémont. Memoirs of My Life...Including in the Narrative Five Journeys of Western Exploration, during the Years 1842, 1843-4, 1845-6-7, 1848-9, 1853-4.... Vol. 1 [all published]. Chicago & New York: Belford, Clarke & Company, 1887. xx, 655 pp., 84 plates, including steel and wood engravings (some on tinted grounds), photogravures, 1 chromolithograph, and 6 (of 7) maps. This copy lacks the map titled Country Explored by John C. Frémont. 4to, original brown pictorial cloth decorated in gold, silver, and colors, bevelled edges. Light wear and staining to binding, interior mostly fine (save for scattered light foxing and a few minor stains on blank corners of a few plates).
First edition. Cowan, p. 224. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 171. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 45-46 (citing Frémont’s 1845 Report and giving a good synopsis of desert content): “A great book and an important one. An early narrative of overland adventure [which] infused tremendous enthusiasm into the hearts of men everywhere to consort with excitement and danger by venturing out upon the vast surge of westbound migration.” Flake 3456. Fritz, California Coast Redwood 304. Howes F367: “Embraces his first 3 exploring expeditions and the part played by him in the conquest of California.” Paher, Nevada 638. Plains & Rockies IV:115:1n. Rittenhouse 228. Smith 3350. Tweney, Washington 89 #22n. Wynar 199. Zamorano 80 #39. Co-authored by “The Pathfinder” and his wife, Jessie, to whom we owe the literary style of the famous accounts of exploration published under her husband’s name. Included is a biographical sketch of Jessie’s father, Senator Benton, noted champion of westward expansion. Excellent illustrations by Darley, Hamilton, and other leading artists. Includes references to ranching, cattle, and grazing grounds. $250.00
2021. FRENCH, C. C. “A Long Winding Trail: Some Chapters from the Autobiography of One Who Remembers the Open Range in Texas” in The Texas Monthly 2:5, 3:1, and 3:3 (December 1928; January 1929; March 1929). Pp. 583-596 + 117-125 + 361-374. 3 issues, 8vo, original orange printed wrappers. Light wear to wrappers, otherwise fine.
First printing. Texas trail driver C. C. French gives a valuable firsthand account of the development of the cattle trade and drives in post-Civil War Texas. Included in the January 1929 issue is A. H. Norris’s “The Texas Pony: Something of the Origin and Characteristics of the Monarch of the Plains.” $60.00
2022. [FRENCH, G. H. (ed.)]. Indianola Scrap Book: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Storm of August 20, 1886. History of a City That Once was the Gateway of Commerce for This Entire Section. Victoria, Texas: The Victoria Advocate, 1936. 198 pp., photographic plates, map. 8vo, original grey cloth. Binding lightly worn and faded at spine, slightly shelf-slanted, endpapers browned, otherwise very good. Contemporary ink gift inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition. CBC 779. Guns 767: “Scarce.... Has some material on the Taylor-Sutton feud and the killing of Bill Sutton by Jim Taylor.” Herd 846. Mohr, The Range Country 688. Includes H. E. Bolton’s “Location of La Salle’s colony on the Gulf of Mexico.” Camels in Texas, cattle industry, German colonization, Civil War, etc. For many years Indianola was a major port for importing supplies for ranching and farming, and for exporting products, such as hides. At pp. 88 is a section “Cattle Stealing Common.” $150.00
2023. FRENCH, Giles. Cattle Country of Peter French. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort, 1964. 167 [1] pp., many photographic text illustrations (some full-page), endpaper maps, large folding map (same as endpaper maps) laid in. 8vo, original rose lettered and with cowboy vignette in black. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Smith S3139. The eastern two-thirds of Oregon comprise a vast, arid region with (until recently) a sparse population and a history peopled with hardy, self-sufficient ranch families, among whom Peter French was one of the earliest. Born on a ranch near Red Bluff, California, in 1849, he ran away from home at a fairly young age and ended up in the employ of Chico wheat and cattle baron Dr. Hugh Glenn, one of the largest landowners in the Sacramento area. After marrying Dr. Glenn’s daughter, he was sent by his land-hungry father-in-law to scout the rumored prime grazing land in eastern Oregon. French eventually amassed 200,000 acres in the Steens Mountain region. $50.00
2024. FRENCH, Hiram T. History of Idaho: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principle Interests. Chicago & New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1914. xxviii, 579 + [2] 585-904 + [2] 905-1,320 pp., frontispiece portrait (photographic), photographic and steel-engraved plates, photographic text illustrations. 3 vols., original three-quarter brown roan over black textured cloth, t.e.g., marbled edges. Bindings rubbed, upper hinge of vol. 2 weak, mostly structurally sound, interiors fine. A scarce set.
First edition. Flake 3460: “Mormon colonization and activities in Idaho.” Smith 3366. Volume 1 is a history covering early exploration and settlement, Native Americans, Territorial government, cities and towns, gold discovery, religious history, climate, agricultural resources, dairy industry, etc. Volumes 2 and 3 comprise a mug book, with biographies of numerous ranchers and cattlemen. $375.00
2025. FRENCH, Joseph Lewis (ed.). A Gallery of Old Rogues. New York: Alfred H. King, [1931]. 285 pp. 8vo, original red cloth. Light shelf wear, mild foxing to fore-edges and endpapers, overall fine.
First edition. Dykes, Kid 166. Guns 768: “An anthology concerning outlaws, some from the American West, such as Billy the Kid, Al Jennings, and Joseph Slade.” Contributors include Mark Twain (on Slade), Owen White, Walter Noble Burns, and William Jennings. $30.00
Early Cowboy Biography
2026. FRENCH, W. J. Wild Jim...Texas Ranger. The Texas Cowboy and Saddle King [wrapper title]. [Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Company], n.d. (ca. 1890). 15 pp. 8vo, original tan wrappers with photographic illustrations of Wild Jim, stapled. Vertical crease where formerly folded, wrappers lightly worn, otherwise fine.
First edition. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 18. Guns 771: “Rare.... This little pamphlet is a sampling of the larger book that followed (Guns 772) and was distributed to help the sale of the latter.” Herd 848 and Howes F374 cite the later book version. French wrote one of the early biographies of a cowboy, published five years after Siringo’s first work; in this case, however, it seems likely that at least part of the tale is fiction written to pander to the mania for Wild West shows of the time. Standard biographies of Texas Rangers, such as Webb, do not list French, nor is he found on the official rolls of the Texas Rangers. Dykes does not list the book in “Ranger Reading” or Rare Western Outlaw Books. The West of the Imagination? $750.00
2027. FRENCH, William. Some Recollections of a Western Ranchman: New Mexico, 1883-1899. London: Methuen & Company, [1927]. vi [2] 283 [1] 8 (publisher’s ads) pp. 8vo, original red cloth, lettered in blind on upper cover and in gilt on spine. Light outer wear, otherwise fine in the rare d.j.
First edition (ads coded 5270). Adams, One-Fifty 57: “[Contains] information previously unknown about many of the western outlaws.... Most of these outlaws worked for the author on the WS Ranch. Since he was a participant, he gives a good account of the fight at Frisco, New Mexico, between the cowboys and Elfego Baca.” Loring Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 36. Dobie, p. 102: “A civilized Englishman remembers.” See Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #10 & #49. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Western High Spots, p. 85 (“A Range Man’s Library”). Graff 1441. Guns 773. Herd 847: “Scarce.... This is one of the really good but little-known books on ranch life.” Howes F375. Rader 1485. Reese, Six Score 42: “One of the best personal accounts of Western ranching. French was an Englishman who owned the WS ranch in western New Mexico.” Saunders 2906: “Silver City region.”
Streeter Sale 2397: “This by an Irish younger son, who came to the United States in 1883 on a year’s leave from the army and stayed in New Mexico until 1899, makes good reading. It appears from a reference at the top of p. 280 that the book was written ‘after the lapse of a quarter of a century.’ Capt. French’s ranch was not far from Alma, a town on the San Francisco River, in southern New Mexico near the Arizona line.—TSW.” $600.00
2028. FRENCH, William. Some Recollections of a Western Ranchman: New Mexico, 1883-1899. London: Methuen & Company, [1927]. 8vo, original light grey cloth lettered in black. Edges of text block and first few leaves light foxed, otherwise fine.
First edition (ads coded 930). $400.00
2029. FREWEN, Moreton. Melton Mowbray and Other Memories. London: Herbert Jenkins, Limited, 1924. viii [4] 311 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (mostly photographic). 8vo, original green cloth lettered and ruled in black. Fine, contemporary gift inscription in ink on front free endpaper (dated Christmas 1923).
First edition. Athearn, Westward the Briton, p. 192. Graff 1442. Herd 850: “Scarce.... About ten chapters on cattle ranching, plus reminiscences of an Englishman who tried his hand, unsuccessfully, at ranching on the Powder River in Wyoming.” Howes F380. Reese, Six Score 43: “To read Frewen is to look at a lost world—the aristocracy of late Victorian England in full flower. This, transplanted to the Far West, makes a most entertaining narrative.” Near the site of the Custer massacre, the author met Sitting Bull, who gave him a tour of the battlefield in 1884. Includes material on Teddy Roosevelt, including a portrait. $375.00
2030. FRIDGE, Ike. History of the Chisum War; or, Life of Ike Fridge: Stirring Events of Cowboy Life on the Frontier. Electra, Texas: [J. D.] Smith, n.d. [1927]. [2] 70 [1] pp., photographic frontispiece portrait of Fridge, text illustrations. 8vo, original stiff grey printed wrappers. Except for minor flaw at head of spine, very fine.
First edition. As told to Jodie D. Smith. Adams, One-Fifty 58: “Rare.... This book was indirectly the cause of the author’s death. After it was printed for him...the author, an old man, left with two large suitcases filled with copies to sell his friends in Seymour, Texas. He had to change trains at Wichita Falls and carry two heavy cases of books from one train to another to make connections. The effort tore loose some adhesions from an old bullet wound [and] he died a few days later in a Wichita Falls hospital.” Dobie, p. 125: “As compact as jerked beef and as laconic as conversation in alkali dust.” Dykes, Kid 120: “Fridge states that he became a Chisum cowboy at the age of fourteen. He worked on the Chisum ranches in Denton County, Texas, on the Concho in Texas, and finally on the Pecos in New Mexico.... Very scarce to rare”; Rare Western Outlaw Books, pp. 7-9. Guns 775. Herd 851. Howes F384. Reese, Six Score 44.
J. Frank Dobie claimed the book to be “unprocurable” in 1943, an assertion Ramon Adams perceived as a challenge. Dykes notes in Rare Western Outlaw Books, “[Adams] bought a ‘boxful’ (he never would tell me how many) and sold them to his collecting friends at a fairly reasonable price, that is, reasonable for an ‘unprocurable item.’ That cache has been gone for thirty years, and now the book is certainly rare and expensive once more.” $1,000.00
2031. FRINK, Maurice. Cow County Cavalcade: Eighty Tears of the Wyoming Stock Exchange. Denver: The Old West Publishing Company, 1954. xvi, 243 pp., sketches, brands, and map by Paul A. Rossi, photographic plates, facsimiles. 8vo, original light blue cloth. Spine slightly darkened, otherwise a very fine copy in d.j. (price-clipped, but otherwise fine). Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to his friend Scott Broome.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 6 (“Collecting Modern Western Americana”): “Story of eighty years of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association”; p. 79 (“A Range Man’s Library”). Guns 776: “Has a long chapter on the Johnson County War.” Herd 852: “This is the most recent of a series of histories which have been written on the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association every ten years for the past thirty years.” Includes a photograph of distaff rustler Cattle Kate. For the other two histories in this series, see listings under Greenburg and Gress in this catalogue. $75.00
2032. FRINK, Maurice. Cow County Cavalcade. Denver: The Old West Publishing Company, 1954. Another copy. Spine darkened, otherwise fine in moderately chipped d.j. with small tears. $50.00
2033. FRINK, Maurice, W. Turrentine Jackson & Agnes Wright Spring. When Grass Was King: Contributions to the Western Range Cattle Industry Study. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1956. xv [1] 465 [1] pp., photographic plates, text illustrations (sketches by Nick Eggenhofer), tables, endpaper maps by Hugh T. Glen. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth gilt. Very fine in very fine d.j. Signed by Maurice Frink and Agnes Wright Spring.
First edition, limited edition (#37 of 1,500 copies). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer 75). Guns 777: “Has material on both the Johnson County and the Lincoln County wars.” Herd 853. Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 160: “Details in the formation and operation of the Haft-Bayless ranch in Pennington County in 1882.... Around 1,100 head of cattle were trailed from Washington Territory.” Reese, Six Score 45.
The authors tell the story of the cattle industry on the plains north of Texas 1865-1895, when the industry blossomed into big business in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. The book also contains an economic study of the British cattle companies that operated in the U.S. and an analysis of the career of one of the more successful early cattlemen, John W. Iliff of Colorado. $200.00
2034. FRINK, Maurice, W. Turrentine Jackson & Agnes Wright Spring. When Grass Was King.... Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1956. Another copy, numbered (#1,479 of 1,500 copies). Endpapers lightly foxed, otherwise very fine in d.j. Signed by Agnes Wright Spring. $175.00
2035. FRINK, Maurice, W. Turrentine Jackson & Agnes Wright Spring. When Grass Was King: Contributions to the Western Range Cattle Industry Study. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1956. Another copy, #1,127 of 1,500 copies). Fine in lightly worn d.j. with a few short tears (no losses). $150.00
2036. FRINK, Maurice, W. Turrentine Jackson & Agnes Wright Spring. When Grass Was King: Contributions to the Western Range Cattle Industry Study. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1956. Another copy, unnumbered copy of the limited edition (1,500 copies). Very fine, d.j. not present. $75.00
2037. FROST, H. Gordon & John H. Jenkins. “I’m Frank Hamer”: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer. Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1968. [10] 305 [3, blank] [1, colophon] pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic and full-page). 8vo, original dark green leather lettered in silver, with miniature metal Texas Ranger badge on spine. Very fine in publisher’s green board slipcase. Signed on colophon by both authors, Mrs. Frank A. Hamer, Sr., and Frank A. Hamer, Jr.
First edition, limited edition (300 copies signed by authors and members of Hamer’s family). Basic Texas Books 181: “This biography of the famous Texas Ranger captain gives for the first and only time the authentic and documented details of the Clyde Barrow-Bonnie Parker rampage. In addition, it tells of Hamer’s fifty years as a Ranger and peace officer.”
Handbook of Texas Online: Francis A. Hamer: “Hamer was born in Fairview, Texas, on March 17, 1884. Known commonly as Frank or Pancho, he grew up on the Welch Ranch in San Saba County. In 1894 the family moved to Oxford in Llano County, where Hamer worked at his father’s blacksmith shop. In 1901 he and his brother hired out as wranglers on the Pecos County ranch of Barry Ketchum, brother of outlaw Tom ‘Black Jack’ Ketchum. In 1905 Hamer was a cowboy on the Carr Ranch, between Sheffield and Fort Stockton, where, after capturing a horse thief, he was recommended by Sheriff D. S. Barker for a position with the Texas Rangers. On April 21, 1906, Hamer enlisted as a Texas Ranger in Capt. John H. Rogers’ Company C.” $500.00
2038. FROST, H. Gordon & John H. Jenkins. “I’m Frank Hamer”: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer. Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1968. Another copy of the limited edition, this one numbered (#98 of 300 copies, signed). Lacking Texas Ranger badge on spine, otherwise fine. $350.00
2039. FROST, H. Gordon & John H. Jenkins. “I’m Frank Hamer”.... Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1968. [10] 305 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original maize cloth. Light foxing to fore-edges and half-title, otherwise very fine in slightly worn and foxed d.j. Signed presentation inscription from H. Gordon Frost: “To E. R. Wyatt, whose interest in the true history of Texas and the southwest is sincerely appreciated.”
First edition, trade issue. $150.00
2040. FROST, H. Gordon & John H. Jenkins. “I’m Frank Hamer”.... Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1968. Another copy. Very fine in d.j. with a few small tears. Signed by both authors. $175.00
2041. FROST, H. Gordon & John H. Jenkins. “I’m Frank Hamer”.... Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1968. Another copy. Very fine in torn, chipped, slightly soiled, and price-clipped d.j. $100.00
2042. FROST, Max (ed.). New Mexico: Its Resources, Climate, Geography, and Geological Condition. Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing Company, 1890. 216 pp., 2 lithographed folding maps: (1) Official Map of New Mexico 1890. Prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Immigration, 82 x 64.8 cm; (2) Map of the Santa Fé Route and Connections. Chicago Rand McNally & Co. [with inset of Mexico], 38.7 x 99.2 cm. 8vo, original tan lithograph pictorial wrappers illustrating the prosperity and products of New Mexico, stitched. Wrappers and text water-stained at right side (heavier to upper wrapper and first few signatures), title page reattached. Maps and wrappers expertly restored (no losses). Rare.
First edition. Eberstadt 105:235. Herd 857. Compendium and promotional on New Mexico towns, Native Americans, history, quality of life, railroads, mining, stock raising and agricultural resources (touting potential for grazing). The first map shows New Mexico in large scale with each county delineated and locates boundaries and grantees of all the numerous early Spanish and Mexican land grants. The second map shows railroad routes through the Western United States. $1,000.00
2043. FROTHINGHAM, Robert. Songs of Horses: An Anthology Selected and Arranged by Robert Frothingham. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company & Riverside Press, 1920. xiv, 231 pp. 16mo, original half black cloth over orange pictorial boards, printed paper spine label. Binding moderately stained and shelf-worn, small nick on spine label, internally fine.
First edition. Anthology of poetry devoted to the horse—in war, sport, recreation, and, of course, the Wild West, including such gems as “The Range Rider,” “The Pony Express,” “When You’re Throwed,” and “Riding Song.” $20.00
2044. FRY, Norman Walter. Cache la Poudre: “The River” As Seen from 1889 to 1954. N.p.: n.d. (ca. 1954). 52 pp., photographic text illustrations (some full-page), map. 8vo, original metallic green pictorial wrappers, stapled. Worn at spine, slight warp at bottom, otherwise a fine copy. Edith Williams Blunk’s signature and date on title page.
First edition. Wynar 1191. The author relates his experiences on the Lynmar Ranch. The section entitled “Beef Market” includes herding and slaughtering beef for a crew at Chambers Lake who were building a dam. Finally there is a glance at the early days of the cattle business (p. 42). $10.00
2045. FUDGE, G. R. (“Bob”). Typescript entitled “An Old Cattleman’s Story.” N.p., n.d. (ca. 1960?). [1] 95 leaves (versos blank). 4to, thin typing paper, unbound. Title leaf states: “Property of Mrs. Charlotte Wilbur, Broaddus, Biddle, Montana. Powder River Co.” Rust-stained at top left corner (where formerly paper-clipped), final leaf torn at upper left (no loss of text), detached piece present, light edge wear due to the fragile nature of the paper.
This typescript is an autobiographical account as told to Jim Russell, who is responsible for putting it in its present form. Russell published this typescript, with minor changes and a few additions, as a book on Bob Fudge (see next entry). G. R. “Bob” Fudge was born 1862 in Lampasas County, Texas. When he was ten, his extended family set off with a thousand steers and two-hundred horses for California. In New Mexico, Comanche rustled their cattle and all but four horses; between the Comanche and the subsequent outbreak of smallpox, the family was reduced to his mother, three small children, and one aunt, who returned to Texas. As a teenager, Bob started breaking horses in Burnet County. In 1881, he helped trail a herd to Colorado, and the following spring, at age twenty, he went with a Blocker herd to Little Big Horn River in Montana. Many trail drives followed and for eighteen years he worked for the XIT Ranch on its Montana range. Fudge died in Wyoming in 1933. $350.00
2046. FUDGE, G. R. (“Bob”). Bob Fudge, Texas Trail Driver, Montana-Wyoming Cowboy, 1862-1933, by Jim Russell. Denver: Big Mountain Press, [1962]. 135 pp., text illustrations (full-page photographic and line drawings by Genie Fulmer). 8vo, original green cloth. Fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Smith S2889. Russell recorded Fudge’s life history and prepared it for publication. This book includes material not in the preceding typescript. $250.00
2047. FUDGE, G. R. (“Bob”). “Long Trail from Texas: Bob Fudge, King-Sized Cowboy, Recalls Rawhide Adventures, Trailherding in the 1880’s” in Montana, the Magazine of Western History 12:3 (July 1962). Pp. 43-55, photographic text illustrations. 4to, original yellow pictorial wrappers. Fine.
First printing. Contains excerpts from the manuscript of Fudge’s autobiography that Russell prepared (see preceding). $25.00
2048. FUGATE, Francis. The Spanish Heritage of the Southwest. Drawings by José Cisneros. Text by Francis Fugate. El Paso: Carl Hertzog [and] Texas Western Press, 1952. [35] pp., 12 full-page illustrations and map by José Cisneros. Small folio, original red cloth over “adobe” boards. Very fine in slipcase. Signed by Cisneros and Hertzog and with announcement laid in.
First edition, limited deluxe edition (525 copies; #8 of 50 copies printed on tan Ticonderoga paper, and one of 24 copies with first drawing hand colored by Cisneros). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Cisneros 76). Lowman, Printing Arts in Texas, pp. 19, 53; Printer at the Pass 78A: “This book was the first publication of the Texas Western Press at what is now The University of Texas at El Paso. The text was printed at the college press from Centaur and Arrighi type handset by students under Hertzog’s direction.... The cover paper of this particular volume was obtained by making prints from an adobe—the native building material of the Southwest. The mud, straw, and pebbles created a texture reflecting the Spanish influence.” Includes a chapter and Cisneros illustration on “The Coming of the Cattle.” $1,250.00
2049. FUGATE, Francis. The Spanish Heritage of the Southwest.... El Paso: Carl Hertzog [and] Texas Western Press, 1952. [35] pp., 12 full-page illustrations and map by José Cisneros. Small folio, original red cloth over “adobe” boards. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by Hertzog.
First edition, limited deluxe edition (525 copies, #452 of 475 copies printed on white Andorra Text paper). $350.00
2050. FUGATE, Francis. The Spanish Heritage of the Southwest.... El Paso: Carl Hertzog [and] Texas Western Press, 1952. [35] pp., 12 full-page illustrations and map by José Cisneros on green paper. Small folio, original rose pictorial wrappers, stapled. Light marginal wear to fragile wraps, otherwise very fine. Signed by Cisneros.
First edition, limited edition, wrappers issue (925 copies in wrappers). Lowman, Printer at the Pass 78B. $175.00
2051. FUGATE, Francis. The Spanish Heritage of the Southwest.... El Paso: Carl Hertzog [and] Texas Western Press, 1952. Another copy. Wrappers lightly worn at edges with a few short tears (no losses), otherwise a very fine copy. $100.00
2052. FUGATE, Francis. The Spanish Heritage of the Southwest.... El Paso: Carl Hertzog [and] Texas Western Press, 1952. Another copy, variant wrappers. Folio, original tan pictorial wrappers, stapled. Minor tears to edges of wrappers (no losses), otherwise a fine copy. $100.00
2053. FULCHER, Walter. The Way I Heard It: Tales of the Big Bend. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1959]. xxvii [1] 87 [2] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Light shelf wear, edges browned, otherwise a fine copy in worn and chipped d.j. Ink ownership and gift inscriptions.
First edition. Guns 780: “A chapter entitled ‘Outlaws and Bandidos’ deals with members of the Black Jack Ketchum gang...[and] some of the Mexican bandits of the Big Bend country.” Locals from both sides of the border, including ranch hands, give insight into the life and lore of this fascinating region. $25.00
2054. FULLER, Anna. Peak and Prairie: From a Colorado Sketch-Book. New York & London: Putnam, 1894. [1, ad] v [3] 391 pp., half-tone frontispiece portrait. 16mo, original tan cloth stamped and decorated in green and gilt. Light shelf wear, frontispiece detached, generally very good.
First edition, first issue. Wilcox, p. 46. Wright III:2067. Short sketches of mining and ranch life in Colorado including “At the Keith Ranch” and “Jake Stanwood’s Gal,” about the daughter of a failed rancher. From preface: “‘Sketches of Colorado Life’ in fictional form, centering around the Pike’s Peak region.” $30.00
2055. FULLER, Anna. Peak and Prairie: From a Colorado Sketch-Book. New York & London: Putnam, 1894. [1, ad] [2] v [1] 391 pp., frontispiece portrait. 16mo, original light green cloth stamped and decorated in green and gilt. Small stain on cover, very light shelf wear, light soiling to first few leaves, address label on front pastedown, two contemporary ownership inscriptions in ink, overall very good.
First edition, second issue. $20.00
2056. FULLER, George W. A History of the Pacific Northwest. New York: Knopf, 1931. xvi, 383 [16, index] [1] pp., frontispiece, plates (mostly photographic), portraits, maps (one folding). 8vo, original bright blue cloth with lettering and vignette in silver. Fine in moderately worn d.j.
First edition. Guns 781: “Scarce.” Herd 862. Smith 3395. $25.00
2057. FULLER, Henry C. A Texas Sheriff: A Vivid and Accurate Account of Some of the Most Notorious Murder Cases and Feuds in the History of East Texas, and the Officers Who Relentlessly Pursued the Criminals till They Were Brought to Justice and Paid the Full Penalty of the Law.... Nacogdoches: Baker Printing Company, 1931. 80 pp., photographic text illustrations (photographic portraits, some full-page). 8vo, original orange printed wrappers, stapled, with photographic illustration of Sheriff Spradley and his hound. Very fine.
First edition. Guns 784: “Scarce.... Tells about many Texas murders, including the one by Bill Mitchell of James Truitt, the result of one of Texas’ many feuds. The author also touches upon the Border-Wall-Broocks feud.” Rader 1505. Features a short biography of sheriff-rancher A. J. Spradley (see Handbook of Texas Online: Andrew Jackson Spradley). $125.00
2058. FULTON, Maurice Garland. Maurice Garland Fulton’s History of the Lincoln County War. Edited by Robert N. Mullin. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, [1968]. [6] 433 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic text illustrations (some full-page), maps, endpaper maps. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, One-Fifty 59: “A well illustrated text.... This long awaited book represents a lifetime of research by a meticulous historian whose tireless pursuit of detail prevented him from finishing the book before his death. His personal friend and fellow historian, Robert N. Mullin, completed the task.... The last word on the history of this turbulent section of the West.... Includes many newspaper excerpts never before reprinted.... Well documented and a definite contribution to western history.” Dykes, Rare Western Outlaw Books, p. 37. Guns 786. Reese, Six Score 64n. The Lincoln County War was an attempt to break up a Santa Fe clique’s monopoly of government supply contracts and split Lincoln County ranchers and merchants into two opposing factions. $100.00
2059. FULTON, Maurice Garland & Paul Horgan (eds.). New Mexico’s Own Chronicle: Three Races in the Writings of Four Hundred Years. Dallas: Banks Upshaw and Co., [1937]. xxviii, 372 pp., plates, photographs, illustrations, facsimiles, maps. 8vo, original black cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Text lightly browned, else very fine in price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Campbell, pp. 167-68. Dobie, pp. 25, 40: “Anthology strong on the historical side.” Dykes, Kid 243. Guns 788. Herd 865: “Scarce.... Consists of excerpts from books on New Mexico history, some of which concern cattle.” Saunders 4114: “Material taken from original sources to illustrate the development of New Mexico.” $100.00
2060. FULTON, Maurice Garland & Paul Horgan (eds.). New Mexico’s Own Chronicle.... Dallas: Banks Upshaw and Co., [1937]. 8vo, original maroon buckram. Light shelf wear, lower hinge cracked, text lightly age-toned, overall a good copy. Presentation copy to Carl Hertzog, signed by Fulton and Horgan. $100.00
2061. FULTON, Robert Lardin. Epic of the Overland. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1924. xiii [1] 109 pp., frontispiece, plates (mostly photographic), folding map. Small 8vo, original dark blue cloth. Extremities worn, hinges loose, some flecking to cover, interior mostly fine, overall a very good copy.
First edition. Cowan, p. 227: “Many interesting original sketches and photographs.” Paher, Nevada 646: “Fulton emigrated to Carson Valley in the 1850s, when it was still part of Utah Territory.... This is his account of the building of the transcontinental railroad; in it are a number of passing references to Nevada, including an excellent profile of Mark Twain and his Nevada influence.” Well-illustrated railroad history with good information on Grenville Dodge, Pony Express, Mark Twain, and conflicts with Native Americans, particularly the attack on Julesburg. Includes a biographical sketch of the author by Herbert Wynford Hill. Includes references to problems that were encountered trying to provide food, including beef, to the builders and train crews. On p. 95 is a brief biography of John Sparks, a Texas Ranger employed on a cattle ranch, and discussion of the ranching firm of Sparks and Tinnin. $75.00
2062. FULTON, Robert Lardin. Epic of the Overland: An Account of the Building of the Central and Union Pacific Railroad. Los Angeles: N. A. Kovach, 1954. xiii [1] 109 pp., frontispiece, plates (mostly photographic), portraits, map. Small 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in rubbed, lightly faded, and smudged d.j.
First edition, second issue, limited edition (#69 of 275 copies). The untimely deaths of both the author and publisher curtailed the distribution of the first edition of the book (see preceding entry). Only a few copies were bound and distributed. The original sheets and illustrations were stored in the California State Library for three decades. In 1954, N. A. Kovach received permission to publish them. This is the 1954 binding of the original 1924 edition with Kovach’s additional title page and explanation page, both on blue paper, inserted between the frontispiece photo and original 1924 title page. $45.00
2063. FURLONG, Charles Wellington. Let ’er Buck: A Story of the Passing of the Old West...With Fifty Illustrations Taken from Life by the Author and Others. New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons & Knickerbocker Press, 1921. xxxviii, 242 [2, blank], [3, ads] pp., photographic frontispiece and plates, photographic plates, text illustrations, brands, printed music. 8vo, original gilt-lettered navy blue cloth with photograph of a rider on a bucking bronco on upper cover. Fine, with contemporary ink ownership inscription of J. E. Martin of Portland, Oregon, on half-title.
First edition. Herd 866. Smith 3412. History and anecdotes about rodeos in general, but particularly the Pendleton Roundup in its heyday, 1914-1920, enhanced by the many excellent photographs by the author, W. S. Bowman, Lee Moorhouse, and others. Included is a dramatic 1915 photograph of the legendary distaff rodeo star Bonnie McCarroll mid-air being thrown from a horse. McCarroll’s fatal trampling by the bucking horse “Silver” at the Pendleton Roundup in 1929 led to temporary suspension of the women’s sport. $85.00
2064. FURMAN, Necah Stewart. Walter Prescott Webb: His Life and Impact. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [1976]. xiv [2] 222 pp., photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original goldenrod cloth. Very fine in d.j. with minor chips and tears. Signed and dated by author. Related newsclipping laid in.
First edition. The scope of Webb’s tremendous scholarship on the American West, and particularly the Great Plains, extended into and illuminated many facets of the cattle industry. His Great Plains thesis proposed that westward expansion stalled at the 98th meridian, gateway to the arid west, until technological innovations such as barbed-wire, six-shooters, and the windmill allowed further inroads. See Handbook of Texas Online: Walter Prescott Webb. $35.00
2065. FURNAS, Robert W. Nebraska: Her Resources, and Advantages, Advancements and Promises. New Orleans: E. A. Brandao & Co., 1885. 32 pp., tables. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers. Text browned and lightly soiled, otherwise a good copy.
Early Nebraska guide and promotional, “prepared...by Robert W. Furnas, State Commissioner for the World’s Industrial & Cotton Centennial Exposition...1884-85.” Imprint differs from Graff 1466 and Herd 867 (“Rare”). $75.00
2066. FURNAS, Robert W. (ed.). Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 1. Lincoln: State Journal Co., 1885. 233 [1] pp. 8vo, original black cloth gilt. Moderate shelf wear, otherwise fine.
First edition. Interesting articles on Nebraska history include a piece on the first Anglo child born in Nebraska, the first women’s suffrage movement in Nebraska, pioneer recollections, and biographies, including several stockmen. $35.00
2067. FURNISS, Norman F. The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960. viii [4] 311 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, map. 8vo, original dark grey cloth. Fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Yale Historical Publications, Miscellany, vol. 72. The primary focus is on conflicts between the U.S. government and Mormons, but there are good sidelights on the early years of ranching in Utah. $75.00
2068. FURSTNOW SADDLERY COMPANY. Illustrated Catalogue and Price List No. 27...Wholesale and Retail Saddlery, Montana Art Leather Work, Fancy Bits and Spurs, Fine Saddles and Harness, Tents, Paulins, Slickers, Horse Furnishing Goods. Miles City [St. Paul: McGill-Warner, after 1913]. 147 pp., profusely illustrated (photographs and engravings of saddles and other riding and ranging equipment). 8vo, original red pictorial wrappers. Wraps with a few ink stains and water staining with bleed-through onto endpapers and title, hinges strengthened with cloth tape. Related ephemera laid in. Preserved in a maroon cloth box with red leather label. Uncommon ephemera.
First edition. This trade catalogue contains a wealth of solid documentation on saddles and gear offered by the prominent Montana firm of Al Furstnow, which specialized in rodeo and stock saddles, popular with working cowboys, rodeo stars, and celebrity cowboys, such as Tom Mix. Today Furstnow saddles and equipage are avidly collected.
Among the photographs is a portrait of proprietor Al Furstnow. The date 1913 is mentioned in the catalogue, and Furstnow moved to California about 1922. Miles City was a legendary cattle town in Eastern Montana and “the end of the cattle trail” for many longhorn cattle trails in the 1890s. $550.00
2069. GAGE, Jack. Tensleep and No Rest: A Historical Account of the Range War of the Big Horns in Wyoming. Casper: Prairie Publishing Company, [1958]. [6] 222 [4] pp., photographic plates, map, facsimiles. 8vo, original red cloth gilt. Very fine in price-clipped d.j., chipped and worn at edges.
First edition. Guns 792: “Account of the war between the sheepmen and the cattlemen in Wyoming.” Not in Herd. $65.00
What Life Has Taught Me
2070. GALLATIN, E. L. What Life Has Taught Me. Denver: Jno. Frederic, [1900]. [2] 215 pp., photographic frontispiece portrait of author. 8vo, original black cloth. Upper hinge cracked, front flyleaf loose and wear to edges, overall very good. Author’s signed, dated, and inscribed copy.
First edition. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 175. Graff 1490. Howes G32. Howes Catalogue 53:068: “Privately printed autobiography of a prominent Colorado pioneer, describing his trip across the plains in 1860 to the Pikes Peak gold region, early Placerville and Denver, criminals and vigilantes, the founding of Cheyenne and Laramie City, Wyoming, etc. The Gallatin stockman’s saddle was in widespread use in the West, all leading towns having warehouses for their distribution. This is the only copy I have ever heard of.” Wilcox, p. 47: “Chiefly an account of the author’s connection with the Colorado Co-operative Colony, Nucla, Colorado.” Wynar 1262.
About half the book is devoted to the Colorado Co-operative Colony, and Gallatin’s involvement with it. The Colony was a direct descendant of Brook Farm and continues in existence to this day as the Colorado Ditch Company, named after its most celebrated public work. Much has been written on Gallatin, one of the giants of the Plains style saddle, centered in the Cheyenne, Wyoming area. See James R. Laird, The Cheyenne Saddle: A Study of Stock Saddles of E. L. Gallatin, Frank A. Meanea and the Collins Brothers (Cheyenne: Frontier Printing, Inc., 1983.). $1,250.00
Land & Water Laws of Mexico & California—1844
Signed by a Pioneer of Santa Barbara & Monterey
2071. GALVÁN [RIVERA], Mariano. Ordenanzas de tierras y aguas, ó sea: formulario geométrico-judicial para la designacion, establecimiento, mensura, amojonamiento y deslinde de las poblaciones y todas suertes de tierras, sitios, caballerias y criaderos de ganados mayores y menores y mercedes de aguas: Recopiladas a beneficio y obsequio de los pobladores, ganaderos, labradores, dueños, arrendatarios y administradores de haciendas, y toda clase de predios rústicos, de las muchas y dispersas resoluciones dictadas sobre la materia, y vigentes hasta el dia en la república Mexicana.... Segunda edicion, corregida y aumentada. Mexico: [Leandro J. Valdes, 1844.] [2] iv, 3-184 pp., 2 lithographic plates, numerous text illustrations (geometrical and technical), tables, plans. 8vo, full contemporary mottled green and brown Mexican calf, spine gilt-decorated and with original black gilt-lettered label. Light shelf wear (especially at edges and corners), mild marginal staining to blank outer edge of leaves, overall a very good to fine copy in a handsome nineteenth-century Mexican binding. From the library of an important Franco-Mexican-Californian, signed on title by José María Covarrubias, a Frenchman who became a Mexican citizen and came to California in 1834 with the Híjar and Padrés Colony to be a schoolteacher (see Bancroft, Pioneer Register, p. 110). Provenance: Miss Rosario Curletti, who helped endow the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, the oldest library in the State of California that still remains in the hands of its founders, the Franciscans.
Second edition, corrected and enlarged, of a volume of vital interest to both the pastoral era of the Spanish and Mexican ranchos of California and the period after Anglo occupation (the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo intended to respect all Mexican land titles as granted under these laws, but the Halleck report of 1851 upheld the rights of U.S. settlers or squatters). Not in Palau. Sabin 26466 (lists only the fourth and subsequent editions).
This work is a compilation of formulas, regulations, and laws regarding land surveys, water rights, boundaries, and related matters. Land law from the earliest years of Spanish occupation in America up to Mexico’s colonization laws are analyzed, including those pertinent to California and Texas. Colonization laws of interest for Coahuila y Tejas are included for the years 1824, 1828, 1834, and 1837. This would have been an essential volume for a settler or rancher wishing to obtain a Mexican land grant.
This volume has exceptional association interest: Covarrubias was adaptable, holding several key government posts in Monterey and Santa Barbara both before and after the shift of power to the U.S. In the early 1840s Covarrubias was busy arresting Anglo foreigners. At the time of this imprint, he served as alcalde at Santa Barbara. By 1849 Covarrubias was a member of the California constitutional convention and served with the first legislature (four times re-elected). In 1843 Covarrubias applied for a 26,000-acre land grant in Santa Inéz Valley, which was granted to him and his kinsman Joaquín Carrillo by the last Mexican governor of California. Covarrubias hired Native American laborers to work the property as a cattle ranch, the Castac (or Castaic Rancho), a portion of which is now Fort Tejón, a California state historic park near the Grapevine. $750.00
2072. GAMBRELL, J[ames] B[urton]. Ten Years in Texas [half-title]. [Dallas: The Baptist Standard, 1909]. 313 pp., frontispiece portrait of author (photographic), text illustrations (line drawings and cartoons). 8vo, original navy blue cloth lettered in white and gilt. Slight shelf wear, light foxing to edges of book block and endpapers, otherwise fine, with dealer’s ink stamp on front free endpaper. Contemporary ink ownership signature. J. Frank Dobie’s ownership inscription and signed comment on front free endpaper: “One book I have not read thoroughly; I know it thoroughly however without having read it.”
First edition of these articles first published in The Baptist Standard. Campbell, p. 97: “Splendid account of early life in Texas.” Reverend Gambrell (1840-1921), a prominent Baptist minister, teacher, and editor, served as a scout for General Lee and fought in the Battle of Gettysburg (see Handbook of Texas Online: James Bruton Gambrell). In the chapter “Evangelizing the Far West,” the author describes the annual Madera camp-meeting in the Davis Mountains which began because the ranches of the region were widely separated by vast, uninhabited areas making it virtually impossible for frontier families to worship with their neighbors and friends:
“Up in the deep canyon in these mountains is the spot where the cowboys’ camp-meeting is held.... The mountain stream comes down to supply water for cowman use, and an excellent place for baptizing.... The cowboys were there in great force, manly, respectful and reverent. The great ranch men and women were there with their full forces.... These ranch people are great. The average person from the East must revise his judgment of the ranch people.... They have cut out the rowdy and the scrub” (pp. 154-58). $50.00
2073. [GAMEL, Thomas W.]. The Life of Thomas W. Gamel. N.p., n.d. (ca. 1932). 32 pp. 8vo, original brown printed wrappers. Other than light marginal browning to text, fine.
First edition. Guns 793: “Rare. A little-known book containing some material on the Mason County War and Scott Cooley.” Includes an eyewitness account of “The Hoodoo War,” which occurred in Mason County in 1872 after cattle belonging to German stock raisers were stolen or killed. A mob took the accused rustlers from jail, and five men were hanged. The Texas Rangers had to be called in, and not until after 1876 did the county settle down to peace, law, and order. Gamel (b. 1846) came to Texas from Alabama with his family in 1850 and settled in Mason County in 1860. He joined the Minute Men during the Civil War and remained active in law enforcement. $200.00
2074. GANN, Walter. Tread of the Longhorns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. ix [1] 188 pp., illustrations by R. L. McCollister. 8vo, original red cloth with black lettering. Fine copy in a slightly foxed and worn d.j. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to E. Bell and Joseph Emerson Smith “...with best wishes and in gratitude for the privilege of knowing such excellent people. November 27, 1952.”
First edition. Adams, Burs I:143: “Chapter on the early cowtowns.” Dykes, Kid 299: “Gann [was] an old cowboy turned peace-officer and Western novelist.” Guns 794: “Contains a chapter on cattle thieves and range wars, including the Lincoln County and Johnson County Wars.” Herd 870. History of the cattle trade, from the coming of the Spanish to the time of publication. Foreword by William MacLeod Raine. $50.00
2075. GANN, Walter. Tread of the Longhorns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original orange cloth lettered in black. Cloth lightly wrinkled, front endpaper browned where review was laid in, otherwise very good in d.j. that is a little worn and chipped. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to W. S. Broome: “To my friend..., an old time Texas cowhand from another.... Denver, Colorado.” Bookplate of Marie and Scott Broome. $40.00
2076. GANN, Walter. Tread of the Longhorns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. Another copy. 8vo, original orange cloth lettered in black. Slight foxing to upper edge of text block and endpapers, otherwise fine in foxed, worn, smudged, and price-clipped d.j. J. Frank Dobie’s signed note on front free endpaper: “Walter Gann did better in putting his range knowledge into his one novel, The Trail Boss, which has no more plan than The Log of a Cowboy, and which is stuffed with episodes out of real range life. He does not know enough to write a history. J. Frank Dobie. Austin, Tx. Oct. 28, 1949.” $35.00
2077. GANN, Walter. Tread of the Longhorns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. Another copy. Light shelf wear, corners bumped, internally fine in very good d.j. Signed by author. $35.00
2078. GANN, Walter. Tread of the Longhorns. San Antonio: Naylor, [1949]. Another copy. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in a somewhat tattered and chipped d.j. $25.00
2079. GANNON, Clell Goebel. Songs of the Bunch-Grass Acres. Boston: [The Gorham Press for] Richard G. Badger, [1924]. 96 pp., photographic frontispiece, text illustrations by author. 12mo, original grey pictorial boards lettered and illustrated in black. Fragile binding moderately worn and chipped at spine, otherwise a fine copy. Contemporary ink gift inscription and ink stamp on front free endpaper.
First edition. Range verse by Great Plains author-artist Gannon (1900-1962), who spent most of his life in North Dakota. Poems include “The Law of Dakota,” “The Red River Valley,” “A Westerner’s Prayer,” “The Coyote,” “The Girl from Montana,” “A Song of the Badlands,” and “The Prairie Rose.” $50.00
Wayne Gard
2080. GARD, Wayne. Cattle Brands of Texas. [Dallas: First National Bank], n.d. (ca. 1956). [36] pp., text illustrations and photographs (some in color and/or full-page), brands. Oblong 12mo, original wrappers illustrating several brands. Mint in original mailing envelope.
First printing. Herd 874: “Cattle brands taken from Texas Cattle Brands edited by Gus Ford (1936).” Newsman and historical writer Sanford Wayne Gard (1899-1986), a native of Illinois, received his master’s degree from Northwestern University and studied at Columbia University. After working as a wire editor for the AP at Chicago (1925-1925), he became an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily and other newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News. “Gard’s principal literary interest was in the southwest, his subjects honestly researched and carefully written, his prose revealing the courage, daring, and enterprise of Southwestern pioneers, and preserving their place in the heroic phase of western expansion. He died in Dallas” (Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier History II, pp. 534-535). $25.00
2081. GARD, Wayne. The Chisholm Trail. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. xi [1] 296 pp., plates (mostly photographic), text illustrations by Nick Eggenhofer, map. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine copy in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 70: “Entertaining and scholarly, this is the best book on the Chisholm Trail.... A large number of fellow historians provided assistance, including J. Frank Dobie, Carl Coke Rister, Edward Everett Dale, Ralph Bieber, and Ramon Adams. It would be difficult to imagine a more solidly researched book.” Campbell, p. 192: “The Chisholm Trail carried the greatest migration of domestic animals in world history, helped Texas recover from poverty that followed the Civil War, spurred railroad construction, and opened a vast new American export business. Actually the trail’s beginning was near the southern tip of Texas and led through or passed San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth, across the Indian Territory...and then into Kansas, where the original terminus was Abilene.” Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 37. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer 77); Western High Spots, p. 15 (“Western Movement: Its Literature”): “Tops on the most important of the trails”; p. 78 (“A Range Man’s Library”); p.103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 797: “Has material on many of the outlaws and gunmen of the trail-driving days.” Herd 875. Much on women and the cowtowns. $100.00
2082. GARD, Wayne. The Chisholm Trail. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. Another copy. Fine in lightly worn and price-clipped d.j. $75.00
2083. GARD, Wayne. Fabulous Quarter Horse, Steel Dust: The True Account of the Most Celebrated Texas Stallion. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, [1958]. 64 pp., illustrations by Nick Eggenhofer. 4to, original terracotta pictorial cloth gilt. Endpapers lightly browned, otherwise fine in very fine d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer 78); Western High Spots, p. 83 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Story of one of the famous sires of this purely American breed so popular as cow horses.” Guns 798: “Has some material on Sam Bass, mostly about his race horse, the Denton Mare.” $60.00
2084. GARD, Wayne. “The Fence-Cutters” in Southwestern Historical Quarterly 51:1 (July 1947). Pp. 1-15. 8vo, original green printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing. Guns 876: “A chapter from the author’s Frontier Justice read as a paper before the Southwestern Historical Society. This reprint deals with the lawlessness of wire cutting in the range country.” Herd 876 lists the separate offprint. $30.00
2085. GARD, Wayne. Frontier Justice. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. xi [1] 324 pp., plates (many photographic), map. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Fine copy in slightly sun faded and lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 163: “Comprehensive account of the broad lines of the development of justice in the West, of the sudden and swiftly advancing steps in the process of civilizing the frontier. There are chapters on Indian atrocities, early feuds, vigilantes, range wars, cattle and sheep wars, strife with fence cutters, and the Johnson County War.... Well documented, handsomely illustrated, and readable.” Dobie, p. 103: “Useful bibliography of range books.” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #77. Dykes, Kid 401. Guns 800: “Deals with...cattle rustlers, such outlaws and gunmen as Sam Bass, Billy the Kid, the Earps, John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hickok, and Ben Thompson, and the Lincoln County and Johnson County wars.” Herd 877. $65.00
2086. GARD, Wayne. Frontier Justice. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. xi [1] 324 pp., plates (many photographic), map. Endpapers a bit dark, otherwise fine in lightly worn d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate on front pastedown.
First edition, second printing, with correct d.j. (“second large printing” on front flap). $35.00
2087. GARD, Wayne. The Great Buffalo Hunt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. xii, 324, xii [2] pp., text illustrations and plates by Nick Eggenhofer (one double-page). 8vo, original beige pictorial cloth. Very fine copy in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer 79). Guns 801: “Has some mention of Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson, William Tilghman, and John Poe.” Tate, Indians of Texas 3127: “Best-written and most thorough account of Comanche and Kiowa warfare against the destructive buffalo hunters during the entire 1870s including much detail on events after the Red River War.” Gard explores the important role of buffalo extirpation in opening the American West to cattlemen, farmers, and settlers. From 1871 to the early 1880s buffalo numbers were reduced from an estimated 70 million to less than 1,000; over 40 million were slaughtered in 1871 alone. $50.00
2088. GARD, Wayne. The Great Buffalo Hunt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. Another copy. Not signed. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in lightly worn d.j. $35.00
2089. GARD, Wayne. Rawhide Texas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1965]. xi [1] 236 pp., plates (mostly photographic). 8vo, original orange cloth. Light foxing to edges of text block and endpapers, otherwise fine in d.j. (illustrated by Tom Lea). Rosengren of San Antonio book label on lower pastedown.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 158). Guns 802: “Tells about the lawmen and Texas Rangers.” Northouse, First Printings of Texas Authors, p. 18. The people of Texas are portrayed in a series of informal sketches depicting pioneer life on the Texas frontier and illuminating the still-emerging Texas character. Social history with chapters on Comanches, plantations, cattle, sheep, sodbusters, schools, newspapers, oil, etc. $45.00
2090. GARD, Wayne. Sam Bass. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company & Riverside Press, 1936. vi [4] 262 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original tan cloth lettered and ruled in red. Endpapers very lightly browned, top edge of text block moderately foxed, otherwise fine in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Adams, One-Fifty 60: “Scarce.... The most complete and reliable work on Sam Bass to date. The author is the only biographer to trace Bass’s ancestry.” Basic Texas Books 71. Campbell, p. 72. Dobie, p. 141. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 23: “In Denton County, his Texas home, there are still plenty of people who hold Sam Bass to have been a frontier Robin Hood.... What Texans like about Sam Bass was the fact he wasn’t mean. He was a good-natured, careless, likeable young fellow, who died of Texas Ranger gunshot wounds on his twenty-seventh birthday in 1878.” Guns 803.
After finding that life as a cowboy did not measure up to his youthful dreams, Bass turned to outlawry; his first major caper was a swindle involving a long trail drive and large herd for which he never reimbursed the investors. See Handbook of Texas Online: Sam Bass. $125.00
2091. GARD, Wayne, Dean Krakel, Joe B. Frantz, Dorman Winfrey, H. Gordon Frost & Donald Bubar. Along the Early Trails of the Southwest. Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1969. 175 [1] pp., color plates (including frontispiece) and text illustrations by Melvin Warren. 4to, original half brown leather over tan boards, spine gilt-lettered. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase.
First edition, limited edition (#117 of 250 copies, with suite of additional color plates; autographed by the six authors, the illustrator, and author of the introduction). Northouse, First Printings of Texas Authors, p. 18. Introduction by John H. Jenkins. Noted Southwestern authors writing about six of the Southwest’s most famous trails from early Spanish exploration to the heyday of the great cattle drives. $150.00
2092. GARD, Wayne, et al. Along the Early Trails of the Southwest. Austin & New York: Pemberton Press, 1969. 175 pp., color plates, text illustrations by Melvin Warren. 4to, original brown buckram over beige buckram, spine gilt-lettered. Very fine in very fine d.j.
First trade edition. $65.00
2093. GARDINER, Charles Fox. Doctor at Timberline. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1946. 315 pp., frontispiece and text illustrations (mostly full-page) by R. H. (Bob) Hall. 8vo, original beige and brown cloth gilt. One bump to edge of upper cover, otherwise a fine copy in lightly worn, price-clipped d.j. with a bit of minor chipping at edges and corners.
Fifth printing. Guns 804n. Herd 879n: “Reminiscences of frontier days in Colorado; cattle ranches and cowtowns.” Wilcox, p. 47n. Wynar 8511n. $15.00
“Them are Spanish cattle, they don’t sabe English”
2094. GARDINER, Howard C. In Pursuit of the Golden Dream: Reminiscences of San Francisco and the Northern and Southern Mines, 1849-1857. Stoughton: [Designed and Printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy for] Western Hemisphere, [1970]. [1] lxv [1] 390 pp., frontispiece, plates, text illustrations, map, large folding map. Large 4to, brown morocco over tan cloth linen, spine panels decorated in blind & gilt, raised bands. Very fine. Slipcase not present.
First edition, limited edition (#81 of 100 copies signed by editor Dale L. Morgan). Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 262n: “Gardiner left New York City on the steamer Crescent City in March 1849, crossed the Isthmus of Panama, took the brig Sylph to San Francisco. A monumental edition of an important and eloquent reminiscence.” Mintz, The Trail 551. Rocq S2506.
The Argonaut gives fascinating glimpses of California rancho life and vaqueros, e.g.: “August 1849.... There was a herd of cattle grazing near our tent owned by the city butcher, and we one day watched a cowboy as he proceeded to rope one for the slaughterhouse. Mounted on a wiry mustang, with his riata hanging to the horn of his saddle, he rode into the herd...and having made choice of a big steer, pursued him for a while before he had a chance to make a cast, but eventually the coil was swung above his head and flew out, lighting on the bullock’s neck, at which the animal gave a bellow and set off at tremendous speed, the horseman being unable to pull him up, as unfortunately the folds of the riata had encircled a calf beside the steer, and the latter was towing it along at a breakneck gait. It was here that the marvelous expertness of the rider came in play, as he so manipulated the rope that he succeeded in releasing the calf while the steer was still retained in custody, thrown down, secured, and dragged to the slaughterhouse. The poor calf was a dejected-looking specimen after its disengagement from the toils” (p. 79).
Deciding he might make more money being a cattle-trader than a miner, the author made a trip to Mission Dolores to gather cattle to take to the mines: “The fathers had departed, and their former quarters were occupied by a semi-civilized community of Greasers and half-breeds.... It was impossible to get near the cattle, which were wild as hawks and the only way to catch them was with a riata.... Though we wanted oxen badly we did not care to experiment with those wild, long-horned Mexican steers, and concluded to ask the advice of an expert before purchasing.... When the cattle were duly inspected by the expert, [he] shook his head and ruled against them. ‘The fact is...them are Spanish cattle, they don’t sabe English, it takes two Greasers to drive ’em and a half-dozen to yoke ’em. They are wild as zebras and you couldn’t do anything with ’em. What you want is American cattle that a white man can manage.... They ain’t worth a d—n for any purpose whatever except beef’” (pp. 122-25).
After a few more failed attempts, Gardiner “resolved to abandon the cattle project and resume work in the gold fields” (p. 176). $400.00
2095. GARDINER, Howard C. In Pursuit of the Golden Dream.... Stoughton, Massachusetts: [Designed and Printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy for] Western Hemisphere, [1970]. lxv [1] 390 pp., frontispiece, plates, text illustrations, map, large folding map. 4to, original red gilt-lettered and decorated cloth. One corner bumped, otherwise a very fine, unopened copy.
First trade edition. Howell 50:1340. Kurutz notes that copies in red cloth preceded those in blue. $75.00
2096. GARDNER, Hamilton & Lehi Centennial Committee. Lehi Centennial History, 1850-1950 (A History of Lehi for One Hundred Years). Printed in Two Parts. Part I: Reprint of First Publication of “History of Lehi” 1850-1913. Part II: History of Lehi Including Biographical Section up to 1950. [Lehi, Utah: Free Press Publishing Co., 1950]. [14] 928 [8, illustration lists and indexes] pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic), portraits. 8vo, original black embossed pictorial cloth, spine gilt. Fine.
Second edition of the first part (originally published in 1913; first edition of second part, augmenting the work up to 1950, including biographical section up to 1950. Flake 3507 (listing the original edition). The work contains material on cattle and sheep ranching, including a thumbnail sketch entitled “Cattle Industry” by Junior Evans. $90.00
2097. GARDNER, Raymond Hatfield & B. H. Monroe. The Old Wild West: Adventures of Arizona Bill. San Antonio: Naylor, 1944. [8] 315 pp., photographic frontispiece of “Arizona Bill,” text illustrations. 8vo, original teal cloth. Light shelf wear, slight discoloration to spine, otherwise fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:145. Dykes, Kid 344n. Guns 805: “Occasionally we find an author who claims personal acquaintance with all the old outlaws of the West, as Gardner does in this book. He says that he often met Wild Bill Hickok in Tombstone, Arizona, but Hickok was never in Arizona.... There are mistakes on every page, and it would take many pages to point them out, as illustrated in my Burs under the Saddle (item 7).” Wallace, Arizona History X:35. Raymond Gardner, a.k.a. “Arizona Bill” was at turns a cowboy, rancher, Pony Express rider, Indian scout, deputy marshal, and Arizona Ranger. There is much incidental ranching interest in his rambling recollections. $45.00
2098. GARLAND, Hamlin. The Book of the American Indian. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923. [10] 274 pp., 35 plates (3 in color) by Frederic Remington. Folio, original black cloth over brown boards with sepia-tone plate by Remington mounted on upper cover, top edges orange. Corners bumped, otherwise a fine copy in corner-clipped d.j. (with color plate tipped on). Jacket is slightly chipped and with a few closed tears. Contemporary ink gift inscription.
First edition (title verso with A-X, i.e., January 1923 and “First Edition”). Campbell, p. 115. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Remington 599); Western High Spots, p. 47 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #45): “Beautifully illustrated with carefully selected Remington drawings and oils. It is interesting to note that Garland was not particularly fond of Remington, a one-time fellow member of a New York City club. He thought Remington drank too much and found him surly in his cups. When his publisher suggested the use of Remington’s illustrations he objected but was told firmly by the publisher that they were the best available. Garland was fair, later he admitted that the publisher was right—the book was reprinted several times, and he gave the Remington illustrations much of the credit.” Howes G66. McCracken, 101, p. 28: “Many of the illustrations originally appeared in Harper’s Magazine and are accompanied by extended captions. The color plates are from A Bunch of Buckskins.” Rader 1536.
Included among the plates is Remington’s “A Cowpuncher Visiting an Indian Village,” with caption: “Far in advance of settlers, in those early days when every man had to fight for his right of way, the American cow-puncher used to journey along the waste through hundreds of miles of the then far Western country. Like a true soldier of fortune, he adventured with bold carelessness, ever ready for war, but not love; for in the Indian villages he visited there was no woman that such a man as he was could take to his heart.” This print first appeared in Harper’s Magazine (September 1895) as an illustration to accompany Owen Wister’s “The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher.” $250.00
2099. GARLAND, Hamlin. The Book of the American Indian. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923. [10] 274 pp., 35 plates (3 in color) by Frederic Remington. Folio, original black cloth over brown boards with sepia-tone plate by Remington mounted on upper cover, top edges yellow. Moderate shelf wear, slight spotting to covers, interior fine, overall a very good copy, with Brentano label on lower pastedown. Author’s signed, dated, and inscribed copy: “Inscribed for Adessa F. Vars Jr. on request of Col. Lindsley by the Author. Hamlin Garland New York 1923.”
First edition, later printing (title verso with L-X, i.e., November 1923, no edition statement). $200.00
2100. GARLAND, Hamlin. The Book of the American Indian. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, [1940]. [10] 274 pp., 35 plates (3 in color) by Frederic Remington. Folio, original black cloth over tan boards with sepia-tone plate by Remington mounted on upper cover, top edges orange. Fine copy in d.j. with color plate tipped on (minor wrinkling and a few small tears, but no losses).
“Fifth edition,” F-P, i.e., June 1940, on title verso. $100.00
2101. GARNIER, Pierre. Medical Journey in California.... Los Angeles: [Printed by Grant Dahlstrom for] Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, 1967. xii, 93 pp., text illustrations (full-page, facsimiles of manuscripts, ads, etc.). 8vo, original beige and orange decorated cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
Second edition, limited edition (500 copies); original edition, Paris, 1854. Cowan, p. 230n. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 264b: “In particular, he wrote of medical conditions and services in the cities, towns, and mining camps.” Howes G68. Rocq S1836. Introduction and annotations by Doyce B. Nunis, translation by L. Jay Oliva. Includes passing references to cattle and the hide and tallow trade in California. $45.00
2102. GARRARD, Lewis H. Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail. Edited for Schools and Libraries by Walter S. Campbell. Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing, 1927. [10] vii [3] 320 pp., frontispiece map, text illustrations. 12mo, original dark green pictorial cloth. Slightly shelf-slanted, but overall very good.
Reprint (first edition Cincinnati, 1850), this textbook was edited by Walter S. Campbell. The Western Series of English and American Classics. Campbell, pp. 46, 192. Dobie, p. 72. Flake 3509n. Howes G70n. Plains & Rockies IV:182n. Rader 1540n. Rittenhouse 236n: “One of the great classics not only on the Trail but of the entire Southwest.” Saunders 2915 (this edition). Wynar 2037. Includes a chapter entitled, “El Rancho” detailing the author’s experiences on a cattle ranch in northern New Mexico. $10.00
2103. GARRARD, Lewis H. Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail: Prairie Travel and Scalp Dances, with a Look at Los Rancheros from Muleback and Rocky Mountain Campfire. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1936. [18] 289 [1] pp., title within decorated border with Native American theme printed in black, brown, and gray, text ornamentation in colors, 25 colored woodcut illustrations by Mallette Dean, foldout map and Grabhorn broadside to reader regarding Americana Series laid in. 8vo, original cream cloth over decorated boards in grey and tan, printed tan paper spine label.
Limited edition (550 copies). Grabhorn Press Third Series of Rare Americana 3; new introduction by Carl I. Wheat. Grabhorn 245. One of the Fifty Books of the Year. Sherwood “Bill” Grover reported to the Roxburghe Club in 1963 that this book was selected by Edwin Grabhorn as one of the top “ten” books printed by Grabhorn Press. $175.00
2104. GARRARD, Lewis H. Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail. Palo Alto: American West, 1968. [20] 289 pp., woodcut illustrations by Mallette Dean, endpaper maps. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth. Very fine in tape-repaired d.j.
Facsimile of the Grabhorn Press limited edition (1936). $40.00
2105. GARRARD, Lewis H. Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938. 377 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates, foldout map. 8vo, original red cloth, t.e.g. Very fine, unopened.
Best edition of this classic. Southwest Historical Series 6; edited by Ralph P. Bieber. Clark & Brunet 19:VI. Howes S791. $75.00
2106. GARRETSON, Martin S. The American Bison: The Story of Its Extermination As a Wild Species and Its Restoration under Federal Protection. New York: New York Zoological Society, [1938]. xii [2] 254 pp., photographic frontispiece, plates (mostly photographic, some in color), portraits, text illustrations. 8vo, original olive cloth gilt. Fine in very good d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 127. Dobie, p. 159. Herd 882. Includes a chapter on cattlemen and buffalo. $75.00
2107. GARRETT, Pat F. Pat F. Garrett’s Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Edited by Maurice Garland Fulton. New York: Macmillan Company, 1927. xxviii [2] 233 pp., color frontispiece, photographic plates, facsimile. 8vo, original blue cloth, printed paper labels on spine and upper cover. Minor nick to spine label, mild to moderate foxing, overall a good to very good copy in chipped d.j. The jacket is rare.
Second edition, extensively revised, with added photographs and new information (first edition Santa Fe, 1882). Adams, Burs I:146n; One Fifty 61: “Best edition.” Campbell, p. 70. Dobie, p. 140. Dykes, Kid 116: “By far the best single Billy the Kid publication to date (1952)”; Western High Spots, p. 119 (“Ranger Reading”): “Best single book about [the Lincoln County] war. Colonel Maurice G. Fulton’s serious research and historical footnotes added to Pat’s (and Ash Upton’s) original version makes this book the foundation on which to start your reading or collecting on this subject.” Graff 1515. Guns 808: “Scarce.... Annotated by an editor who made a thorough study of Billy the Kid.... Much more valuable historically than the original edition.” Howes G73: “First genuine biography of America’s most spectacular example of juvenile delinquency.” Jones 1621. Rader 1542. Saunders 2916. $175.00
2108. GARRETT, Pat F. Pat F. Garrett’s Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Edited by Maurice Garland Fulton. New York: Macmillan Company, 1927. Another copy. Moderate foxing to title and some text (mostly marginal), otherwise a fine copy, d.j. not present. $100.00
2109. GARRETT, Pat F. Authentic Story of Billy the Kid. Foreword by John M. Scanland and Eyewitness Reports Edited by J. Brussel. New York: Atomic Books, 1946. 128 pp. 12mo, original pictorial wrappers. Wrappers worn, abrasion to top corner of upper wrapper affecting spine, text browned and fragile, overall good.
A cheap reprint of the first edition (1882) with some new material, such as analysis of the Kid’s handwriting. Dykes, Kid 361. Guns 809. $25.00
2110. GARRETT, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.... Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. xxviii, 156 [2] pp., frontispiece, illustrations. 12mo, original grey boards. Very fine in slightly rubbed but otherwise fine d.j. Jeff Dykes’ signed and inscribed copy to Carl Hertzog: “For Carl—just a small payment ‘on account’, with the kindest regards of the ‘introducer.’”
New edition, with an added introduction by Jeff Dykes. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 86 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “A major Lincoln County War item with an introduction by this writer which shows it isn’t so authentic.” $50.00
2111. GARRETT, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.... Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine, d.j. not present. Bookseller’s ink stamp on back pastedown. $15.00
2112. GARRISON, George P. Texas: A Contest of Civilizations. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin & Riverside Press, 1903. v [3] 320 [4] pp., maps (1 in color), folding facsimile of Travis’s letter from the Alamo. 12mo, original red decorative cloth gilt, t.e.g. Very fine.
First edition. American Commonwealths Series. Basic Texas Books 73. Rader 1546. Scholarly work based on original sources by the noted University of Texas professor who rescued the Bexar Archives and the Austin Papers (see Handbook of Texas Online: George Pierce Garrison). Brief mention is made of the Texas livestock industry. $35.00
2113. GAY, Beatrice Grady. Into the Setting Sun: A History of Coleman County. [Santa Anna, Texas], n.d. (ca. 1939). x, 193 pp., text illustrations (some photographic), maps. 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Top edge foxed, endpapers lightly browned, otherwise fine. “Criticism” by Col. M. L. Crimmins tipped onto front free endpaper. Signed and dated by author on dedication page and with scattered manuscript corrections in her hand (e.g., p. 75).
First edition. CBC 987. Dobie, p. 59: “Coleman County scenes and characters, dominated by ranger characters.” Dykes, Kid 226: “John Chisum and his store at Trickham in Coleman County are well covered.” Greene and His Library: “This history of Coleman County is what might best be called vernacular history, but Beatrice Gay includes some good stories about places that time has long since forgot. But the [pen & ink] illustrations are unbelievable; they are the crudest attempts I believe I have ever seen in a published document.” Guns 817. Herd 887: “Scarce.”
Mrs. Gay accompanied her husband to the range in an old stagecoach that was later sold to Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. The author, who “grew up steeped in the lore of the Ranger Camp, cowboy tales, and pioneer experiences,” includes good material on women in the range country. $150.00
2114. GAY, Felix M. History of Nowata County. Stillwater, Oklahoma: Redlands Press, 1957. 36 pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Light spotting to wrappers, interior fine.
First edition. Guns 818: “Has a section on the Dalton gang.” Brief mention is made of grazing and dairy enterprises. $30.00
2115. GAY, Theressa. James W. Marshall, the Discoverer of California Gold: A Biography. Georgetown, California: Talisman Press, 1967. 558 [1] pp., color frontispiece portrait, pictorial title page, photographic plates, maps, 5 facsimiles (4 in rear pocket). 8vo, original half black leather over marbled boards. Very fine, signed by author. In publisher’s chemise and slipcase.
First edition, limited edition (#125 of 250 copies). Rocq S300. Has peripheral material on the early cattle trade, especially in relation to the Gold Rush. $150.00
2116. GAY, Theressa. James W. Marshall, the Discoverer of California Gold: A Biography. Georgetown, California: Talisman Press, 1967. 558 [1] pp., color frontispiece portrait, photographic plates, maps. 4to, original mustard cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition, trade issue. $75.00
2117. GEFFS, Mary L. Under Ten Flags: A History of Weld County, Colorado. Greeley: [McVey Printery], 1938. 318 pp., plans, maps. 8vo, original terracotta cloth lettered in black. Very fine.
First edition. Herd 889. Wilcox, p. 49. Wynar 1450. Local history with statistics on the cattle trade in the county. $50.00
2118. GEHLBACH, Frederick R. Mountain Islands and Desert Seas: A Natural History of the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, [1981]. xvi, 298 pp., color photographic plates, maps, illustrations. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in very good price-clipped d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Extensive information on cattle ranching, including a discussion of overgrazing in this mostly arid and fragile region. $25.00
2119. GENTRY, Diane Koos. Enduring Women. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, [1988]. xvii [1] 244 [1] pp., photographic illustrations. Oblong 8vo, original brown wrappers with photographic illustrations. Some wear, but generally very good, with gift inscription on front free endpaper, otherwise fine. Signed by author.
First edition. Among the women profiled and photographed is Harriet Johnson, who left her job as an Ivy League professor to marry a cowboy and become a rancher in Montana. $15.00
2120. GEORGE, Floy Watters. History of Webster County, 1855 to 1955. [Springfield, Missouri: Roberts & Sutter, Printers, 1955]. 264 pp., photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original blue cloth. Text browned due to quality of paper, otherwise fine.
First edition. The chapter entitled “Agriculture—Yesterday and Today” discusses the role of cattle ranching through the years in this Missouri county. $50.00
2121. GETLEIN, Frank. Harry Jackson, Kennedy Galleries Monograph-Catalogue. New York: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., 1969. 98 pp., color frontispiece, photographic text illustrations (some foldout, most full-page and in color). Oblong 4to, original tan printed wrappers. Fine in fine d.j., with errata slip laid in.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 62 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #151). Exhibition catalogue of artist Harry Jackson who created cowboy and ranch-themed sculptures. $30.00
2122. GHENT, W. J. The Road to Oregon: A Chronicle of the Great Emigrant Trail. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1929. xvi [2] 274 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, maps, endpaper maps. 8vo, original dark green cloth lettered in gilt. Very fine in lightly worn d.j. with a few chips and tears.
First edition. Flake 3548: “Mormon movement to Utah; Mountain Meadows Massacre, Johnston’s Army.” Smith 3528. Chapters on path makers, missionaries, the first caravans, heyday of the trail, Gold Rush, stagecoaches, Native Americans, details on the route, and markers and monuments. Includes material on Jesse Applegate and 1843 migration with the “Cow Column.” $50.00
2123. GIBBONS, J. J. In the San Juan. Chicago: Press of Calumet Book & Engraving Co., [1898]. 194 pp., photographic plates lettered and with seal of Colorado in silver. 12mo, original orange cloth. Very good copy with some outer wear and darkening at top edges.
First edition. Guns 824: “Scarce. Also published under the title ‘Notes of a Missionary Priest in the Rocky Mountains,’ New York, by the Christian Press Association Publishing Co., 1898.” Wilcox, p. 49. Wynar 8963. Though primarily an account of pioneer life and mining camps, there is a sketch about a cowboy and a bronco (pp. 28-31). $60.00
2124. GIBBS, Josiah. Kawich’s Gold Mine: An Historical Narrative of Mining in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and of Love and Adventure among the Polygamous Mormons of Southern Utah. Salt Lake City: Century Printing Company, 1913. 228 pp., photographic text illustrations (full-page), map. 8vo, original red printed wrappers, stapled. Wrappers moderately worn and with a few small voids on spine and along upper joint, interior fine.
First edition. Flake 3551: “Fiction with a Mormon setting.” Includes in episode 6 (“Unfortunately Cattle Deal”) the description of the hazardous delivery of a herd of a thousand cows to St. George. $100.00
2125. GIBBS, Josiah F. Lights and Shadows of Mormonism. Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., [1909]. 535 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic text illustrations, portraits, maps. 8vo, original dark blue cloth. Light shelf wear, especially to spinal extremities, overall fine.
First edition. Flake 3552. Chapter 21 is a discussion of early settlement at Salt Lake City, including the role of early cattle and sheep ranching in assuring the colony’s survival. In general the work is an anti-Mormon political and religious indictment. $50.00
2126. GIBBS, Josiah F. The Mountain Meadows Massacre...Illustrated by Nine Full-Page and Five Half-Page Engravings from Photographs Taken on the Ground. Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., 1910. 59 pp., illustrations, map. 8vo, original green pictorial wrappers, stapled. Marginal browning to wraps and title, otherwise fine, with Shepard Book Company contemporary purple ink stamp on lower wrap.
Second and best edition, with correction regarding Isaac Laney on title verso: “The above explanation has been given for purpose of disarming Mormon critics who are ever alert to even the slightest discrepancies that may find their way into the writings of those who presume to criticize the conduct and motives of the Mormon leaders.” Flake 3354. Guns 825: “Scarce.”
It is fairly obvious in which direction the author is heading regarding the lamentable Mountain Meadows Massacre on the Hamblin, Holt, and Burgess ranches when early on, he states: “With malice toward none, least of all toward the misguided assassins, and in a spirit of even-handed justice, the attempt will be made to assemble the fragments of causation and history and join them together in a consecutive narrative.” Like some later writers (e.g., David L. Bigler in Forgotten Kingdom), the author contends that part of the motivation for the first attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train seems to have been an effort to steal their cattle (the overland party was one of the wealthiest trains to come through Utah territory). An aside relating to the Massacre in general: “Nine cowhands hired to drive cattle also were murdered, along with at least 35 other unknown victims. In all, 120 people, mostly women and children, were slain” (Salt Lake Tribune, March 14, 2000, p. A-4). $150.00
2127. GIBSON, A[rrell] M[organ]. The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1965]. xi [1] 301 [7] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original navy cloth. Very fine in slightly chipped d.j. (illustrated by Joe Beeler). Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Beeler 40). Guns 826: “A well-written and long-needed book about one of the leading characters in New Mexico. It contains much on the lawlessness of that state and tells about Oliver Lee, Jim Gilliland, Pat Garrett, and others, with a mention of Billy the Kid.” Though at its core this volume is about outlaws, ranching is a constant backdrop to the story, and there is content on the Lincoln County War. $45.00
2128. GIBSON, Arrell Morgan (ed.). Ranching in the West: Journal of the West 14:3, July 1975. viii, 160 pp., illustration by H. Jordan Rollins on p. 1, ads. 8vo, original grey-and-white printed wrappers. Light wear and foxing, otherwise fine. Ink signature of Donald D. Brand on upper wrapper; laid in are two letters between Brand and Terry G. Jordan discussing the latter’s article in this issue of the journal.
First printing. This issue of the Journal includes “Texan Influence in Nineteenth-Century Arizona Cattle Ranching” by Terry Jordan; “Western Livestock Policy during the 1950s” by Edward L. and Frederick Shapsmeier; and “Cattlemen’s Association in New Mexico Territory.” $50.00
2129. GIBSON, George Rutledge. Journal of a Soldier under Kearny and Doniphan, 1846-1847.... Edited by Ralph Bieber. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1935. 371 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, foldout map. 8vo, original maroon cloth, spine gilt, t.e.g. Spine slightly faded, otherwise fine. Ink ownership signature on title (C. W. & N. M. Wiegel).
First edition. Southwest Historical Series 3. Clark & Brunet 19:III. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 180. Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 216. Howes S791. Rittenhouse 240: “In 1846 [Gibson] enlisted in the Army of the West under Kearny and marched over the SFT. In Santa Fe he was editor of the Santa Fe Republican in 1847 and returned east over the Trail in 1848. The length of his journal and [editor] Bieber’s careful notes make this a valuable work.” Saunders 2918.
Includes material on ranchos along the route, fandango in El Paso, Apache, Comanche, Pawnee, and Ute depredations against stock, procuring beef cattle to replace stolen stock, and general tips for getting around Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century: “When you arrive at a place in Mexico and wish anything, by all means call on the alcalde first, tell him your wants, give him a dollar or two, and if to be had, he will procure it” (p. 330). $100.00
Merrill Aristocrat
2130. GIBSON, J. W. (Watt). Recollections of a Pioneer. [St. Joseph, Missouri: Nelson-Hanne Printing, 1912]. 216 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo, original dark red cloth lettered in black on spine and upper cover. Binding slightly faded along edges, interior very fine. Difficult to find in collector’s condition.
First edition. Anderson 1686:487. Braislin 824. Loring Campbell. Cowan, p. 235. Dobie, p. 103: “Like many another book concerned only incidentally with range life, this contains essential information on the subject. Here it is trailing cattle from Missouri to California in the 1840s and 1850s.” Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 181. Flake 3558. Graff 1546. Herd 891: “Scarce.... Chapters on driving cattle across the plains.” Howes G154.
Kurutz, California Gold Rush 272: “Gibson had the distinction of making three overland trips, the first in 1849. The author set out from Buchanan County, Missouri, with brothers William and James. They followed the California Trail and crossed the Sierra via Carson Pass. The brothers first mined for gold on Weaver Creek in August. Gibson then wandered from Sacramento to Shasta City before joining up with fellow Missourians at Salmon Falls. With his brothers, he started ranching but returned overland to home to bring cattle back to California. In May 1850, Gibson led 550 head back to the ranch. The rancher made two more trips in 1853 and 1854. According to Dale Morgan, ‘His original return trip was one of the rare West to East trips that year.’” Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 455. Mintz, The Trail 176: “Gibson made his first of three overland trips in 1849 and here relates experiences and adventures in the land of gold mining. He returned to Missouri in 1851, and then returned to California in 1852, driving cattle along the way. Gibson made another cattle driving trip in 1854.... Quite an adventurer and quite engaging reading.” Norris 1220. Rader 1578. Smith 3539.
Gardiner (In Pursuit of the Golden Dream) discusses this book on p. xxxiv. Gibson includes several chapters on his participation in the Civil War, in both Missouri and Arkansas, in Musser’s 8th and 9th Missouri Infantry. In 1861 he joined Elijah Gates’ company just after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, went on to fight at Lexington and Pea Ridge, then joined the Confederate army in John B. Clark’s division. One particularly grim event he relates is how a company of artillery was overrun by a company of African-Americans who promptly killed the survivors (pp. 154-155). $1,500.00
2131. GIBSON, J. W. (Watt). Recollections of a Pioneer. N.p.: Practical Personal Planning, n.d. 216 pp., photographic frontispiece portrait. 12mo, original red printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
Facsimile reprint of the rare original edition. $125.00
2132. GIDEON, Samuel E[ward]. (ed.) A Group of Themes on the Architecture and Culture of Early Texas. Austin: The University of Texas, n.d. 110 pp. (mimeographed), text illustrations (line drawings of architecture). 4to, original blue paper wrappers, stapled. Very good. Pencil notes indicate this copy was a gift from J. Frank Dobie to Dudley R. Dobie, and the scattered manuscript corrections appear to be in the hand of JFD.
First edition. This work consists of students’ research essays prepared for a university course on the evolution of Texas architecture, with some material of interest for ranching (such as adaptation of the dog-run style to later ranch houses; see p. 27). Dr. Gideon (1875-1945), also known for his wonderful paintings, taught at Texas A&M, MIT, and UT after studying at MIT, Harvard, and the School of Fine Arts at Fontainebleau, France (Handbook of Texas Online: Samuel Edward Gideon). $50.00
2133. GIESE, Henry. Farm Fence Handbook. Chicago: Agricultural Extension Bureau, Republic Steel Corporation, 1938. 63 [1] pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic), tables. 4to, original blue pictorial wrappers. Small abrasion on back wrapper, else very fine.
First printing. An in-depth survey of fencing meant for the use of agricultural college students. One of the illustrations (p. 33) shows a barbed wire machine in action with a note explaining how it operates. $25.00
2134. GIESECKE, Walter. Reminiscences and Adventures of Walter Giesecke As He Told Them to His Children and Grandchildren. N.p., n.d. (ca. 1925). 60 leaves, typewritten, double-spaced carbon copy. 4to, secured in stiff green paper covers. Other than occasional mild rust staining from metal clasps, fine. A few of J. Frank Dobie’s rough pencil notes.
Unpublished, original account by a cowboy-rancher, who was born on a sheep farm in Washington County, Texas, in 1856 and moved to Burnet County after the Civil War. He worked mostly at home until 1882, when he “decided for the ‘cowtrail’” and “hired to Major Zeth Mabry, a prominent cattle trader and dealer, who sent thousands of cattle ‘up the trail’ every spring, to help drive a herd of steers to Ogallala, Nebraska.” His account of this trail drive is informative and exciting. From Ogallala he accepted a job of accompanying a cattle train consisting of ten cars of stock bound for Chicago. $500.00
2135. GIFFEN, Helen S. Casas and Courtyards: Historic Adobe Houses of California. Oakland: Biobooks, 1955. [6] 153 [1] pp., color frontispiece, photographic text illustrations (full-page) by Guy J. Giffen. 8vo, original half black cloth over tan linen, spine lettered in gilt. Very fine.
First edition, limited edition (600 copies). California Relations, no. 40. Foreword by W. W. Robinson. Rocq 16878. Many of the buildings included are ranch houses. $85.00
2136. GIFFEN, Helen S. Trail-Blazing Pioneer, Colonel Joseph Ballinger Chiles. San Francisco: [Lawton and Alfred Kennedy for] John Howell-Books, 1969. [6] 100 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine, unopened, in very fine d.j.
First edition, limited edition (750 copies). Kane, Howell 73. Rocq S1228. This biography of one of the 1841 Bartleson-Bidwell overlanders has two chapters on “The Rancho Catacula,” a rancho grant in present-day Napa Valley wine county, made to Joseph B. Chiles in 1844. $75.00
2137. GILBERT, Hila, George Harris & Bernice Pourier Harris. Big Bat Pourier, Guide and Interpreter, Fort Laramie 1870-1880 [wrapper title]. Sheridan, Wyoming: The Mills Company, 1968. [6] 82 pp., photographic text illustrations (some full-page). 8vo, original yellow pictorial wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
First edition. Big Bat Pourier, a Frenchman who married Lakotan Josephine Richards, negotiated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. His ability to speak French, English, and Lakota, and his empathy for the plight of Native Americans helped him obtain a favorable treaty. The book includes a chapter on Horsehead Ranch, where Bat settled and near which the massacre of Wounded Knee occurred. $50.00
2138. GILBEY, Walter. Ponies Past and Present. London: Vinton & Co., 1900. [8] 112 pp., frontispiece, plates (photographic, some from engravings or woodcuts). 8vo, original orange cloth with lettering and illustration of pony and dog in gilt, a.e.g. Binding moderately stained and worn with some abrading at spine and corners, foxing to first and last few leaves, overall a very good copy. Modern bookplate on front pastedown. Printed list of “Works by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart” on lower pastedown.
First edition. The emphasis of the work is the possibilities of breeding, with a history of various breeds and types, including New Forest, Welsh, Exmoor, Darmoor, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Connemara, Scotland, and Shetland. In one chapter the author comments extensively on the relative superiority of the pony to the horse, remarking that ponies have more endurance and need less care. Gilbey regrets that England must import ponies to meet the demand. Finally, he points out that ponies are essential for work in mines because horses are too large. $75.00
2139. GILCREASE INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND ART. “Titans of Western Art: Frederic Remington, Charles Russell” in American Scene 5:4 [Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 1964]. [2] 64 [4] pp., text illustrations (some in color, most full-page). 4to, original stiff brown embossed wrappers. Very fine.
First printing. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Remington 45). McVicker Yost & Renner, Russell, p. 74. Includes articles by J. Frank Dobie (not in McVicker), Harold McCracken, Lola Shelton, N. Orwin Rush, Ramon Adams, Will Rogers, Jr., Helen Card, and Dean Krakel. $25.00
2140. GILFILLAN, Archer B. Sheep. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1929. xix [3] 272 pp., frontispiece, illustrations by Kurt Wiese. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Fine in very worn, browned, and chipped d.j. with significant losses (price-clipped). Author’s signed inscription on front free endpaper to Mr. Himler.
First edition. Campbell, p. 130. Dobie, pp. 93, 104: “With humor and grace, this sheepherder, who collected books on Samuel Pepys, tells more about sheep dogs, sheep nature, and sheepherder life than any other writer I know.” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #68n. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 83 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Despite the importance of sheep in our range economy, they have been practically ignored in range literature. A range man’s library, to maintain balance, should include some books on sheep. Fortunately there are some very good ones. The best of all is [Archer B. Gilfillan’s Sheep], truly a western classic.” Herd 893: “Scarce.... A chapter on the sheepherder and the cowboy.” Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 4. Reese, Six Score 46: “One of the most pleasant and readable range books. There is some mention of cattle and cattlemen.... Even the most stubborn cowman will feel some sympathy for shepherds after reading this book.”
The author’s sheep ranch was in South Dakota. $125.00
2141. GILLESPIE, A. S. (Bud) & R. H. (Bob) Burns. Steamboat: Symbol of Wyoming Spirit. Cheyenne: University of Wyoming, [1952]. 20 pp., photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original brown pictorial wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
First edition. Herd 894: “About another famous bucking horse.” Steamboat, the famous rodeo horse in action at Cheyenne’s Frontier Days early in the twentieth century, appeared on the Wyoming license plate in 1935 (Wyoming was the first state to include a picture of any kind on license plates). $25.00
2142. GILLETT, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881. Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, [1921]. 332 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 12mo, original gilt-lettered dark green cloth. Other than light outer wear, an exceptionally fine, bright copy. Signed by author. Part of a printed promotional leaf on the book tipped in.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:148; One-Fifty 62: “Published in a small edition by the author and sold personally by him.... Very scarce.” Basic Texas Books 76. Campbell, p. 78. Clark, New South I:83A: “Gillett’s service with the Rangers was in the western and northwestern part of Texas, an area that was real frontier in the 1870s.... An excellent account of frontier lawless society.” Dobie, Big Bend Bibliography, p. 9. Dobie, pp. 55, 59-60. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 20 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West” #3); p. 116 (“Ranger Reading”). Graff 1553. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 73. A. C. Greene & His Library: “What can I say about this wonderful piece of Texana and the man who wrote it? James B. Gillett’s Six Years With the Texas Rangers is well written, well researched, and one of my `50 Best.’ I used it often in writing 900 Miles on the Butterfield Trail. If you wish to know the history of West Texas beyond the Pecos, you must include this book.” Guns 829. Howes G177. Rader 1591.
“Gillett (1856-1937), Texas Ranger, author, and rancher.... [His] family moved to Lampasas in 1872. This was cattle country, and in 1873 he left home to work for nearby cattlemen.... On June 1, 1875, Gillett joined the Texas Rangers, Daniel Webster Roberts’ Company D, Frontier Battalion. He spent six years with the rangers on the frontier,...the bloodiest period of the Texas Indian wars. Gillett fought Kiowa, Comanche, and Lipan Apache Indians, as well as cattle thieves and outlaws.... In December 1881 Gillett resigned from the Texas Rangers and was appointed assistant city marshal of El Paso. In June 1882 he was appointed marshal.... On April 1, 1885, after having clubbed a city councilman with a six-shooter, he left the El Paso marshal’s office and became manager of the Estado Land and Cattle Company. He held this position for almost six years, then resigned to ranch for himself.... Gillett ranched south of Alpine on the O6 and Altuda ranches.... In April 1907.... He bought the Barrell Springs Ranch, made improvements, and began building a herd of registered Hereford cattle, which became well known for quality and brought premium prices.... He helped organize the West Texas Historical Association [and] was instrumental in organizing the Highland Hereford Breeders Association” (Handbook of Texas Online: James Buchanan Gillett). $500.00
2143. GILLETT, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881. Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, [1921]. Another copy, not autographed. Light shelf wear, upper hinge broken, otherwise very fine and bright. $300.00
2144. GILLETT, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875-1881. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. xvi, 259 pp., photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in slightly rubbed and soiled pictorial d.j. The jacket is rare. Laid in is author’s autograph letter signed, dated at Marfa, Texas, April 1926, 1 p., to R. S. Ellison (see content in next paragraph).
Second edition, edited and with an introduction by Milo Milton Quaife. Basic Texas Books 76A. In his letter Gillett apologizes that he cannot send Ellison an autographed copy of his book because his contract with Yale prohibits his doing so: “They seem pretty hard boiled to me. I would have been delighted to have sent you an autographed copy at the publisher’s price. They would have lost nothing and I would have made about 50 cents.” $400.00
2145. GILLETT, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875-1881. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. Another copy. Light shelf wear and endpapers browned, overall very good, d.j. not present. Bookplates of Edward R. Sargent and Carl Hertzog, and ownership signature of Sargent, partially abraded. $75.00
2146. GILLETT, James B. & Howard R. Driggs. The Texas Ranger: A Story of the Southwestern Frontier.... Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book Company, 1927. xv [1] 223 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations by Herbert M. Stoops, map. 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, front endpapers browned, otherwise fine and fresh, newsclipping laid in. This edition is difficult to find, especially in fine condition like this copy.
Pioneer Life Series. Basic Texas Books 76B (quoting Dobie): “Delightfully illustrated, and the illustrations are true to life.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Stoops 27). $35.00
2147. GILLETT, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881. Chicago: The Lakeside Press and R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., 1943. xxxii, 364 pp., frontispiece portrait, foldout map. 12mo, original maroon decorative cloth gilt, t.e.g. Very fine.
Lakeside Classics reprint. Basic Texas Books 76C. The sepia-tone photogravure portrait of Gillett does not appear in the previous editions. The preface contains publisher’s interesting remarks about the problems of producing a book during World War II. $40.00
2148. GILLETTE, Edward. Locating the Iron Trail. Boston: Christopher Publishing House, [1925]. 172 pp., photographic plates. Small 8vo, original blue cloth lettered in gilt. Very fine and bright. Author’s signed presentation copy to “Dr. Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior who put our Reclamation Service on its feet.... ”
First edition. Firsthand account by a surveyor who assisted in locating railroads in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, the Sand Hills of Nebraska, the Northwest, Big Horn Canyon, Yellowstone (where he met Theodore Roosevelt), and Alaska. The engineer-author includes material on area ranches and Native Americans. Following p. 88 is a photographic plate of “Indians herding cattle across Big Horn River, near Fort Custer.” Gillette describes the reaction of cowboys to the arrival of his survey party in New Mexico: “The cowboys regarded the surveyors in silence and with feelings of apprehension, no doubt influenced by the remarks of the cattle owners that ‘if the railroad comes it will bring such a horde of settlers that the cattle business would be ruined.’” $125.00
2149. GILLETTE, Edward. Locating the Iron Trail. Boston: Christopher Publishing House, [1925]. Another copy. Minor bumping to edges, otherwise a very fine copy. Author’s signed presentation copy to Mr. D. W. Greenburg. $100.00
2150. GILLETTE, Martha Hill. Overland to Oregon, and in the Indian Wars of 1853, with an Account of Earlier Life in Rural Tennessee. Ashland: Lewis Osburne, 1971. 77 [3] pp., illustrations, large folded map laid in. 8vo, original green pictorial buckram. Very fine in moderately soiled plain dust wrapper.
First edition, limited edition (#59 of 650 copies). Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1178: “Martha Hill was eighteen when her father decided to leave the poor red soil of the Cumberlands.” Mintz, The Trail 178: “The family began their long trip to Oregon in Tennessee and actually made the crossing in 1852. Martha’s journal includes...Rogue River Indian wars, and the special attention given her and her sister as the only unmarried females in Rogue River Valley.... Many detailed facets of early pioneer life.” Smith S3151.
The author’s family went overland in 1852 and drove stock with them. There are references and discussions in the text to problems with driving stock across the country, the primary management problem being finding sufficient feed for the stock. They hired Native Americans along the way to assist with driving the stock. $50.00
2151. GILLILAND, Maude T. Horsebackers of the Brush Country: A Story of the Texas Rangers and Mexican Liquor Smugglers. N.p., 1968. 175 pp., illustrations (many photographic), map. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in very fine pictorial d.j. Signed by author on front free endpaper.
First edition. The first part of the book is taken up with various accounts of law enforcement activities to prevent liquor smuggling across South Texas by the “tequileros” during Prohibition, including numerous details about violent encounters with the smugglers and daily life of Texas Rangers involved in this duty. The second part of the book though often described as being biographies of Texas Rangers also includes other law enforcement officers, such as Border Patrol personnel and Customs inspectors. Much of the smuggling occurred across the various sprawling south Texas cattle ranches.
Author Gilliland (1904-1989), whose grandfather, father, and husband were Texas Rangers, was born on the Capisallo Ranch in Hidalgo County, Texas, and grew up on Rincón Ranch, a large ranch in Starr and Hidalgo counties where her father worked as foreman and manager. “Ranching and law enforcement-and their overlapping interests-were important influences in Maude Gilliland’s life. The Texas Rangers used Rincón as a scouting headquarters in the South Texas area, and numerous other law-enforcement officers stopped at the ranch regularly. Maude Gilliland’s family had close ties to these groups” (Handbook of Texas: Maude Truitt Gilliland). $300.00
2152. GILLILAND, Maude T. Rincon (Remote Dwelling Place): A Story of Life on a South Texas Ranch at the Turn of the Century. [Brownsville: Springman-King Lithograph Company, 1964]. xvi, 105 [2] pp., illustrations by the author (many photographs), maps. 8vo, original green cloth. Tape stains on endpapers, otherwise fine in d.j. with some foxing on lower panel. Author’s presentation inscription to Dudley R. Dobie on front free endpaper: “To Dudley Dobie, with the compliments of E. R. Wyatt and the best wishes of the author, Maude T. Gilliland, Jan. 22, 1965.”
First edition. Guns 830: “Has a chapter on the bandit raids of southwestern Texas, mostly by Mexican outlaws.” King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 15: “Interesting and amusing accounts of the author’s girlhood on the vast Wells Ranch in Starr and Hidalgo Counties in South Texas.” Gilliland includes some in-depth information on the vaquero way of life, which, unlike that of the isolated American cowboys, included their families.
“After raising her family, Maude Gilliland turned to chronicling her experiences in South Texas. Her first book, which she both wrote and illustrated, was Rincón (Remote Dwelling Place)-A Story of Life on a South Texas Ranch at the Turn of the Century (1964). It was praised for its accurate portrayal of the Rio Grande valley and ranch life in South Texas” (Handbook of Texas: Maude Truitt Gilliland). $200.00
2153. GILLILAND, Maude T. Rincon.... [Brownsville: Springman-King Lithograph Company, 1964]. Another copy. Lower cover, endsheets, and d.j. moderately foxed, otherwise fine. Author’s presentation inscription to Dudley R. Dobie on front free endpaper: “To Dudley R. Dobie, with the compliments of Sterling Dobie and the best wishes of the author. Maude T. Gilliland Jan. 30, 1965.” $200.00
2154. GILLMOR, Frances & Louisa Wade Wetherill. Traders to the Navajos. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin & Riverside Press, 1934. [6] 265 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates. 8vo, original orange cloth lettered in green. Fine copy in scarce d.j. (a few chips and one short tear). Color postcard from Colorado laid in.
First edition. Dobie, p. 29: “Account not only of the trading post Wetherills but of the Navajos as human beings, with emphasis on their spiritual qualities.” Saunders 953. One of the plates shows a Navajo sheep herd. The Wetherill family, ranchers in southwestern Colorado, discovered the nearby cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde and were the first Anglos to excavate and explore the ruins. $60.00
2155. GILPIN, William. Mission of the North American People, Geographical, Social, and Political. Illustrated by Six Charts Delineating the Physical Architecture and Thermal Laws of All the Continents. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1873. 217 pp., 6 folding colored lithographic maps: (1) Map of the World.... (30.5 x 96.5 cm); (2) Map of North America in which are delineated the Mountain System as a Unit.... (60.3 x 56.5 cm); (3) Map of North America Delineating the Mountain System and Its Details.... (60.5 x 56.2 cm); (4) Map Illustrating the System of Parcs, the Domestic Relations of the Great Plains.... (54 x 58.4 cm) (5) Map of Colorado Territory, and Northern Portion of New Mexico Showing the System of Parcs (51.7 x 53.5 cm); (6) Thermal Map of North America, Delineating the Isothermal Zodiac the Isothermal Axis of Intensity and its Expansions up and down the Plateau (60.5 x 56 cm). 8vo, original gilt-lettered purple cloth, covers ruled in blind, bevelled edges. Moderate outer wear, corners slightly bumped, spine shelf slated, interior very good, maps excellent and fresh with only a few short tears at juncture with text block (no losses).
Second edition, with additions and rearrangements, of Gilpin’s The Central Gold Region (1860); for citations to the 1860 edition, see: Munk (Alliot), p. 87; Plains & Rockies (IV:358), Smith (3594); Wheat, Transmississippi West (1010 & 1011). Citations to the present edition: Anderson 1686:149. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 184. Howes G192. Plains & Rockies II:358 (discussing this 1873 edition): “A unique feature in American literature”; IV:358n: “Gilpin first crossed the plains to Oregon in 1843 with the Frémont expedition [and] remained involved with the Rocky Mountain West.... He was an early advocate of the Pacific Railway...and later became governor of Colorado Territory.” Sabin 27469. Tutorow 4069: “Gilpin was a major in the Missouri Mounted Volunteers during the Mexican War.”
Building on themes began in his Central Gold Region (1860), Gilpin here expands his concept of United States’ greatness to create a ringing endorsement of Manifest Destiny. First exposed to the Western landscape as part of Frémont’s expedition and later with Doniphan during the Mexican-American War, Gilpin has little doubts about the lush prospects of the area or of the ability of U.S. citizens to render the area profitable and abundant. Although sometimes criticized as an eccentric, he nevertheless, at least as clearly as his contemporary Jane Maria Eliza McManus Storm Cazneau, here calls for the U.S. to develop the area that has, according to him, rightly fallen into their possession. Leroy R. Hafen in Pike’s Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859 (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark, 1941) remarks, “Gilpin has been called the Prophet of the West” (p. 241).
In his comments he includes discussion of the herds of cattle that can be raised and records his astonishment that the Great Plains, considered by some to be the Great American Desert, actually support one hundred million wild cattle. Despite whatever charges of eccentricity might be laid at Gilpin’s feet, in many ways he assuredly saw the agricultural and ranching empire that eventually grew in the regions he describes. The book is also important because of Gilpin’s remarks on building a transnational railroad. Finally, Appendix I contains the text of a speech Gilpin gave in 1847 concerning the Mexican-American War and his experiences.
The excellent thematic maps of North America are highly original, aesthetically appealing, and a complement to the author’s accompanying geo-political essay. In addition to the world and North American maps (some with dramatic concentric circles radiating from the Great Plains), included are a very detailed map of Colorado Territory and a superb map of the Great Plains.
Speaking of the prescient nature of Gilpin’s maps, Paul E. Cohen in his Mapping the West: America’s Westward Movement 1524-1890 (New York: Rizzoli, 2002) comments: “The ideas that continents have centers and peripheries and that the physical disposition of mountains, plains, and rivers create geographical pressures, with long-term impacts on populations and the wealth of nations, were very new in Gilpin’s day. It was not until the early twentieth century, in the work of the geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, that such notions were given academic stature and a name: geopolitics” (p. 146).
See also the excellent commentary of William H. Goetzmann in Exploration and Empire (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1991, p. 88). $1,500.00
2156. GILPIN, William. Mission of the North American People.... Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1873. Another copy. Defective. 2 (of 6) folding colored lithographic maps: (1) Map of North America (57 x 60 cm); (2) Thermal Map of North America, Delineating the Isothermal Zodiac the Isothermal Axis of Intensity and its Expansions up and down the Plateau (57 x 60 cm). 8vo, original brown flexible cloth. Moderate shelf wear, fraying, and rubbing to cloth; light water staining in lower blank margins, overall very good, with ms. manuscript ownership slip laid in. $200.00
2157. GILPIN, William. Mission of the North American People, Geographical, Social, and Political. Illustrated by Six Charts Delineating the Physical Architecture and Thermal Laws of All the Continents. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott and Trübner & Co., 1874. 223 pp., 6 folding colored lithographic maps: (1) Map of the World.... (30.5 x 96.5 cm); (2) Map of North America in which are delineated the Mountain System as a Unit.... (60.3 x 56.5 cm); (3) Map of North America Delineating the Mountain System and Its Details.... (60.5 x 56.2 cm); (4) Map Illustrating the System of Parcs, the Domestic Relations of the Great Plains.... (54 x 58.4 cm) (5) Map of Colorado Territory, and Northern Portion of New Mexico Showing the System of Parcs (51.7 x 53.5 cm); (6) Thermal Map of North America, Delineating the Isothermal Zodiac the Isothermal Axis of Intensity and its Expansions up and down the Plateau (60.5 x 56 cm). 8vo, original gilt-lettered green cloth, covers ruled in blind, bevelled edges. Other than light shelf wear, a very fine, fresh copy, the maps excellent. Contemporary ownership signature in ink at front (Albert Smith).
Third edition, text reset; first British edition. The maps are from the same plates as the second edition, but here in some cases, the colors are much more vivid. $1,250.00
2158. GIPSON, Fred. The Cow Killers with the Aftosa Commission in Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1956. x, 130 [1] pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Bill Leftwich (caricatures, sometimes humorous and sometimes grim). 4to, original orange cloth, spine gilt-lettered, vignette of cow on upper cover. Light foxing to endpapers, else very fine in lightly rubbed but fine d.j. Signed by author and illustrator on front free endpaper.
First edition. Not in Guns or Herd. The “cow killers” were the gringos of the Aftosa Commission who invaded rural Mexico in 1949 armed with six-shooters and hypodermic syringes, in an attempt to stamp out the spread of hoof-and-mouth disease. At its peak the Commission employed 1,166 U.S. and 7,938 Mexicans, including Leftwich, a cowboy with the Commission, who sketched scenes he encountered in the course of his work. Lack of adequate explanation and campesino suspicion of authority led to many episodes of misunderstanding. $65.00
2159. GIPSON, Fred. The “Cow Killers”.... Austin: University of Texas Press, 1956. Another copy. Endpapers with light browning, otherwise fine in d.j. with a few short tears reinforced on verso. $45.00
2160. GIPSON, Fred. Cowhand: The Story of a Working Cowboy. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, [1953]. [142] pp. (numbered 1A to 71B, versos only). Narrow folio, original red wrappers, publisher’s printed paper label and printed title label on upper wrapper. Light wear, otherwise fine.
Publisher’s uncorrected proofs. Campbell, p. 85: “Contemporary cowhands at work. Accurate and genial.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 79 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Matter-of-fact on the day-to-day jobs of a working cowboy.” Herd 897. True story of Ed “Fat” Alford (b. 1901), a West Texas cowhand who worked on the Elsinore Ranch and in and around the Ozona area.
“One of the most popular of the southwestern writers in the 1940s and 1950s, if not necessarily the best, was Fred Gipson [who] had the rare ability to appeal simultaneously to many different levels of intelligence; pre-teen children and sophisticated literary critics can read his novels apparently with equal pleasures and appreciation” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 508). $125.00
2161. GIPSON, Fred. Cowhand: The Story of a Working Cowboy. New York: Harper & Brothers, [1953]. vi [2] 216 pp. 8vo, original half beige cloth over green cloth. Light foxing to top edge of book block and endpapers, otherwise fine in lightly worn but fine d.j.
First edition. $35.00
2162. GIPSON, Fred. Fabulous Empire: Colonel Zack Miller’s Story. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company & Riverside Press, 1946. ix [3] 411 pp. 8vo, original tan cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in very good d.j. (chipped and worn at edges).
First edition. Introduction by Donald Day. Campbell, p. 82: “The 101 Ranch in Oklahoma was famous. It grossed more than a million dollars a year until World War I and the depression brought that Western empire down.” Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 39. Dobie, p. 104: “Biography of Zack Miller of the 101 Ranch and 101 Wild West Show.” Guns 835: “Contains some information on Henry Starr.” Herd 898. $50.00
2163. GLASSCOCK, C. B. Gold in Them Hills: The Story of the West’s Last Wild Mining Days. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, [1932]. 330 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original green cloth. Some edge wear, otherwise a fine copy in the scarce d.j. (lightly rubbed and chipped, a few small closed tears).
First edition. Edwards, Enduring Desert, pp. 93-94: “Choice material on the early mining fields surrounding Death Valley.” Guns 839: “Contains some new information on Wyatt Earp.” Paher, Nevada 691: “Probably no newspaperman captured the frenzied [mining] era better than Glasscock, and this is the finest of his six Western books.... Written informally and with an eye toward human interest, the book will surely be enjoyed by all who love old Nevada.” Rocq 15832.
History of the colorful mining camps at Tonopah, Goldfield, Rhyolite, Rawhide, Greenwater, etc. Chapter 20 (“Profits vs. Romance”) relates the story of the rise and fall of the town of Goldfield and the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company under the direction of George Wingfield, a former cowboy turned capitalist. $35.00
2164. GLASSCOCK, C. B. Lucky Baldwin: The Story of an Unconventional Success. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, [1933]. 308 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 8vo, original orange cloth. Mild shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in very worn and torn d.j. Bookplate on front pastedown.
First edition. Paher, Nevada 693: “While Baldwin was famous as a southern California land developer and racing enthusiast, he was also a principle developer of Lake Tahoe. This book is a record of his business undertakings.... The volume is typical of the author’s vivacious style which mixes history with yarns about people and places.” Rocq 9546.
In addition to running with fast women and faster horses, Baldwin was a hotelier, vaudevillian, and participant in the Klondike gold rush. Among Elias Jackson (“Lucky”) Baldwin’s real estate developments was the Santa Anita Rancho in San Gabriel Valley, with vineyards and the largest racing stable in the U.S. $25.00
2165. GLISAN, Rodney. Journal of Army Life. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft and Company, 1874. xii, 511 pp., 21 wood-engraved plates, 1 folding table. 8vo, original brown decorative cloth gilt with black ruling. Binding worn (especially along joints, spine, and corners) and with a few light spots, endpapers lightly browned, interior very good.
First edition. Braislin 837. Cowan, p. 239. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 188. Flake (supp.) 3599a. Graff 1575: “Glisan served in Oklahoma, Washington, and Oregon among other areas.” Howell 32, Oregon 118. Howes G209. Littell 405. Matthews 325. Munk (Alliot), p. 88. Norris 1233. Rader 1609. Sloan, Auction 9 (quoting Pingenot): “An important contemporary account of the Indian wars in the Pacific Northwest. The author joined the army as a surgeon in 1850. He visited California in 1855.” Smith 3611.
Glisan (1827-1890), after practicing medicine in Baltimore became a surgeon in the U.S. Army, an office he filled for the next decade, before moving to San Francisco and eventually Portland. He was a prominent physician known for several unusual operations and for his medical expertise on midwifery. Glisan’s account contains material on Native American stock rustling (especially in Texas and Indian Territory) and much on mustangs and Comanche horsemanship (including engravings). $200.00
2166. GLOVER, Jack. “Bobbed” Wire: An Illustrated Guide to the Identification and Classification of Barbed Wire. Wichita Falls, Texas: Terry Bros., 1966. [10] 49 [1] pp. (versos blank), text illustrations throughout. 8vo, original beige pictorial textured wrappers, stapled. Mint.
First edition. Illustrated guide with identification of types and patent dates. Barbed wire examples and some patent dates, plus illustrations of fencing tools. $50.00
2167. GLOVER, Jack. The “Bobbed” Wire II Bible. [Sunset, Texas], 1971. [176] pp., text illustrations throughout. 8vo, original beige pictorial wrappers. Slight tear to wrappers, else very fine. Signed and inscribed by author on title page. Original mailing envelope
Augmented edition of preceding, much enlarged. $25.00
2168. GLOVER, Jack. The “Bobbed” Wire III Bible. Centennial Edition. Sunset, Texas: Cow Puddle Press, 1972. [208] pp., illustrations. 8vo, original beige pictorial wrappers. Fine. Signed and inscribed by author on title page.
Another augmented edition, the “Centennial Edition.” $30.00
2169. GOETH, Ralph. One Hundred Years of Tips in Texas [wrapper title]. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1960]. 16 pp. 8vo, original beige printed wrappers, stapled. Very good.
First edition. Story of the Tips family, who arrived in 1849 at Indianola from Elberfeld, Germany, and immediately bought land and began to ranch before setting up in business in Austin. Later generations of the family also engaged in ranching. $15.00
2170. GOFF, Richard, Robert H. McCaffree & Doris Sterbenz. Century in the Saddle [with]: Centennial Brand Book of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Commission. [Denver: Colorado Cattlemen’s Centennial Association, 1967]. x [2] 365 + x, 196 pp., photographic plates, text illustrations (some photographic and some full-page, a few by Remington), facsimiles of documents and an 1886 brand book). 2 vols., 8vo, original green pictorial cloth gilt. Very fine, unopened, in lightly worn but fine jackets (one of which is price-clipped).
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Remington 610 & 611). Reese, Six Score 47: “Detailed and well-written history of the first one hundred years of the Colorado Cattleman’s Association. The book is well-balanced, giving equal space to earlier and later history.” Wynar 6284 & 6285. The second volume contains a facsimile of Brands Belonging to the Colorado Cattle Growers Association (1886), the first Colorado statewide brand book. $200.00
2171. GOFF, Richard & Robert H. McCaffree. Century in the Saddle. [Denver: Colorado Cattlemen’s Centennial Commission, 1967]. Another copy of first title in preceding entry. Light foxing to fore-edges and gutters, front free endpaper stained (from d.j.), else very fine in d.j. $70.00
2172. GOFF, Richard & Robert H. McCaffree. Century in the Saddle. [Denver: Colorado Cattlemen’s Centennial Commission, 1967]. x [2] 365 pp., plates and illustrations. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth gilt. Very fine, unopened copy in fine d.j. Signed by authors on title page. Forrest and Edith Blunk’s anniversary copy, with Edith’s note re same on front free endpaper. $100.00
2173. GOFF, Richard & Robert H. McCaffree. Century in the Saddle. [Denver: Colorado Cattlemen’s Centennial Commission, 1967]. Another copy. Fine in lightly chipped and price-clipped d.j. Signed by author McCaffree. Promotional laid in. $100.00
2174. GOOD, Donnie D. “The Longhorn” in American Scene 11:3. Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 1970. [20] pp., text illustrations (some full-page) by Frederic Remington, Edward Borein, Frank Reaugh, Will James, and others. 4to, original stiff brown printed wrappers, stapled. Mint.
First printing. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Borein 68). Entire issue of American Scene devoted to the longhorn; special design by Bill Patterson. $20.00
2175. GOODMAN, David Michael. A Western Panorama, 1849-1875: The Travels, Writing, and Influence of J. Ross Browne on the Pacific Coast, and in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and Baja California, As the First Mining Commissioner.... Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1966. 328 pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (many full-page, including some by Browne), maps. 8vo, original red cloth, spine gilt. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. Western Frontiersmen Series 13. Clark & Brunet 99. Paher, Nevada 705: “Without a doubt, Browne was among the most widely traveled observant and truly versatile men of his era. His work, reports and writings concern all of the Southwest. The author successfully develops many little known facets of Browne’s varied career which included travel and investigations into Nevada in the early 1860’s. Excellent two-color maps are an aid in following these movements.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 683.
Browne includes information on ranching in the Southwest and cattle smuggling from Mexico. “Browne spent twenty-five years in the West, about twice as long as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Francis Parkman, Richard Dana, and Bayard Taylor combined. He traveled extensively throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, and Washington; and his letters, journals, articles, and reports constitute the fullest and most reliable account of life in the West left by a single person in the third quarter of the nineteenth century.... His cartoons portray as no words can the ironic view he had of himself and the turbulent life of the West he experienced so fully.” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 90). $50.00
2176. GOODNIGHT, Charles, et al. Pioneer Days in the Southwest from 1850 to 1879: Thrilling Descriptions of Buffalo Hunting, Indian Fighting and Massacres, Cowboy Life and Home Building. Contributions by Charles Goodnight, Emanuel Dubbs, John A. Hart and Others. Guthrie, Oklahoma: State Capital Company, 1909. 320 pp., 16 plates (mostly photographic portraits and scenes, one from a line drawing); not present are colored frontispiece of the Adobe Walls fight, plates opposite p. 33 (“Presto...”), p. 45 (“Huha!...”), p. 55 (“Firing at Them...”). 12mo, original green cloth, spine gilt lettered, upper cover stamped with pictorial design in black and gilt-lettered. Poor condition, cloth worn, first and last few leaves detached, text block partially sprung. With this copy is another issue of the index leaf (see next paragraph). Preserved in acid-free cloth clamshell box.
Second edition, first issue. The second edition was enlarged and plates added (the first edition, under authorship of John A. Hart, was published in Guthrie, ca. 1906 and is very rare). In this issue the first letter of the title is damaged, there is no edition statement on title verso, the distance between the rules and the copyright statement is .05 cm, the first word of page iii is “Introductory,” page v contains only one full paragraph, the index leaf (present in both states) has Chapters 2 and 4 misspelled “Chauter,” and the plate at p. 107 is oriented portrait. The cover stamping lacks the device on the spine, and the bars at the extremities. On the front board, the stamp, which would be corrected, has the “h” printing into the circle. The frontispiece is not present, and there is no indication that it was ever there.
Dobie, p. 105: “Good on the way frontier ranch families lived. The writers show no sense of humor and no idea of being literary.” Graff 1802. Herd 903: “Scarce.... An enlarged reprint with the additions of History of Pioneer Days, by John A. Hart, and thus considered a second edition.” Howes H258. Saunders 2921. Tate, Indians of Texas 2363: “Personal stories of thirteen pioneers...who lived in north central and northwestern Texas during the mid-nineteenth century. Their accounts are filled with stories of ‘savage’ Comanche and Kiowa raids and pursuits by civilian defense groups and Texas Rangers. Despite the one-sided nature of these stories, they contain much useful information on frontier hardship and adventure.”
Pioneers contributing to the book were Charles Goodnight, Emanuel Dubbs, F. R. McCracken, John A. Hart, James D. Newberry, Mary A. Nunley, Tilatha Wilson English, George B. Ely, S. P. Elkins, John A. Lafferty, Mary A. Blackburn, Ermine Redwine, and T. J. Vantine. The book contains much original information on Molly Goodnight and other pioneer women. Commenting on the odd reversal of roles when there was too much work to go around, John A. Hart observes: “Sometime I almost wished I were a girl so I could have a good time, but I had no sister large enough to work so I had to churn, wash dishes, use the battling stick on wash days, make bats for quilts, quit and hand the thread through the harness of the loom and then I was glad that I was not a girl so I could get out of such work. I never could believe that I was cut out for a boy and a girl too and such work now would hurt my feelings terribly, but there were lots of girls that did a boy’s and girl’s work too, and lots of women that did men’s work in war time” (p. 153). $450.00
2177. GOODNIGHT, Charles, et al. Pioneer Days in the Southwest from 1850 to 1879.... Guthrie, Oklahoma: State Capital Company, 1909. 320 pp., 20 plates, including color frontispiece of Adobe Walls Fight by “Tivizey” (mostly photographic portraits and scenes, a few from line drawings). 8vo, original green cloth, spine gilt lettered and decorated in black, upper cover stamped with pictorial design in black and gilt-lettered. Except for light rubbing to binding and uniform age-toning due to the cheap paper on which the book was printed, very good and tight, much better than usually found. Front pastedown with printed postal label of Frontier Times to Mr. W. E. Sherrill.
Second edition, second issue. In this issue the first letter of the title is undamaged, there is an edition statement (“Second Edition”) on title verso, the distance between the rules and the copyright statement is .02 cm, the first word of page iii is “Introduction,” page v contains two full paragraphs, the index leaf is the same as in the first issue, and the plate at p. 107 is oriented landscape. The cover stamping has the device on the spine and the bars at the extremities. On the front board, the stamp has the “h” printing just above the circle. The frontispiece is present.
In the second issue, the added paragraph at the end of the introduction is a virulent denunciation of Native Americans concentrating on their supposed atrocities when on the warpath: “They would, and did to my own personal knowledge, take the babe from its mother’s arms and beat out its brains against the door frame, and then work their pleasure on the mother and cruelly mutilate and kill her afterwards, sparing no one, young or old, male or female.” $300.00
2178. GOODNIGHT, Charles, et al. Pioneer Days in the Southwest from 1850 to 1879.... Guthrie, Oklahoma: State Capital Company, 1909. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original tan cloth, spine gilt lettered and decorated in black, upper cover stamped with pictorial design in black and gilt-lettered. Moderate shelf wear and abrading, “Second edition” erased from title verso, text uniformly age-toned. Gammel’s printed book label on upper pastedown. A very good, tight copy. $250.00
2179. GOODWIN, C[harles] C[arroll]. As I Remember Them. Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Commercial Club, 1913. 360 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo, original burgundy cloth gilt, t.e.g. Mild shelf wear, front endpaper removed, otherwise a fine copy.
First trade edition. Cowan, p. 242. Flake (supp.) 3618n. Graff 1587. Paher 710. Presented are short biographies of over seventy prominent pioneers of California. Includes John Sutter, Leland Stanford, Clarence King, Samuel Clemens, Joaquin Miller, Adolph Sutro, John Bidwell, David Broderick, and Collis Huntington. Some of the biographies relate to ranching, such as J. E. “Lucky” Baldwin and his development of the Santa Anita Ranch (pp. 86-89). Another biography of interest is George C. Gorham, a former Texas Ranger and friend of Jack Hays (pp. 107-111). $85.00
2180. GOODWIN, Joseph. A New System of Shoeing Horses: With an Account of the Various Modes Practised by Different Nationals...Second Edition. London: Longman, Hurst, etc., 1824. ix, 383 pp., 12 copper-engraved plates, including frontispiece (types of horseshoes, methods, and equipment). 8vo, full contemporary navy blue polished calf, spine gilt with raised bands and brown calf label, marbled edges and endpapers (binder’s ticket J. Martin & Son). Binding scuffed and slightly faded, plates and some leaves moderately foxed (heavier on title), overall very good. Dudley R. Dobie’s copy, with his ink note laid describing the work as “rare.”
Second English edition. The work was published by the same publishers in 1820; the Boston edition came out in 1821. $150.00
2181. GOODWYN, Frank. The Black Bull. Garden City: Doubleday, 1958. 264 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Light shelf wear, small burn to cover and d.j., otherwise very good in chipped and browned d.j. From Carl Hertzog’s library, with his bookplate.
First edition. Novel set in the ranch country of South Texas. $15.00
2182. GOODWYN, Frank. Life on the King Ranch. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, [1951]. [10] 293 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, text illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original half yellow cloth over brown pictorial buckram gilt. Fine in lightly chipped d.j.
First edition. Campbell, pp. 130, 187. Dobie, p. 104: “The author was reared on the King Ranch. He is especially refreshing on the vaqueros, their techniques and tales.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 79 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Good on the life and legends of the Mexican vaqueros who make up the working force on the ranch”; p. 102 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Herd 905. Goodwyn’s father was ranch boss of the Norias section of the King Ranch. Goodwyn grew up on the ranch and relates his experiences, as well as folklore and little-known facts about the ranch. $60.00
2183. GOODWYN, Frank. Lone-Star Land: Twentieth-Century Texas in Perspective. New York: Knopf, 1955. xii [2] 352, x [2] pp., photographic plates, maps. 8vo, original blindstamped blue cloth. Slight fading along lower edges of binding, otherwise a fine copy in lightly worn d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 6: (“Collecting Modern Western Americana”): “Vivid, balanced word picture of present-day Texas.... Chapters on ‘The Longhorns,’ ‘The Cowboy,’ and ‘New Horizons on the Range’”; p. 90 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Herd 906. $25.00
2184. GOPLEN, Arnold O. The Career of Marquis de Mores in the Bad Lands of North Dakota. [North Dakota: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1946]. 70 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates, portrait, double-page map. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers, stapled. Wrappers faded at edges, otherwise very fine.
First separate issue, reprinted from North Dakota History 13:1-2. Herd 907. The Marquis de Mores had a brief but colorful career as a cattle baron in North Dakota in the mid-1880s. $35.00
Rare Firsthand Source on Montana Vigilantes
2185. GORDON, Samuel. Recollections of Old Milestown. Miles City, Montana: [Independent Printing Co.], 1918. 42 [4] pp., sepia-tone photographic plates of people and scenes by Huffman, including frontispiece portrait of author. 8vo, original brown flexible cloth, gilt lettered on upper cover. Light shelf wear and corners bumped, hinges starting, otherwise a very fine copy of an ephemeral publication.
First edition. Guns 849: “Scarce book containing material on the vigilantes of Miles City.” Howes G255 (“aa”). Smith 3688.
Growing from a military fort established after Custer’s defeat, Milestown (modern-day Miles City) rapidly grew into an extremely important cattle and ranching center, especially after the railroad arrived. Gordon, for over three decades the local paper editor, here reviews the growth of the town based on his own personal knowledge. Interestingly, in Gordon’s descriptions it is obvious that in the town’s early days such things as ranches, corrals, supply businesses, and other such ranching related industries were literally right in the center of the present town. Particularly on pages 16 and 17 he reviews the decline of cowboy culture as the town became more settled. As an example of the early town he relates that one section of the main street “now so handsomely improved” was actually an “always dirty and foul-smelling” corral.
This work, the earliest history of Miles City, is a very rare source on the Vigilantes of Montana and the Code of the West. Gordon has an entire chapter on “The Vigilante Days,” especially the first hanging that occurred in 1883.
The documentary photographs are the work of L. A. Huffman, “the premier photographer of the northern range” (Reese, Six). “The Huffman pictures constitute one of the finest pictorial records of life on the western frontier” (Thrapp II, pp. 688-89). In his introduction, Gordon comments on the genesis of his history and its illustrations: “At the inception of the original plan there was no thought of `getting into print’ and consequently no thought of illustrations but once it was decided to put the story between covers the matter of illustration became an essential feature, and this principally because Mr. L. A. Huffman—himself one of the original committee—had in his possession an abundance of material for this work; `shots’ snapped on the spot and at the time written of, having an intrinsic merit that cannot attach to `fake’ pictures, no matter how skillfully posed. Thus the story told in the text is illustrated by pictures practically `taken on the spot.’ And so, this book and its pictures, is in a way the accomplishment of the task undertaken by the committee of long ago, and while it appeals almost entirely to the sentimental side of the old-timers, it is hoped that it will prove to be of interest to those who will in time become `old-timers’ and who will feel the same pride in ‘Old Milestown’ that its founders now have.” $3,500.00
2186. GOTTFREDSON, Peterson. Indian Depredations in Utah. [Salt Lake City: Skelton, 1919]. 352 pp., plates (mostly photographic, first plate bound opposite title). 8vo, original blue decorated in white and red. Fair copy, upper board and first half is lightly water-stained on right side.
First edition, some copies issued with a 17 pp. supplement (Ute vocabulary), which was never present in this copy. Anderson 1686:496: “Privately issued in a small edition. A mine of material on the Indian Campaigns and Massacres, much of which is nowhere else to be found. The author draws his materials from a lifetime experience in the Utah Country, from pioneer diaries and other original sources, the bringing together of which occupied him for upwards of 20 years.” Flake 3649. Graff 1599. Includes numerous chapters on Ute raids on cattle and other stock. $100.00
2187. GOUGH, L[ysius]. Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs: Rhymes and Miscellany of Cow Camp and Cattle Trails in the Early Eighties. Amarillo: Russell Stationery Company, 1935. [2] 110 pp., plates (including full-page illustrations by Ben Carlton Mead from his Prairie Series; some photographic). Narrow 8vo, original gilt-lettered tan cloth. Except for light cover spotting, very fine.
Revised edition, from the author’s first book, Western Travels and Other Rhymes (1886; Vandale 74). This edition also came out in wrappers, but the cloth is more scarce. The author was born in Lamar County, Texas, in 1862, and was a working cowboy all his life. $50.00
2188. GOULD, Lewis L. Wyoming: A Political History, 1868-1896. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1968. xiii [1] 298 pp., frontispiece portrait, endpaper maps. 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in lightly rubbed but fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. Yale Western Americana Series 20. The author contrasts the influence of politicians with that of the railroad and cattle industries in determining Wyoming’s fortunes. $30.00
2189. GRACY, David B. Littlefield Lands: Colonization on the Texas Plains, 1912-1920. Austin & London: University of Texas Press, [1968]. x [4] 161 pp., photographic plates, maps, tables. 8vo, original dark green cloth. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. No. 8 in the M. K. Brown Range Life Series. This is a study of the recolonization of the Texas plains, as the large land holdings of the stockmen were broken up to make way for farmers and towns. $35.00
2190. GRAND, W. Jo[e]s[ph]. Illustrated History of the Union Stockyards: Sketch-Book of Familiar Faces and Places at the Yards. Chicago: Published by author, [1901]. [1, ad] 362 [7, ads] pp., illustrations (many photographic, two by Charles Russell). 8vo, original blue cloth with gilt-lettering on upper board and lettered in black on spine. Moderate shelf wear, some loss to gilt-letter, text block slightly split at pp. 64-65, overall fine.
Second edition, revised and enlarged (first edition, Chicago, 1896). Herd 915n. Reese, Six Score 48n: “An early account of the yards, describing the practices and characters of the locale. An interesting look at the stockyards in this period.” Yost & Renner, Russell I:4. Includes a chapter on Gallagher, the Stockyard detective. $125.00
2191. GRANT, Bruce. The Cowboy Encyclopedia: The Old and the New West from the Open Range to the Dude Ranch. New York, Chicago & San Francisco: Rand McNally & Company, [1951]. 160 [2] pp., color frontispiece and plates, text illustrations, maps. Large 8vo, original grey pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:155. Guns 856. Herd 916. $30.00
2192. GRANT, Bruce. How to Make Cowboy Horse Gear. Cambridge, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press, [1953]. xii [2] 108 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (some photographic and full-page). 8vo, original green cloth. Slight browning to endpapers, overall very fine in lightly foxed d.j. with small hole at upper spine.
First edition. Pictures and instructions for the crafting of authentic cowboy gear from contemporary rawhide. From the preface: “In this book are to be found the necessary braids for making all types of cowboy gear - rawhide lariats, headstalls, hackamores, bosals, reins, romals, quirts, hobbles, etc., as well as the general types of utility articles such as dog leashes, collars, belts, hatbands, wrist-watch straps, etc. $30.00
2193. GRANT, Bruce. How to Make Cowboy Horse Gear. Cambridge, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press, [1953]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original beige pictorial wrappers. Wrappers worn at spine and foxed, otherwise fine. $25.00
2194. GRANT, Bruce. Leather Braiding. Cambridge, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press, [1950]. xviii, 173 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations (mostly photographic, some full-page). 8vo, original red cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Upper edge of text block mildly foxed, endpapers lightly browned, otherwise fine in very good d.j.
First edition. This definitive guide explores all forms of leather braiding in detail. The author dedicates the book “To my mother who was thoughtful enough to see that I was born in Texas.” $15.00
2195. Graphic Account of an Indian Raid at Sabinal, Texas October 28, 1859 and the Pursuit of the Indians by Citizens and Soldiers. N.p., n.d. [Sabinal: Sabinal Sentinel, ca. 1930]. [20] pp. 16mo, original white printed wrappers, stapled. Old rust stain from paperclip on upper wrapper, last page very browned, otherwise fine, with J. Frank Dobie’s signed ink note on upper wrapper: “See publisher’s notice last page. Probably printed around 1930. Reprinted in Frontier Times, April, 1932, with an additional account by Captain W. R. Russell. J. Frank Dobie.”
First book edition (originally appeared in several issues of the Sabinal Sentinel). Not in Howes, Rader, Tate, etc. This rare little pamphlet contains an account of a bloody massacre in 1859 prompting an historic punitive expedition covering over 200 miles in the Sabinal-Uvalde country of Texas, one of the longest running fights with Native Americans on record. The work is unattributed, but the last leaf states that the copy was provided to the Sabinal Sentinel by J. W. Davenport, son of John Davenport, a victim of the massacre.
Pioneer rancher Davenport settled in Sabinal Canyon on the heels of Capt. William Ware’s 1852 penetration of Comanche lands. Also killed in the massacre was rancher John Bowles, who prospected for gold in California and moved to the Uvalde area where he assisted in the organization of that county and later relocated to the Sabinal area. Bowles was ambushed while moving stock to a new pasture. He was shot with three arrows, lanced, and scalped. His son Doke (or Doak) Bowles retrieved from a warrior his father’s scalp, saddle-rope, bridles, and the scalps of four children.
A large party of settlers and U.S. soldiers under Lieutenant Hazen of Fort Inge pursued the tribesmen in a wild melee described thus: “Never was there such a running fight on the frontier. It was twenty miles back to where the fight commenced. The men were scattered all the way and there were dead Indians and wounded white men. Some of the soldier stopped with Lieutenant Hazen. The heavy cavalry horses of those who came on soon failed and none but the toughest of the cow ponies of the Texas prairies endured to the end.” Hazen was wounded during the campaign, but he stayed in command of his men until the tribesmen had been defeated and went on to serve as a general in the Union Army. $950.00
2196. GRAVES, J. A. My Seventy Years in California, 1857-1927. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, 1927. xvii [1] 478 pp., frontispiece portrait, 17 photographic plates. 8vo, original gilt-lettered blue cloth. Moderate shelf wear, front flyleaf missing, text lightly water-stained at blank margins, old tape repair to torn, stained d.j. that has adhered to binding.
First edition. Cowan, p. 247. Howell 50, California 498: “The author came to California in 1857 by ship, and after eighteen years in Marysville and San Francisco moved to Los Angeles, where he lived until the publication of this book. He describes turn-of-the-century life in Los Angeles, commenting on hunting clubs, the legal profession, the Chinese, the political bosses, and the Oil Boom.” Rocq 3857.
Graves was president of the Farmers & Merchants National Bank for many years. Along with Harris Newmark’s Sixty Years in California, Graves’ memoir is one of the two most important works on Southern California on the period. Chapters relating to ranching include “Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in Los Angeles, San Fernando Ranch Litigation...”, “Stockgrowers’ Customs,” and chapters on horses. $40.00
2197. GRAVES, J. A. My Seventy Years in California, 1857-1927. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, 1927. Another copy. Light shelf wear, mild foxing to endpapers and preliminary pages, otherwise a fine copy, d.j. not present. $30.00
2198. GRAVES, J. A. My Seventy Years in California, 1857-1927. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Press, 1929. xvii [1] 478 pp., frontispiece portrait, 17 photographic plates. 8vo, original blue cloth gilt. Mild shelf wear and spotting to cloth, otherwise a fine copy.
Third printing. $15.00
2199. GRAVES, John. Blue & Some Other Dogs. Austin: Encino Press, [1981]. [4] 29 [2] pp., toned photographic illustrations. 4to, original navy blue cloth over slate blue boards, printed paper label on upper cover, spine lettered in silver. Fine. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition (appeared in Texas Monthly in a different form). Whaley, Wittliff 159: “Tells of a love affair between the author and his crossbred sheep dog, whose special personality, loyalty, and courage made him an unforgettable companion.” Graves writes of dogs and their use in herding sheep, cattle, and goats and his own beloved Blue’s sometimes amusing work in Graves’ “rather miniature and unstrenuous livestock operations,” such as “when a chuted cow turned fighty and [Blue] loaded him into the trailer instead of her.” $40.00
2200. GRAVES, John. From a Limestone Ledge: Some Essays and Other Ruminations about Country Life in Texas. New York: Knopf, 1980. xv [1] 228 [3] pp., frontispiece, full-page text illustrations by Glenn Wolff. 8vo, original white cloth over white boards, title blind-embossed within panel on upper cover, spine gilt lettered. Very fine in mildly chipped d.j. Neat association copy. Laid in is a Christmas card with author’s signed inscription, as well as a copy of a review of the book by Carl Hertzog. Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition (most of the material appeared previously in articles in Texas Monthly). This book is a sequel of sorts to Graves’ Hard Scrabble. Like that earlier work, it is a treatise on the pleasures and hardships of doing things for oneself and a nostalgic meditation on country ways. Graves considers every creature and aspect of country life that has lured, or demanded, his attention during two decades of living on and working a battered and recalcitrant ranch in the cedar-covered limestone hills of north-central Texas. $85.00
2201. GRAVES, John. Goodbye to a River. New York: Knopf, 1964. [10] 306 [2] pp., text illustrations by Russell Waterhouse, map. 8vo, original greyish green pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. CBC 2477n, and three others. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 86n: “Contains the essential humor, the rawness and earthy wisdom of an old, rural Texas society without sacrificing intelligence and historical accuracy. There have been only a handful of books that achieved this plateau.... I rank it the finest piece of Texas writing ever done.” Lowman, Printer at the Pass 121n: “The production requirements of the giant presses were such that this book had to be printed in exactly 320 pages. Hertzog spent days reworking these pages in order that the final brief chapter—the finale—would end the story precisely at page 301.” Tate, Indians of Texas 3737: “Moving account of the Brazos River and the events which have transpired in its vicinity. Graves writes not as an historian, but as an environmentally and culturally conscious observer who laments the passing of an earlier era.” $125.00
2202. GRAVES, John. Goodbye to a River. New York: [Designed by Carl Hertzog for] Knopf, 1964. [10] 306 [2] pp., text illustrations by Russell Waterhouse, map. 8vo, original light green pictorial cloth. Very fine in lightly worn d.j. with a few small tears. Association copy. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
Fifth printing. $35.00
2203. GRAVES, John. Goodbye to a River. Austin: [W. Thomas Taylor for the Book Club of Texas], 1988. 237 pp., photographs (prints made by William Wittliff from the originals taken by Graves during his trip down the Brazos River). 4to, original half brown cloth over boards. Mint.
Limited edition (550 copies), new introduction by John Graves. A. C. Green & His Library: “Although this is not the first edition of Goodbye to a River it is the most beautiful. It contains several photos of John on the river which were taken by his wife Jane. Bill Wittliff and W. Thomas Taylor, both of whom have had so much to do with beautiful Texas books, added their skills.” $350.00
2204. GRAVES, John. Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land. New York: Knopf, 1974. [1] xi [1] 267 [5] pp., map. 8vo, original orange cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Publisher’s card laid in with “at the suggestion of the author” written in ink. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Hard Scrabble” was the name this excellent author gave to his 400-acre ranch in the Central Texas Hill Country. In this, his second book, he ruminates on the pleasures and challenges of living in close association with the land.
A. C. Green & His Library: “I have said many times, in private and in print, that I think John Graves is the finest writer to come out of Texas since WWII—or, who knows, maybe long before that. I first met John when he was giving a talk to the West Texas Historical Association in Abilene. I was sent out to cover the meeting—not because John was speaking, he was relatively unknown, but because it was happening in our town. John told about his trip down the Brazos that eventually became his famous Goodbye to a River. Not long after that, his classic story, `The Last Running’ appeared in Atlantic Monthly and was the subject of the first pictorial cover that magazine ever used. Some people have criticized John for not writing more. But I say that quality is reason enough for his smallish output. I have never read a sentence by John Graves that did not measure up to the best he’d done. (Am I saying I am satisfied with his output? No. But that is merely to wish he’d done more for me to enjoy).” $75.00
2205. GRAVES, John. The Last Running. Austin: Encino Press, 1974. [4] 47 [1] pp., text illustrations by John Groth (some full-page). Oblong 4to, original black cloth over burnt orange boards, illustrated paper label on upper cover, gilt lettering on spine. Very fine in acetate wrapper. Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate.
First edition. Appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1959. A. C. Greene, Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 86: “Incidentally, if The Last Running were a bit longer than a story, I would list it among the best books, it’s worthy.” A. C. Greene & His Library: “When this story appeared in The Atlantic Monthly back in the 1950s, I knew immediately that Texas had added another name to its literary honor roll.” Whaley, Wittliff 116. Tale of a group of eight Comanche who traveled from Oklahoma to Texas to demand they be given rancher Tom Bird’s largest buffalo, who had been given to Bird by Charles Goodnight. $40.00
2206. GRAVES, John & Jim Bones. Texas Heartland: A Hill Country Year. College Station: [Design by William Wittliff for] Texas A&M University Press, [1975]. 40 [64] pp., color frontispiece and 82 color photographic plates by Jim Bones. Folio, original brown cloth. Fine copy in d.j. (lightly chipped and rubbed). Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate.
First edition. Whaley, Wittliff 134: “Jim Bones provides an exceptional photographic record of a year in the Texas Hill Country. Most of the pictures were taken while Bones was a resident at Paisano, a 254-acre ranch that belonged to J. Frank Dobie. John Graves’ essay on the region tells the history of the land and those who lived on it.” A most harmonious collaboration between writer, photographer, and designer. $40.00
2207. GRAVES, Richard S. Oklahoma Outlaws: A Graphic History of the Early Days in Oklahoma; the Bandits Who Terrorized the First Settlers and the Marshals Who Fought Them to Extinction; Covering a Period of Twenty-Five Years. [Oklahoma City: State Printing & Publishing Company, 1915]. [4] 131 [1] pp., photographic illustrations. 12mo, original red pictorial wrappers with photographic back wrap, stapled. Tiny nick at tail of spine, otherwise very fine.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:156. Anderson 1642:524: “The four Daltons; Bill Bowers; Dick Broadwell; Bill Doolin; Tulsa Jack, and many others.” Campbell, pp. 68-69. Graff 1620: “Prepared as publicity for the motion picture The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws.” Guns 859: “Scarce.... Touches upon most of the better-known Oklahoma outlaws and marshals.” Howes G322. Rader 1650. Streeter Sale 4293 (one of the few lots to pass!).
This lurid little pulp contains material on the Miller Ranch and several notorious distaff outlaws (including Rose of the Cimarron, Cattle Annie, Little Breeches, et al.). Some of the brigands are cowboys gone bad. Many of the illustrations are grisly postmortem shots of outlaws. The 1915 silent movie featured many of the surviving lawmen playing themselves, such as E. D. Nix, Bud Ledbetter, and William Tilghman. $500.00
2208. GRAVES, W. W. Life and Letters of Rev. Father John Schoenmakers S. J., Apostle to the Osages. Parsons, Kansas: Commercial Publishers, [1928]. 144 [4, index] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 12mo, original green cloth. Binding stained and abraded, interior fine.
First edition. Guns 861: “Scarce.... Has some mention of Wild Bill Hickok.” Presented are pioneer Jesuit missionary Schoenmakers’ recollections of his work among the Osage in Kansas in 1847-1876, including sections on “Horse Thieves Troublesome” (rustling by Kickapoo and other tribes in 1862) and “Cattle Thieves Flourished”): “The territory around the mission and southward, being the border line between the contending forces in the [Civil] war, was often in the hands of one party, then the other, and sometimes it was open territory with renegades and thieves as its chief occupants. The cattle belonging to the Indians in the armies were turned loose on the range along with other cattle that belonged to the tribe collectively. The renegades would steal cattle without regard to ownership, and often managed to place the blame on an enemy of the real owners.”
Father Schoenmakers’ account is a relatively obscure source for Civil War history. Father Schoenmakers was intensely loyal to the Union and tried to persuade the Osages for the North, or at least to have them be neutral. Many of the Osage warriors who lived near the mission enlisted in the Union army. During the Civil War raids, the Indian missions existing between Osage Mission and Texas were destroyed, except Father Schoenmakers’ village was spared. By the treaty which the Osages made with the government in 1865 they gave up a large portion of their lands in Kansas and agreed to move to a new reservation in the Indian territory, where, according to Gaves, the tribe became “the richest nation or tribe in the world.” $250.00
2209. GRAVES, W. W. Life and Letters of Rev. Father John Schoenmakers S. J., Apostle to the Osages. Parsons, Kansas: Commercial Publishers, [1928]. Another copy, rebound in dark green cloth. Fine condition. $250.00
2210. GRAY, Frank S. Pioneer Adventures. [Cherokee, Texas: Privately published, 1948]. 384 pp., photographic illustrations. 8vo, original maroon cloth lettered in black. Upper edge of text block and endpapers lightly browned, otherwise very fine in very good d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. CBC lists two titles by this author, but not the present work, the focus of which is local history of southern San Saba County, Texas. Dobie, p. 104: “Integrates home life on frontier ranches with range work.” Herd 919: “Much on the Chisholm Trail.” Gray, who followed in the steps of his father and uncle who were early ranchers in the area, gives a faithful account with many cattle drives recalled, as well as much history of Central Texas. Chapters include “The Trail Drivers Appear,” “John Chisum and Jesse Chisholm,” “Trail Herd across the Staked Plains to Fort Sumner, New Mexico,” “Horse Hunt at the Haunted Ranch,” “Trouble between Cowmen and Sheepmen in San Saba County,” “A Cow Outfit from Cherokee Making a Drive on Wallace Creek,” “Ranching in the Panhandle,” etc. $250.00
2211. GRAY, Frank S. Pioneering in Southwest Texas: True Stories of Early Day Experiences in Edwards and Adjoining Counties. [Austin: Steck, 1949]. vii [1] 247 pp., photographic illustrations, endpaper map. 8vo, original brown cloth. Fine in slightly foxed d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Edited by J. Marvin Hunter. CBC 1488. Dobie, p. 104: “The author has the perspective of a civilized gentleman and integrates home life on frontier ranches with ranch work.” Guns 863. Herd 920. True stories of early day experiences in Edwards and adjoining counties, with chapters on “The First Fence in Edwards County,” “The First Angora Goats in Edwards County,” “Fencing a Pasture in Edwards County,” “A Big Trail Herd,” and “Trailing a Herd to New Mexico.” $125.00
2212. GRAY, W. B. D. The Cowboy’s Prayer, Used by Rev. W. B. Gray, Superintendent of Congregational Missions in Wyoming, in His Illustrated Missionary Address “Cowboy Life on the Range”. N.p., n.d. (early 1900s). [4] pp., first page with photograph of cowboy on horseback. 16mo, leaflet. Fine.
First edition. According to Waltz & Engle’s Ballad Index, this rhymed verse was written by Charles Badger Clark, and the earliest recorded date is 1920. They note there is no evidence that this song has ever circulated in tradition. $30.00
2213. GRAY, W. B. D. The Hold-Up in Jericho Canyon, by Rev. Superintendent Congregational Missions in Wyoming, and Used in His Illustrated Missionary Address “Cowboy Life on the Range.” N.p., n.d. [4] pp. 16mo, leaflet. Fine.
First edition. A version of the Biblical Good Samaritan story set in the West with a cowboy as the hero. $30.00
2214. GRAY, W. B. D. How Bill and the Preacher Got in Their Work: A Frontier Mission Study.... [wrapper title]. N.p., n.d. [early 1900s]. [11] pp., full-page photographic text illustrations. 12mo, original brown printed wrappers, stapled. Slightly darkened along front edges of wrapper, otherwise a fine copy.
First edition. This little pamphlet is another in Gray’s ephemeral series relating to incidents in early mission work in Wyoming, in this case the story of the founding of the Congregational Church in Black Canyon City. One of the photos shows Babcock Ranch. $125.00
2215. GRAY, W. H. A History of Oregon, 1792-1849, Drawn from Personal Observation and Authentic Information.... Published by the Author for Subscribers. Portland: Harris & Holman; San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Co.; New York: American News Company, 1870. 624 pp., wood-engraved frontispiece of Astoria in 1811. 8vo, contemporary three-quarter dark green sheep over marbled boards, spine gilt with raised bands, marbled endpapers, t.e.g.. Binding lightly rubbed (especially at corners), overall a fine copy, with yellow errata slip after page 624.
First edition, first issue, with one errata slip. Bradford 1965. Braislin 487. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 194. Graff 1630. Howell 32, Oregon 119. Howes G342: “Undependable and biased, but, as the product of a pioneer of 1838, cannot be ignored.”
Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 29: “Gray was the ‘secular agent’ for the Oregon-bound party of Presbyterian missionaries comprised of Marcus Whitman and H. H. Spalding, with their wives Narcissa and Eliza, who were the ‘first white women to cross the continent.’.... At the annual trappers’ rendezvous on Green River the missionaries were alarmed, but not harmed by the noisy antics of Indians and trappers.... With nobility, white and dark ruffians, red savages, preachers, and refined white women, this 1836 expedition was surely one of the strangest juxtapositions in American history.” Norris 2940. Sabin 28416. Smith 3756. Tweney, Washington 89 #24.
Gray includes a chapter on the 1837 cattle drive from California to Oregon, Hudson’s Bay cattle monopoly, and Jesse Applegate and other early ranchers. $250.00
2216. GRAY, W. H. A History of Oregon.... Portland, Oregon: Harris & Holman, etc. 1870. 624 pp., wood-engraved frontispiece of Astoria in 1811. 8vo, original black textured cloth. Tips rubbed and spine ends lightly chipped, cover lightly discolored, lower hinge a bit weak, otherwise a fine copy, contemporary ink ownership inscription of D. R. Campbell of Astoria, Oregon. Errata slip at page 624 removed.
First edition, issue undetermined, errors uncorrected. Howes states the black cloth copies were second issue. $200.00
2217. [GRAZING RIGHTS]. How Not to Be Cowed. Livestock Grazing on the Public Lands: An Owner’s Manual. [Salt Lake City: Natural Resources Defense Council & Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, 1991]. [6] 70 pp. 8vo, original brown pictorial wrappers. Light wear, but generally fine.
First edition. The first of a series of four manuals intended to inform environmentalists and other users on the process by which the Bureau of Land Management makes decisions on the use of public lands and how to influence those decisions. This pamphlet covers the subject of the impact posed by cattle grazing on public lands. $15.00
2218. GREATOREX, Eliza. Summer Etchings in Colorado. New York: G. P. Putnam, [1873]. [2] 4 [3] 6-96 pp., 21 plates of Colorado scenery after author’s etchings (including frontispiece), tissue guards. 4to, original brown pebble cloth, upper cover with title in black and gilt pictorial illustrations, bevelled edges, a.e.g. Binding slightly rubbed and worn, front hinge starting, otherwise fine. Contemporary ink gift inscription to Mrs. J. Milton Turner, October 5, 1875.
First edition. Henkle 1156. Wilcox, p. 51. Wynar 2039. The author describes her excursion from Omaha to Colorado, where she spent the summer interviewing pioneers and etching. She was one of the first artists to paint in Colorado Springs. The last few chapters include information on ranching in Colorado and the author’s visits to Thornton’s Ranch, Bergun Park, and Col. Kittredge’s Ranch. Greatorex interviewed Holt, whose ranch in Gunnison County was one of the largest ranches in the territory. Essayist and poet Grace Greenwood (pseudonym of Sara Jane Lippincott) wrote the introduction.
Greatorex (1819-1897), an Irish native who moved to New York in 1840, turned to supporting herself by teaching art and selling her own art work, at which she was highly successful. Although she traveled widely in the United States and Europe, this is apparently the product of her only trip to the United States. See Notable American Women. $150.00
2219. GREATOREX, Eliza. Summer Etchings in Colorado. New York: G. P. Putnam, [1873]. Another copy, variant binding. 4to, original green pebble cloth, upper cover with title in black and gilt pictorial illustrations, bevelled edges, a.e.g. Cover lightly worn and stained, text lightly water-stained at lower blank margins, overall a good copy. Contemporary ownership signature of William Bremen dated at Greely, Colorado, in 1907. $75.00
Ben K. Green
“Ben King (Doc) Green (1912-1974), writer, rancher, and veterinarian, son of David Hugh and Bird (King) Green, was born on March 5, 1912, in Cumby, Hopkins County, Texas. He moved with his family to Weatherford and attended high school there. He ran for a seat in the Texas legislature when he was about twenty-three years old, led the ticket in the primary, but lost in the runoff. As a boy Green fell in love with horses, and the love affair never ended. He bred horses and lived the life of a cowboy for most of his life, although he traveled widely outside Texas and the United States. At one time or another he both claimed and denied that he attended Texas A&M, Cornell University, and the Royal College of Veterinary Medicine in England, but most of his expert knowledge about animals came from experience. He began writing rather late in life, and it was a memorable moment when he met Alfred A. Knopf, the New York publisher, and told the international sophisticate more than he wanted to know about horses and cows and people. The result was that Knopf published Horse Tradin’ (1967), Wild Cow Tales (1969), The Village Horse Doctor (1971), and Some More Horse Tradin’ (1972), each a strong seller. The books were immediately hailed by critics, and Horse Tradin’ has been cited as a classic of Western Americana. In 1973 Green received the Writers Award for contributions to Western literature from the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He also received a career award from the Texas Institute of Letters for his unique contribution to Texas literature.
“Green wrote all of his books the way he operated best. He talked them, telling stories to a tape recorder and to his secretary. He wrote from his own experiences as a rancher, horse and steer trader, wild horse hunter, and horse doctor. He owned the only registered herd of Devon cattle in Texas and supported it on his farm in Cumby, where he also raised Percheron and quarter horses. He was in high demand on the lecture circuit.
“He published eleven books between 1967 and 1974. His last, The Color of Horses (1974), was the product of his arduous research through the years on the hide and hair of horses to determine what made color. Although the book is controversial in content, Green considered it his most worthwhile contribution, and he saw it come off the presses shortly before he died of heart failure while sitting in his car on a roadside in northwest Kansas on October 5, 1974. Green was buried in a 100-square-foot knoll in the cemetery at Cumby. He thus made good his oft-repeated saying, “`I never let myself be crowded in life, and by God, ain’t nobody gonna close in on me when I’m dead!’”—Joe B. Frantz (Handbook of Texas Online: Ben King Green)
2220. GREEN, Ben K. Ben Green Tales. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1974. [10] 57 + [6] 79 + [6] 59 + [6] 51 pp., text illustrations by Joe Beeler, James Boren, John Hampton, and William Moyers. 4 vols., narrow 8vo, original green, yellow, blue, and orange cloth, gilt-lettered spines and upper covers. Publisher’s black cloth slipcase with printed label. Mint, signed by Green, Moyers, Hampton, and Boren.
First edition, limited edition (#598 of 1,250 sets signed by author). Four tales by the great storyteller Ben Green. 1. When I Was Just a Colt: Illustrated by William Moyers. 2. Up Fool’s Hill Ahorseback: Illustrated by John Hampton. 3. Beauty: Illustrated by Joe Beeler. 4. How Come I Wrote a Book: Illustrated by James Boren. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Beeler 47). Wilson 22.
Rancher, writer, and erstwhile veterinarian Green in this series of stories touches on several interesting incidents in his own life, including his experiences with a schoolmate named Trouble and with his favorite horse named Beauty, which often came to his rescue in various cowboy adventures. Volume 4, however, is of more intellectual interest, in the history of Texas letters because it covers Green’s famous on-air run-in with Barbara Walters over his reference to Blacks. $500.00
2221. GREEN, Ben. Ben Green Tales. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1974. Another set (#96 of 1,250 sets), not signed by Moyers, Hampton, and Boren. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase. $250.00
2222. GREEN, Ben K. The Color of Horses: The Scientific and Authoritative Identification of the Color of the Horse. [Flagstaff]: Northland Press, [1974]. vi [2] 127 pp., color illustrations by Darol Dickinson. 4to, original green cloth gilt lettered on spine and Green’s gilt logo in gilt on upper right corner of upper cover. Fine copy in d.j. with two tears (no losses) and light chipping to spine extremities. Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate.
First trade edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 64 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #175): “A serious study handsomely illustrated with thirty-four full-color plates by Darol Dickinson.” Wilson 24. The first definitive work on the identification and formation of horse color. $300.00
2223. GREEN, Ben K. Horse Conformation as to Soundness-Performance-Ability, and Hoss Trades of Yesteryear [cover title]. Cumby: Published by author, 1963. [2] 141 pp., text illustrations (photographs and sketches). (No title page, as issued.) 8vo, original black cloth. Very fine in d.j. Carl Hertzog’s bookplate. Ink note on front flyleaf.
First edition of author’s first book. Wilson 3: “Green stored the unsold copies of his jewel in the chicken house of his ‘batchin’ shack’ in Cumby, where, like the unsold copies of The Tally Book, they lay watersoaked and moulding for several years. Thus, copies in good to fine condition, with dust jackets, are very scarce.” This book includes a collected edition of Green’s articles on the structure and function of the horse. The articles were published serially in The Tally Book from 1960-62. Also included is Hoss Trades.
A. C. Greene & His Library: “Some indication of what Ben thought about his bibliographical future can be noted on the spine of this little volume—which Ben presented to me with great assurances of its present and future value. Even in 1963, before Horse Tradin’ had made him famous, he had printed on the spine: `First edition.’” $600.00
2224. GREEN, Ben K. Horse Conformation. [Greenville: Published by the author], 1969. 72 pp., numerous illustrations. 8vo, original white wrappers printed in black and blue, reproduction of Tom Lea illustration on upper wrap and photograph of Green on back wrap. Very fine. Signed by author and with his manuscript corrections to illustration captions on p. 5.
First edition, wrappers issue. Wilson 9A. The articles were published serially in The Tally Book from 1960-62. This edition does not include Hoss Trades. $175.00
2225. GREEN, Ben K. Horse Conformation. [Greenville: Published by the author], 1969 [i.e., 1972]. 74 pp., illustrations. 8vo, original grey wrappers printed in black and blue, reproduction of Tom Lea illustration on upper wrap and photograph of Green on back wrap. Very fine. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
Third printing, with a few corrections and an added leaf end. Wilson 9B. $40.00
2226. GREEN, Ben K. Horse Tradin’. New York: Knopf, 1967. xiv, 304 [2] pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund. 8vo, original cream pictorial cloth over blindstamped black cloth. Binding moderately foxed along spine, otherwise fine in very fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 53). Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 85. Wilson 7. Authentic stories of the range and the chicanery of western horse trading.
A. C. Greene & His Library: “This was Ben Green’s great first national publication. Neither Ben nor the publisher ever looked back after this. And the stories are superb. Frank Dobie, whom Ben despised, and I’m told, vice versa (possibly both attitudes tainted a bit with jealousy)—a not unusual Texas-writer reaction to Dobie—never could quite capture the realism Ben Green seemed inherently to possess. Dobie, if, indeed, this was his feeling for Ben, was not alone.”
“There was a deviousness about Ben that shone through. One West Texas rancher told me, `It was his beady eyes.’ Another ranch story involved Ben and a young rancher who bought a stud horse together but Ben took over completely and the young rancher found out little if anything about their mutual investment. One day Ben was driving along and saw the young rancher pulling a horse trailer with ‘their’ stud aboard. Ben turned around his pickup and stopped his partner, asking where he was going with `our’ horse. The young man said, `Well, he’s pretty worthless to me, so I going to shoot my half and sell it for dog food.’” $75.00
2227. GREEN, Ben K. Horse Tradin’. New York: Knopf, 1968. xiv, 304 [2] pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund. 8vo, original cream pictorial cloth over blindstamped black cloth. Endpapers lightly foxed, otherwise very fine in very fine d.j. Signed by author on front free endpaper.
Fourth printing. $35.00
2228. GREEN, Ben K. The Last Trail Drive through Downtown Dallas. Flagstaff: Northland Press, [1971]. [6] 73 [1] pp., text illustrations by Joe Beeler. Oblong 4to, original half red linen over brown buckram. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #50. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Beeler 41); Western High Spots, p. 64 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #174): “Delightful tale.” Reese, Six Score 49: “The story of the author’s early venture as a horse trader, driving a herd of horses from West Texas to Bossier City, La., selling along the way.” Wilson 16A. $100.00
2229. GREEN, Ben K. The Shield Mares. Austin: Encino Press, 1967. vii [1] 47 [1] pp., brands. 8vo, original ecru decorative boards with shield on upper cover and Green’s logo on lower cover. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase.
Limited edition (#373 of 750 copies, signed by author). A. C. Greene & His Library: “Shield Mares—I’ve always considered this Ben Green’s best story. Bill Wittliff in 1967 asked me if I would write the introduction to this. He did it as a small book. I was more than happy to write the introduction, even though I had only met Ben Green recently. I had met Bill and Sally Wittliff only once. I sat beside the Clear Fork River near the old town of Eliasville while my children played while the water rushed over the dam. I sat in the car and read my notes for the introduction. This was the beginning of long association with Bill Wittliff and the Encino Press.” Whaley, Wittliff 22. Wilson 8. $400.00
2230. GREEN, Ben K. Some More Horse Tradin’. New York: Knopf, 1972. [6] 255 [4] pp., frontispiece and text illustrations by Joe Beeler. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth gilt. One corner bumped, otherwise very fine in very lightly worn but fine d.j.
First edition, first issue (green cloth and misprint on 11th line from bottom p. 11 “wouln’t” instead of “wouldn’t”), first issue d.j. (dated 9/72 on back flap). Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Beeler 46). Wilson 18: “I confess that should I be forced, under duress of gunpoint or hurricane, to choose only one of Green’s books to be marooned with on a deserted island, I should select Some More Horse Tradin’. Besides containing a reprinting of The Shield Mares, which many critics and readers consider his masterpiece, [it contains several] close runner-ups.” $50.00
2231. GREEN, Ben K. A Thousand Miles of Mustangin’. Flagstaff: Northland Press, [1972]. [6] 145 [1] pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Joe Beeler. Large 8vo, original light brown pictorial cloth gilt. Very fine in very fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition, trade issue, with the reading “if I he” on page 130, line 11. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Beeler 44). Wilson 17A: “Many Green aficionados, including myself, regard Mustangin’ as his most entertaining book, and in some respects his most self-revealing. Green recounts his adventures as a solo hunter of wild mustangs in what was at that time (the 1930s) the wilderness country of the Texas Big Bend and the mountains of northern Mexico.”
A. C. Greene & His Library: “I met Ben Green when Angus Cameron, the Knopf editor who became editor for both Ben Green and A. C. Greene, called me to ask if Ben and I were kin. I never did know if we were, although I doubt it; Ben’s Green branch was in Texas much earlier than mine. The town of Greenville in North Texas was named for his people. Ben, as devious and tricky as he could be, was always straightforward with me and I think I got to know him, as far as Ben Green, the writer, was concerned, as well as anybody. I loved his brashness and respected the experiences that entitled him to be brash. Ben was a conservative man with a buck and with his work. One night he called me from Cumby, his first and last home, and said, ‘Greenie (he never tolerated the E on the end of my name), you got a contract with K-nopp (his pronunciation of the publishing company); when it says 85,000 words, does that include the Introduction?’ I said I supposed it did, if he wanted to take the trouble to do a word count. ‘Damn right, I do. I ain’t givin’ them one more word than they’ve contracted for. There’s 1,295 words in my Introduction so I’m cuttin’ out that many in the text.’” $200.00
2232. GREEN, Ben K. A Thousand Miles of Mustangin’. Flagstaff: Northland Press, [1972]. Another copy. Not signed by author. Very fine in very fine d.j. $100.00
2233. GREEN, Ben K. The Village Horse Doctor West of the Pecos. New York: Knopf, 1971. [8] 306 [2] pp., frontispiece and full-page text illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund. 8vo, original beige pictorial linen. Very fine in d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 58). Wilson 84.
A. C. Greene & His Library: “During World War II, when all the younger veterinarians were called into service, Ben was given a U.S. government certificate to practice veterinary medicine and this book is the result of those years west of the Pecos. (Incidentally, Ben once told me he hated what he called ‘small animals.’ I don’t think he hated the small animals so much as their owners. He worked only with large animals, he said.)” $150.00
2234. GREEN, Ben K. The Village Horse Doctor.... New York: Knopf, 1971. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy, d.j. not present. $25.00
2235. GREEN, Ben K. Wild Cow Tales. New York: Knopf, 1969. [6] 306 [2] pp., frontispiece and illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund. 8vo, original blindstamped brown cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. Signed by author. Typed index card laid in: “4-11-69—10:25 am Mr. D: Just in case you did not get one of the enclosed signed copies accept this one with my compliments for your personal library. ERW.”
First trade edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bjorklund 55). Reese, Six Score 50: “Dr. Green mostly wrote about horses, but could do just as well with cows, as this book proves.” Wilson 11A: “Green demonstrates an encyclopedic and very practical knowledge of cow psychology, which he puts to good use in a number of difficult situations.” $125.00
2236. [GREEN, BEN K.]. WILSON, Robert A. (comp.). Ben K. Green: A Descriptive Bibliography of Writings by and about Him. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1977. [8] xix [1] 151 [1] pp., illustrations. 8vo, original black cloth over grey cloth. Very fine in publisher’s red board slipcase. Author’s inscribed presentation inscription to Carl Hertzog and with his bookplate. Related newsclipping laid in.
First edition, limited edition (#15 of 100 signed copies). The limited edition includes a previously unpublished story by Green. $250.00
2237. [GREEN, BEN K.]. WILSON, Robert A. (comp.). Ben K. Green: A Descriptive Bibliography.... Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1977. xix [1] 158 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographs. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine in d.j. Author’s signed presentation copy to Carl Hertzog, with his inscription indicating that this copy was sent to Hertzog practically straight from the bindery. Hertzog bookplate.
First edition, trade issue. $100.00
2238. GREEN, Paul. Texas: A Musical Romance of Panhandle History. Palo Duro Canyon State Park: The Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation & The West Texas State University, 1970. [54] pp., color photographic text illustrations by Ben Carlton Mead. 4to, original multicolor illustrated wrappers by Mead. Very fine, with related program laid in.
First printing. Souvenir program of musical performed outdoors yearly at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, naturally including depictions of range and cowboy life at the time of the story. This dramatic spectacle work is the work of Pulitzer-Prize winner Paul Green. The play is now the Official Play of the State of Texas. $30.00
2239. GREEN, Rena Maverick. “Mavericks”: Authentic Account of the Term “Maverick” As Applied to Unbranded Cattle. [San Antonio: Artes Graficas, 1937]. 13 [1] pp. 12mo, original brown printed wrappers with brand, stapled. Very fine. Scarce.
First separate issue. Herd 921: “Scarce.... These articles originally appeared in the St. Louis Republic, November, 1889.” Authentic account of the origin of the word “maverick” as applied to unbranded cattle, along with a short biographical sketch of Samuel A. Maverick (see Handbook of Texas: Samuel Augustus Maverick). $100.00
2240. GREEN, Rena Maverick (ed.). Samuel Maverick, Texan, 1803-1870: A Collection of Letters, Journals, and Memoirs. San Antonio: [Privately printed], 1952. xix [1] 430 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in sunned fine d.j. Signed by editor Rena Maverick Green.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 140B (citing the Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick). Herd 922: “Through Mr. Maverick’s correspondence we learn of his brief experience as a cattleman and the true origin of ‘maverick’ as a cattle term.” Tate, Indians of Texas 2090: “Includes several descriptions of Texas Ranger activities (especially by Jack Hays) against Indian raiding parties during the 1840s.” This work incorporates the memoirs of Mary Maverick and much correspondence between Mary and Samuel, including accounts of the Tilton Ranch purchase. $75.00
2241. GREEN, Rena Maverick (ed.). Samuel Maverick, Texan, 1803-1870.... San Antonio: [Privately printed], 1952. Another copy. Very fine in near fine d.j. (spine slightly sunned). $75.00
2242. GREENBURG, D[an] W. (ed. and comp.). Greenburg’s Gazeteer 1:1 (June, 1928). Casper, Wyoming: Western Recreations Company, 1928. 64 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic), map, ads. 12mo, original orange pictorial wrappers, stapled Other than light foxing, very fine.
First edition. Typical tourist flackery with some information on ranching possibilities. $150.00
2243. GREENBURG, Dan W. Sixty Years: A Brief Review. The Cattle Industry in Wyoming. Its Organization and Present Status and Data Concerning the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.... Cheyenne: Wyoming Stock Growers Association, 1932. 73 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic, some full-page), facsimile. 8vo, original beige and brown pictorial wrappers, stapled, with illustration by Will James. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine.
First edition. Herd 923: “Scarce.... This is the first of three histories written about the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association. Others have followed every ten years.” Howes G375. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 4. For the other two histories in this series, see listings under Frink and Gress in this catalogue. $500.00
2244. GREENBURG, Dan W. Sixty Years.... Cheyenne: Wyoming Stock Growers Association, 1932. Another copy. Ink stamp of publisher noting copyright of 1933, otherwise very fine. $500.00
2245. GREENBURG, Dan W. Sixty Years.... Cheyenne: Wyoming Stock Growers Association, 1932. Another copy. Wrappers soiled and worn with some chipping, text separated from wrappers, rust stains where formerly stapled, some ink underlining in text, overall pretty rough, with J. Frank Dobie’s ink ownership inscription. $400.00
2246. GREENE, A. C. The Fifty Best Books on Texas. Dallas: Pressworks Publishing, 1981. [10] 90 [1] pp., full-page text illustrations. 8vo, original cream cloth over beige printed boards. Very fine. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition, limited edition (226 copies, this being Copy “A”—one of the 26 copies not for sale). Designed and printed by David Holman at the Wind River Press. Some of the titles relate to Ranching, and A. C. Greene’s notes are always enlightening. $300.00
2247. GREENE, A. C. The Fifty Best Books on Texas. Dallas: Pressworks, 1982. [8] 90 [1] pp., full-page text illustrations. 8vo, original dark yellow pictorial wrappers. Spine sunned.
Second edition. $20.00
2248. GREENE, A. C. A Personal Country. New York: Knopf, 1969. [12] 328 [5] pp., illustrated by Ancel Nunn. 8vo, original beige pictorial cloth. Fine in slightly worn but very good d.j. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition of author’s first book. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 89 (from afterword by Bill Porterfield): “This odyssey of West Texas is a classic.... If the list of best Texas books were reduced to but ten, [it] would still make the cut.” In this great book of recollections of growing up in West Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, the noted Texas essayist, book critic, and newspaperman, notes of his subject, “This is ranching country.” $35.00
2249. GREENE, Max. The Kanzas Region: Forest, Prairie, Desert, Mountain, Vale, and River. Incidents of Travel on the Western Plains and in the Rocky Mountains, with a History of the Santa Fe Trade. New York: Fowler & Wells, 1856. 192 [12, ads] pp., 2 maps. 12mo, original dark green embossed cloth, spine gilt lettered. Spine extremities mildly worn and chipped, cloth lightly worn and faded, front and rear free endpapers missing, overall very good, contemporary bookplate of Henry Von Wackerbarth of Chicago on front pastedown and his purple ink stamp on title.
First edition. Bradford 1989. Field 628. Flake 3712. Graff 1650. Howes G383. Plains & Rockies IV:276: “This work provides a good account of the prairie and mountain region featuring many incidents from the author’s own experiences from 1850 to 1855. It also contains a history of the Santa Fe trade and descriptions of the Santa Fe trail.” Rader 1677. Rittenhouse 253: “Has a useful table of distances from Independence to Santa Fe, compiled by Greene on a trip in 1850.” Sabin 28607.
The author in this immigrant guide touts the stock-raising potential of the region which includes the area all the way from present-day Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and including Colorado. He also remarks that the formerly extensive herds of wild horses have now generally disappeared and that the legendary white buffalo is now also unheard of. $400.00
2250. GREENLEAF, Benjamin. The California Almanac for 1849. San Marino: [Anderson & Ritchie, The Ward Ritchie Press for] Friends of the Huntington Library, 1942. 8, 32 pp., stock text illustrations. 12mo, beige boards ruled in orange. Except for minor bumping to upper corners, fine.
Facsimile of the original edition of 1849. Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 293n: “Provides a general overview of California and the gold region based on standard sources.... ” The section on the climate and soil of California (pp. 21-26) includes comments on ranching and cattle in California. $15.00
2251. GREENWAY, John (ed.). Folklore of the Great West: Selections from Eighty-Three Years of the “Journal of American Folklore.” Palo Alto: American West Publishing Co., [1969]. [10] 453 [1] pp., line drawings by Glen Rounds. Large 8vo, original blue pictorial cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Paher, Nevada 727: “Book of stories, songs, poems, myths and legends.... Excellent index.” Anthology of selections from the first eighty-three years of the Journal of American Folklore; authors include Frank Hamilton Cushing, J. Frank Dobie, George Bird Grinnell, Alfred Kroeber, John A. Lomax, and Walter Prescott Webb. There is much material on cowboys and ranching, including ballads, Black cowboys, rustlers, etc. $30.00
2252. GREENWOOD, Robert. The California Outlaw, Tiburcio Vasquez...Including the Rare Contemporary Account of George Beers. Los Gatos: Talisman Press, 1960. 296 pp., photographic portraits, endpaper maps. 8vo, original half red cloth over beige pictorial boards. Very fine copy in price-clipped d.j. (rubbed along upper joint).
First edition, including a facsimile of George A. Beers’ 1875 Vasquez; or, the Hunted Bandits of the San Joaquin.... (New York: De Witt, 1875). Adams, One-Fifty 63: “History of this outlaw...by George Beers published in 1875. At the time Beers was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and a member of the posse hunting Vasquez.” Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 99. Guns 868. Rocq 7003. The original edition of Beers is Guns 186, Howes B313, and Rocq 6998.
Vásquez (1837-1875), noted desperado and nineteenth-century romantic antihero, is eclipsed in notoriety only by Joaquín Murieta. Vásquez was born to a respected, well-to-do Monterey family, received a good education, and spoke and wrote English and Spanish proficiently. In the California Gold Rush era and thereafter, Vásquez terrorized Monterey and Los Angeles counties and the wagon roads from Los Angeles to the Cerro Gordo Mines and the San Joaquin Valley, holding up stagecoaches, rustling cattle and horses, murdering, stealing, striking terror in the hearts of men, and evoking passion in the breasts of women. Vásquez lived a life that survives as an amalgam of fact and fable, and it is difficult to separate the two. Perhaps his life reveals larger truths about the transition of California from Mexican to Anglo-American rule. Displaced Californios needed avengers like Vásquez and Murieta to act out responses to their helplessness and outrage at the loss of their lands, social status, and political power, and Anglos found in such figures dangerous but gallant symbols of a society they perceived they were “manifestly destined” to civilize. His jury took about three hours to sentence him to be hanged for murder on a scaffold furnished by Trueman & Woodrow, “an excellent piece of workmanship, constructed of clean pine lumber, skillfully put together, and cost $370.” It worked: “The drop was about eight feet; his neck was broken and he died without the quiver of a muscle.” The only word Vásquez uttered from the gallows was: “Pronto” (“Do it quickly”). $100.00
2253. GREER, Hilton Ross. Voices of the Southwest: A Book of Texan Verse. New York: Macmillan, 1923. xx [2] 207 pp. 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Binding with a few small abrasions, upper hinge split, endpapers browned, overall very good. Contemporary ink presentation inscription on front flyleaf.
First edition. Campbell, p. 221. Rader 1680. An anthology of verse by Texas poets representing different periods of Texas history, including ranching poems by William Lawrence Chittenden: “Ode to a Norther,” “The Ranchman’s Ride,” and “Neptune’s Steeds.” Among the sixty-one contributors are Reuben Potter, Mirabeau B. Lamar, James T. Lytle, Florence Duval West, Mary Hunt Affleck, Hilton R. Greer, and Margaret Belle Houston. $15.00
2254. GREER, James K[immins]. Bois d’Arc to Barbed Wire. Dallas: Dealey & Lowe, 1936. [14] 428 pp., photographic illustrations, maps. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Fore-edges lightly foxed, otherwise fine in the scarce d.j. Author’s signed inscription to Dudley R. Dobie.
First edition. Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 40. Dobie, pp. 104, 134: “Outstanding horse lore.” Guns 869. Herd 924. Howes G397. The author, a rancher and historian, created this autobiography of “Ken Cary” (1850-1890), “Meridian Cowboy, Indian Fighter, Philosopher, and Ranchman,” based on the life of a Texas ranchman who wished to remain anonymous. Set in Texas (primarily McLennan and Clay Counties) and Indian Territory, the book includes chapters on fence cutting and a drive on the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas, in 1871. $225.00
2255. GREER, James Kimmins. Colonel Jack Hays: Texas Frontier Leader and California Builder. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1952. 428 pp., color frontispiece, endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth. Edges of book block moderately foxed, otherwise a fine copy in chipped d.j.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 170n. Biography of John Coffee “Jack” Hays (1817-1883), legendary Texas Ranger, frontiersman, “Indian fighter,” trailblazer through the Southwest and California. Hays, who commanded the Rangers in the Mexican-American War, later was sheriff of San Francisco, surveyor general of California, and founder of Oakland. Chapter 28 is devoted to Hays’ Mountain Home Ranch in Alameda County, California, and his activities in developing the area from raw ranch land into an urban environment. $90.00
2256. GREER, James K[immins]. Grand Prairie. Dallas: Tardy Publishing Company, [1935]. [8] 284 pp., plates (photographic). 8vo, original purple cloth with gilt lettering on spine and upper cover. Fine copy in the rare dust wrapper (slightly chipped, one light spot and short split at spine).
First edition. Campbell, p. 187: “Dramatic and spectacular events in that Texas region from buffalo hunts to politics. An interpretation showing these only as background to character of the settlers.” CBC 4966. Guns 870: “Exceedingly scarce. Contains a great deal of information about various outlaws of Texas.” Herd 926. History of Grand Prairie and north-central Texas, 1850-1890. $200.00
2257. GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies; or, The Journal of a Santa Fé Trader, during Eight Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies, and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico. New York: Henry G. Langley, 1844. 320 + 318 [2, blank] pp., 6 engraved plates, woodcut text illustrations, 2 engraved maps, including folded cerograph map tinted in green: A Map of the Indian Territory Northern Texas and New Mexico Showing the Great Western Prairies.... [below neat line]: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1844 by Sidney E. Morse and Samuel Breese.... (31 x 37.5 cm; 12-1/8 x 14-3/4 inches). 2 vols., 12mo, original brown pictorial cloth embossed and stamped in blind, gilt pictorial vignette of Mexican vaquero on upper covers, gilt-pictorial spines. Spinal extremities chipped, especially at top, corners rubbed, bindings slightly abraded, Vol. 2 has a large water spot on lower cover. Interior with scattered light foxing and water staining, heavy browning to a few plates. Map silked, split into three pieces (no losses). Nineteenth-century bookplate of G. Cusachs and contemporary armorial bookplate of G. W. Sargent.
First edition, first issue (with only the Langley New York imprint). Dobie, p. 76. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 12 (“Western Movement—Its Literature”); p. 29 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West” #8): “The Santa Fe Trail ranks with the Chisholm Trail in its historical importance as a place in the West, and Gregg is the classic of that trail and the commerce on it.... It was written by a man who spent nine years as a Santa Fe trader and who knew the trail, the varmints and plants along it, the Indians, and his Mexican customers. He kept a diary, and his carefully recorded notes were before him as he wrote the book. It has been source material for all the other books on the Santa Fe Trail and trade.” Flake 3716. Graff 1659. Holliday 455. Howes G401. Norris 1435. Plains & Rockies IV:108:1. Raines, p. 99. Rittenhouse 255. Streeter 1502. Streeter Sale 378. Tate, Indians of Texas 2219. Wheat, Transmississippi West 482 & I, p. 186: “A cartographic landmark.”
A cornerstone book of Western Americana in content, impact, and from a cartographic perspective. “Conveying the impression of a well-populated region, the map must have whetted the interest of prospective traders on the trail to New Mexico. Finally, in a concession to geographic reality, Gregg mapped for the first time the Llano Estacado.... A blend of optimism and reality, Gregg’s map was certainly one of the best of the southern plains before the Mexican War” (John L. Allen, “Patterns of Promise” in Mapping the North American Plains [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987], p. 51 & Fig. 3.7).
Gregg includes description of ranches in Northern Mexico and New Mexico, such as the vast Zarca operation near Durango (“so immense is the amount of cattle on this estate, that...the proprietor once offered to sell the whole hacienda, stock, etc., for the consideration alone of fifty cents for each head of cattle found on the estate; but that no person has ever yet been able or willing to muster sufficient capital to take up the offer”). A chapter on “Animals of the Prairie” discusses the mustang and methods of lassoing. Gregg describes prospects for stock raising in the regions traversed. Saddles, equipage, and riding dress of New Mexicans are covered in chapter 9, and a glossary of Spanish words contains some terminology relating to ranching. $2,000.00
2258. GREGG, Josiah, et al. Early Western Travels...Commerce of the Prairies.... Edited...by Reuben Gold Thwaites.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1905. 349 [1, ad] + 356 [10, ads] pp., frontispiece, plates, maps. 2 vols., 8vo, original maroon cloth, spines gilt lettered, t.e.g. Hinges a bit loose, otherwise very good.
Scholarly reprints. Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, no. 19 & 20, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Clark & Brunet 253:XIX & XX. Cites for the Early Western Travels series: Howes T255; Dobie, p. 82; Rader 3125; Saunders 2927. In addition to Gregg’s classic Commerce of the Prairies, this two-volume set contains George W. Ogden’s Letters from the West and W. Bullock’s Sketch of a Journey through the Western States.
This scholarly reprint includes the glossary of Spanish or Hispano-Mexican words with some terminology relating to ranching and horsemanship and equipage. $150.00
2259. GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. Chicago: Lakeside Press and Donnelley & Sons, 1926. xxxii, 343 pp., frontispiece, folding map. 12mo, original navy blue cloth gilt, t.e.g. Fine.
Scholarly reprint, edited and with introduction by Milo Milton Quaife. $75.00
2260. GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies.... Dallas: Southwest Press, [1933]. ix [1] 438 pp., frontispiece, plates, map. Large 8vo, original beige cloth lettered in red. Fine copy in moderately chipped and torn d.j. (slight losses to jacket at upper spine).
Reprint, with a new foreword by Frederick Webb Hodge. $45.00
2261. GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1954]. xxxviii, 469 [1] pp., plates, text illustrations, folding map. 8vo, original grey buckram decorated in green. Very fine in fine d.j.
American Exploration and Travel Series 17; edited by Max L. Moorhead. Rittenhouse 255: “Most useful edition.” $50.00
2262. GREGORY, Annadora Foss. Pioneer Days in Crete, Nebraska. [Lincoln: State Journal Printing Company, 1937]. 243 pp., maps. 8vo, original tan cloth lettered in brown. Very fine copy.
First edition. Detailed local history of this county in eastern Nebraska, 1860-1888, with a short chapter on Nebraska Territory, appendix of local leaders, and an extensive bibliography. Page 119 to 122 include discussion of cattle feeding, which is described as “one of the cheap sources of prosperity in Saline County.” Included is discussion Crete in the 1870s, when it was an important shipping point for livestock. $300.00
2263. GRESS, Kathryn. Ninety Years Cow Country: A Factual History of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association with Historical Data Pertaining to the Cattle Industry in Wyoming. N.p.: Wyoming Stock Growers Association, 1963. 85 pp., frontispiece, photographic illustrations. 8vo, original tan pictorial wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
First edition. History of this powerful organization, with photos of past presidents and cow belles. This is one of the three histories of the Association. The others were authored by Greenburg and Frink (both listed in this catalogue). $75.00
2264. GRESSLEY, Gene M. Bankers and Cattlemen. New York: Knopf, 1966. xix [3] 320, viii [1] pp., plates. 8vo, original half tan and black cloth. Very fine in lightly worn d.j. with 2 cm tear at spine (slightly loss).
First edition. Reese, Six Score 51: “One of the few scholarly treatments of Eastern capital in the range cattle industry from 1870 to 1900. The book is founded mainly on primary sources. Mr. Gressley’s thesis is that Eastern capital was vital to the growth of the range industry. This is a highly debatable point, and in the case of Montana, at least, I do not feel the thesis works. However, Mr. Gressley writes persuasively and brings much evidence to bear to support his theory. Whether one agrees or not, it is an important work.” Smith S271. $40.00
2265. GRESSLEY, Gene M. Bankers and Cattlemen. New York: Knopf, 1966. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine, d.j. not present. Gift inscription on front free endpaper. $15.00
2266. GREW, David. Beyond Rope and Fence. New York: Boni & Liveright, [1922]. [8] vii [1] 240 pp., color frontispiece. 8vo, original brown pictorial cloth. Ex-library, with perforated stamp on title page. Worn and shaken.
First edition. Herd 929: “Scarce.... The story of a cow horse.” $15.00
2267. GREY, F[rederick] W[illiam]. Seeking Fortune in America. London: Smith Elder & Co., 1912. xiv, 307 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo, original maroon cloth. Binding shelf-slanted and with moderate wear and staining, front hinge starting, light scattered staining and foxing to text.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 112 (“Billy the Kid Was My Friend”). Guns 874. Herd 931: “Scarce.” Howes G413. The author includes his experiences on a cattle ranch in Calgary (“A Cow-puncher,” “Roping,” “Life on a Ranch,” “Bad-men,” “`Roping’ Contests,” “Broncho-busting”) , while working in Texas (“Hunting in West Texas,” “Fishing in the Nueces River,” “Ben Thompson and other Desperados,” “Lynching and Jury Trial in Texas,” “Pistol-shooting,” “Trip to Corpus Christi,” “West Texas as a Health Resort”), and during his sojourns in Mexico (“Cold-blooded Ingratitude,” “Tequila,” “Wholesale Thieving”) and California (“The Growth of Los Angeles”). $250.00
2268. GREY, Zane. Riders of the Purple Sage.... New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1912. [6] 335 [4, ads] pp., frontispiece, photographic plates. 8vo, original brown decorative cloth. Light shelf wear, text browned, overall fine in the rare d.j. Ink ownership inscription.
Reprint of the first edition (Harper, 1912). Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 34 (“High Spots of Western Fiction: 1902-1952”): “The Mormon Trek and the settlement of Utah were events of much historical importance.... In [this book] the Mormons are the villains. This is the only one of Grey’s novels that will be mentioned as a High Spot here. Zane’s horses and the gunman hero, Lassiter, a former Texas Ranger, are certainly memorable as is the climax, the rolling of the balance rock to close the narrow pass in the very teeth of the pursuing Mormons. Dr. Powell calls this ‘perhaps the finest moment in all western fiction.’” Flake 3724n: “Novel with Mormon background.” $50.00
2269. GRIFFIN, John Strother. A Doctor Comes to California: The Diary of John S. Griffin, Assistant Surgeon with Kearny’s Dragoons, 1846-1847. San Francisco: [Lawton Kennedy for] California Historical Society, 1943. [2] 97 pp., frontispiece, maps (printed on green paper). Narrow 4to, original red cloth. Corners slightly bumped, otherwise fine.
First separate printing (reprinted from the California Historical Society Quarterly 21:3-4 & 22:1). California Historical Society Special Publication 18; introduction and notes by George Walcott Ames, foreword by George D. Lyman. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 100. Farquhar, The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, 13: “General Kearny’s ‘Army of the West’ came down the Gila and crossed the Colorado in the fall of 1846. Dr. Griffin’s account is selected for present purposes in preference to the well known ‘Notes of a Military Reconnaissance’ by the then Lieutenant W. H. Emory.” Rocq 16264.
Dr. Griffin describes the difficulty of driving beef cattle and their tendency to become tender footed, Mexican and Native American rustling of the party’s cattle, poor grazing country between Santa Fe and Southern California (although he states that some of the land around the Rio Grande River is some of the finest grazing land he has ever seen). Good coverage of ranches including Warner’s Ranch, Stokes’ Ranch, San Pasqual Rancho, etc. $75.00
2270. GRIFFITHS, David. Prickly Pear As Stock Feed. Washington: GPO, 1920. 24 pp., text illustrations of cactus cultivation and processing. 8vo, original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Paper age-toned and a small tear to last few leaves, overall fine. Carl Hertzog bookplate.
United States Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin 1072 (March, 1920). What will those wily range scientists think of next in their quest to fatten cattle on every remotely edible substance known to man? $35.00
2271. GRIFFITHS, David &/or R. F. Hare. 6 works bound in one volume:
(1) Prickly Pear and Other Cacti As Food for Stock II. New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural College, New Mexico. Bulletin 60 (November 1906). Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing Company, 1906. 134 [1, errata] pp., 3 folding tables.
(2) Experiments on the Digestibility of Prickly Pear by Cattle. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bulletin 106. Washington: GPO, 1908. 38 pp., plates (photographic).
(3) The Tuna As Food for Man in U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 116. Washington: GPO, 1907. 73 pp., frontispiece (chromolithograph of cactus), photographic plates, 2 folding tables.
(4) Summary of Recent Investigations of the Value of Cacti As Stock Food. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 102, Part I. Washington: GPO, 1907. 16 pp., photographic plate.
(5) GRIFFITHS, David. The Prickly Pear and Other Cacti As Food for Stock. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 74. Washington: GPO, 1905. 48 pp., photographic plates, text illustration.
(6) GRIFFITHS, David. The Prickly Pear As a Farm Crop. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 124. Washington: GPO, 1908. 37 pp., photographic plates.
8vo, full flexible sheep. Binding flayed and peeling, interior and plates with uniform light browning. Very good. Pencil ownership inscription of Joseph Daniel Mitchell (see note) of Victoria, Texas, on front pastedown.
First editions. Mitchell (1848-1922) was a leading early scientist in Texas and a prominent rancher in Calhoun County, where he introduced such innovations as blooded stock, the first windmill west of the Colorado River, and barbed wire to enclose his range. Later moving to Victoria County, he became important as an expert on destructive insects, malaria, reptiles, and conchology. Handbook of Texas Online: John Daniel Mitchell. A portrait of Mitchell is in plate signature following p. 446 in Grimes’ 300 Years in Victoria County (see below).
This volume is an interesting example of a working book from the library of a Texas rancher and scientist. As the articles make plain, scientific and practical interest was piqued by cactus as cattle food because the plant was extremely hardy and provided a consistent source of feed, even during extended droughts. An interesting problem repeatedly addressed in the publications is how to remove the spines. $250.00
Git along Lil’ Doggerel
2272. GRIGGS, Nathan Kirk. Lyrics of the Lariat: Poems with Notes. New York, Chicago & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company [Lakeside Press, R. R. Donnelley & Sons, 1893]. 266 pp., frontispiece (photographic portrait of author), text illustrations (sketches by James Cady and Hugo Schulz). 12mo, original maroon and brown cloth lettered and decorated in gilt, t.e.g. Mild shelf wear, upper hinge cracked but strong, otherwise fine.
First edition. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 99: “An early volume of rhymes reflects one man’s efforts to capture the flavor of the range in the lingo of the waddy and puncher.” On p. 254 Griggs describes the cowboy as “Reckless and tireless, untamable as a prairie-chicken, brave as proudest knight in storied tourney, the Cowboy is the dauntless hero of a new chivalry, even more strange and romantic than that of the middle ages.” His comparison of the cowboy to a prairie chicken gives some good indication of the originality and breadth of the man’s insights into his subject. At the end Griggs gives background on some of the poems.
Griggs (1844-1910), a native of Indiana and a member of Dr. Hans Rollmann’s Restoration Movement, was found dead on a train in Nebraska in 1910. A prominent lawyer and politician in Nebraska, he also served as a United States consul to Chemnitz, Germany. In his later years he became a composer and lyricist and told people that he would prefer to be remembered as a poet and musician rather than as a lawyer and politician. $250.00
2273. GRIMES, Roy (ed.). 300 Years in Victoria County. Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate Publishing Company, [1968]. [16] 649 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates, text illustrations (photographs and sketches by Tom Jones). 8vo, original teal cloth gilt. Very fine in d.j. Author’s signed presentation inscription to Dudley R. Dobie: “For my friend Dudley Dobie. Roy Grimes. Victoria, Christmas, 1965. From Ellen & Jack.” Folded d.j. with table of contents printed on verso laid in.
First edition. This comprehensive history of coastal Texas, center of early Anglo-American settlement, is rich in ranching material, including Spanish and Mexican land grants, devoting almost 75 pages to the subject. Included are lists of early, important ranchers, the founders who owned giant spreads, and even a whole chapter on slaughter and packing plants. $200.00
2274. GRIMES, Roy (ed.). 300 Years in Victoria County. Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate Publishing Company, [1968]. Another copy. Fine in d.j. Signed by author. $150.00
2275. GRIMM, Agnes G. Llanos Mestenas: Mustang Plains. [Waco: Texian Press, 1968]. xii, 189 pp., plates (mostly photographic), maps. 8vo, original red cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Very fine except for foxing on edges of text block. D.j. very fine. Signed and dated by author.
First edition. History of the region encompassing the Rio Grande and Nueces river valleys from the first Spanish exploration to the early 1900s. Includes such important points as wild mustang herds in the region, Texas’ first cattle drive to Los Adaes, major area ranches, etc. $50.00
2276. GRIMSHAW, William Robinson. Grimshaw’s Narrative: Being the Story of Life and Events in California During Flush Times, Particularly the Years 1848-1850.... Written for the Bancroft Library in 1872. [Sacramento]: Sacramento Book Collectors Club, 1964. x [2] 59 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, endpaper maps. Narrow 4to, original grey cloth, spine gilt. Very fine, mostly unopened.
Limited edition (310 copies). Sacramento Book Collectors Club Publication 6, edited and with preface and notes by J. R. K. Kantor. Designed and printed by Roger Levenson, Tamalpais Press. Rocq S2515. Rush 296. Bancroft said of the narrative: “This is not only an interesting sketch of his life and adventures, but one of the best accounts of the events of ’48-’50 in the Sacramento region.” $80.00
2277. GRINNELL, George Bird. Bent’s Old Fort and Its Builders. Written for the Kansas State Historical Society. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1922]. 64 pp., text illustrations (photographic), folded map. 8vo, original red moiré cloth. Except for light browning to first few leaves, map reinforced at folds, otherwise fine. Contemporary manuscript corrections. Former owner’s copy, from the author. Extra illustrated with a photograph of the fort.
Offprint from Publications of the Kansas Historical Society 15. Campbell, p. 184. Howes G431. Wynar 413. Includes information on Native American raids against ranches on outlying regions. $100.00
2278. GRINNELL, George Bird. Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales.... New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 1889. 417 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations. Small 8vo, original green cloth with gilt vignette of papoose on upper cover and title in gilt on spine and upper cover. Except for light shelf wear, fine. Laid in is address label signed by author addressed to R. S. Ellison in Casper, Wyoming. Ownership signature in pencil on front free endpaper.
First edition. Campbell, p. 158: “Notes on the origin, customs, and character of this remarkable people.” Dobie, p. 33: “Reveals the high values of life held by representatives of the original plainsmen.... Grinnell’s knowledge and power as a writer on Indians and animals has not been sufficiently recognized. He combined in a rare manner scholarship, plainsmanship, and the worldliness of publishing.”
Although concerned almost chiefly with Pawnee legends, the author at the end of the book comments in some detail upon the Pawnee’s present condition. He remarks that despite beginning their sojourn on their reservation in a degraded condition, many of the tribe have begun to improve their lots by building houses, planting crops, and adopting modern farming methods. He quizzically remarks that although there are cattle on the reservation the Pawnees have not yet seen the advantages of becoming ranchers and raising stock. He notes that the problem is that the Pawnee prefer to eat any cattle that they have. Ironically, the solution to this problem would seem to be provided by fowl, of which there were 200 on the reservation in 1885, but 3,000 a mere three years later. $300.00
2279. GRINNELL, George Bird. When Buffalo Ran. New Haven & London: Yale University Press & Oxford University Press, 1920. 114 [2] pp., frontispiece, photographic plates. 8vo, original tan pictorial boards printed in green and black, lettering in dark brown. Light shelf wear to fragile boards, mild foxing to endpapers and preliminary pages, otherwise a fine copy. Bookplate of Henry Dexter Sharpe.
First edition. Campbell, p. 128. Dobie, pp. 159-60: “Noble and beautifully simple.... Specific on work from a buffalo horse.” Rader 1703: “Social life and customs of Indians of North America.” This classic is the story of Wikis, a Plains Indian who grew up in the mid-1800s. The narrative frequently involves the narrator’s encounters with buffalo and the role they played in his tribe’s life. $175.00
2280. GRINNELL, George Bird & Theodore Roosevelt (eds.). Hunting in Many Lands: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club. New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 1895. 447 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates. 8vo, original maroon cloth with bighorn sheep stamped in silver on upper cover, buffalo stamped in silver on spine. Binding with light shelf wear and abrading, small split at head of spine (no loss), otherwise very good. Contemporary ink ownership inscription of W. P. Whitman.
First edition. Second publication of the Boone and Crockett Club. Campbell, p. 127. Dobie, p. 152. Chapters by Theodore Roosevelt (and his son Elliott Roosevelt), Henry L. Stimson, and George S. Anderson (“Protection of Yellowstone National Park”), and others concerning hunting big game in various parts of the world. Includes chapter by Theodore Roosevelt entitled “Hunting in the Cattle Country,” which concerns hunts on his ranch in 1893-1894, many of which involved antelope. $175.00
2281. GRINSTEAD, J. E. King of the Rangeland. New York: Dodge Publishing Company, [1939]. 256 pp. 8vo, original red cloth. Endpapers foxed, pp. 166-167 stained from sheet with Dobie’s ink notes listing author’s books; generally fine in d.j. Signed and with a biographical note about Grinstead by J. Frank Dobie on front flyleaf: “Grinstead knew hard characters in the Indian Territory. He was ‘sorter’ a cowboy. Came to Kerrville + got into newspaper business, founded also Grinstead’s Graphic magazine. Then he gave up such work and went to writing fiction—Westerns for the pulps—a million words in a few years. I go to see him when I go to Kerrville + enjoy his conversation very much. He is little with fire + gusto. J. Frank Dobie. 7/5/39.”
First edition. Novel about a South Texas cattle baron named Ben King or “King Ben.” $60.00
2282. GRISSO, W. D. (ed. & comp.). From Where the Sun Now Stands: Addresses by a Posse of Famous Western Speakers. Santa Fe: Stagecoach Press, 1963. 73 [2] pp., frontispiece by José Cisneros. 8vo, original maroon cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First trade edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Cisneros 79). Famous speeches by Westerners, 1775-1955, among them New Mexico judge Kirby Benedict, Will Rogers, Temple Houston (Sam Houston’s son), as well as four Native Americans, including Chief Joseph’s famous speech at his surrender, from which the book takes its title. Also includes the speech of Comanche Ten Bears entitled “Do Not Ask Us to Give up Buffalo for the Sheep” in which he laments in an address given in October, 1867, that the Comanche have been attacked and forced off their lands in Texas. $50.00
2283. GRISWOLD, Don & Jean Griswold. Colorado’s Century of “Cities,” with Illustrations from the Fred M. and Jo Mazzulla Collection. Denver: Smith-Brooks, [1958]. xi [1] 307 [1] pp., color frontispiece, full-page photographic text illustrations. 8vo, original half green cloth over white-and-gray decorative boards. Light shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy in fine d.j. Signed by the Griswolds and Mazzullas.
First edition. Wynar 522. Colorado local history focusing on the early days, with incidental material on livestock. $40.00
2284. GRISWOLD, Don & Jean Griswold. Colorado’s Century of “Cities”.... Denver: Smith-Brooks, [1958]. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in lightly rubbed d.j. $20.00
2285. GUERIN, Mrs. E. J. Mountain Charley; or, The Adventures of Mrs. E. J. Guerin, Who Was Thirteen Years in Male Attire.... Norman: University of Oklahoma, [1968]. xv [1] 112 pp. 12mo, original maroon cloth. One small nick on edge of lower board, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
This is the first printing of the reprint of the exceedingly rare 1861 edition. Western Frontier Library publication. This revised edition has an introduction and notes by Fred W. Mazzulla and William Kostka. Guns 879. Jordan, Cowgirls, p. 287: “Mountain Charley...drove her herd of cattle to California, where she made a handsome profit on them.” Plains & Rockies IV:374an. Married at twelve and widowed at fifteen, Mountain Charlie disguised herself as a man in order to earn an honest living. She traveled widely throughout the West seeking revenge for her husband’s murder and worked variously as riverboatman, railroad brakeman, miner, rancher, Indian trader, businessman, and bartender. $35.00
2286. GUERNSEY, Charles Arthur. Wyoming Cowboy Days: An Account of the Experience of Charles Arthur Guernsey in Which He Tells in His Own Way of the Early Territorial Cattle Days and Political Strife.... True to Life, But not Autobiographical; Romantic, but not Fiction; Facts, But not History, Profusely Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1936. 288 pp., frontispiece, plates (including a few by Charles M. Russell), portraits (including Russell on horse in front of his studio in Great Falls), facsimiles. Large 8vo, original blue cloth lettered in yellow. Fine in lightly worn d.j. with a few minor splits (no losses). Autographed by author.
First edition. Guns 880: “Scarce.... Contains some material on the Johnson County War.” Herd 940. Yost & Renner, p. 247 #59. Account of the author’s experiences in Wyoming from territorial days to early statehood (1880-1935), with information on ranching, rustling, the Johnson County War, etc. $150.00
2287. GUERNSEY, Charles Arthur. Wyoming Cowboy Days.... New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1936. Another copy. Lightly scuffed, otherwise fine in chipped d.j. with a few short tears. $100.00
2288. GUYER, James S. Pioneer Life in West Texas. Brownwood, Texas, 1938. xi [1] 185 [2] pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic, including Good night and the Dobie longhorn). 8vo, original red cloth with photographic illustration on upper cover. Binding worn and discolored (especially spine), endpapers and title lightly foxed, overall very good. Signed by author, with at least one correction in his hand.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:160. Dykes, Kid 252: “The second part of Guyer’s reminiscences is devoted to Billy the Kid and quotes letters received from a number of other old-timers about the Kid. Guyer met the Kid in 1877. Guyer, at the age of seventeen, was with a trail herd en route to Dodge City.” Guns 885. Herd 941: “Scarce.” Howes G469. Tate, Indians of Texas 3131: “Describes his buffalo hunting exploits in West Texas during 1878 and a non-lethal confrontation with unidentified Indians.” Chapter 16 is “The West Texas Cowboy,” Chapter 17 is “Captain Goodnight and Cattle Industry.” $80.00
2289. GUYER, James S. Pioneer Life in West Texas. Brownwood, Texas, 1938. Another copy. Upper hinge starting, otherwise fine. $75.00
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