600.     ADAMS, Andy. The Log of a Cowboy. A Narrative of the Old Trail Days...Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., The Riverside Press, Cambridge, n.d. [1903]. [12], [1] 2-387 [1] pp., 6 half-tone plates (including frontispiece ), 1 map: Map (1882) Showing the Trail. 8vo (19.2 x 12.6 cm), original olive green pictorial cloth with illustration of trail driver and cattle in gilt, brown, black, and white in top panel on over cover, spine with gilt lettering and lasso. Edges slightly spotted, otherwise fine and bright. Contemporary ink ownership inscription of William Tracy Hoover of Denver on front free endpaper.

     First edition, third or later issue, with the added map, which is included in the “List of Illustrations.” Title without date, but “Published May, 1903” on copyright page. Adams, Herd 8. Agatha, pp. 134-135. Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry, p. 84. Dobie, pp. 94-95: “If all other books on trail driving were destroyed, a reader could still get a just and authentic conception of trail men, trail work, range cattle, cow horses, and the cow country in general from The Log of a Cowboy.” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #34. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Smith 21); Western High Spots, pp. 20, 27-28 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West”), p. 35 (“High Spots of Western Fiction: 1902-1952”), p. 78 (“A Range Man’s Library”). Graff 13. Howes A45. Hudson, Andy Adams, p. 226: “There can be no doubt about the artistic excellence of The Log of a Cowboy, the only acknowledged masterpiece in the literature of the cattle country.” Lee, Classics of Texas Fiction, pp. 2-3. McCracken, 101, p. 19: “One of the definitive tales of trail driving, the book gives a lively picture of the men, animals, and terrain of the cattle trail.” Malone, Wyomingana, p. 1. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 15. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 58. Reese, Six Score 2. Smith 31. WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 525: “Considered by many to be the best of the cowboy genre.” “A lively, unvarnished portrait of cowboy life” (Slatta, Cowboys of the Americas).

($50-100)

Auction 22 Part II Abstracts