Auction 5: Lots 123-132

123. NEWELL, Chester. History of the Revolution in Texas, Particularly of the War of 1835 & '36; Together with the Latest Geographical, Topographical, and Statistical Accounts of the Country.... New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1838. x [2] 215 pp., folding lithographed map of Texas (Texas 1838, Lith. by Baker 8 Wall St. N.Y., 8 x 12-1/4 inches). 12mo, original dark brown diced and embossed cloth. Binding with light to moderate wear and a few stains (mostly confined to lower cover), evidence of bookplate removal from pastedowns, intermittent foxing. Map with small tear.

First edition, with dedication leaf on page [iii] and the map dated (points which Streeter recognizes without establishing any priority of issue). Basic Texas Books 151A: "One of the earliest books published about Texas after it became a Republic.... The quotations from participants are of considerable value. The descriptive portions add much to our knowledge of the early Republic.... The account is pro-Texan throughout, but more objective than many other contemporary Anglo-American versions.... Newell describes the towns of the Republic, offers advice to immigrants, analyzes the people of Texas, and projects the future. His predictions, some sage and some ludicrous, are remarkable." Clark, Old South III:215: "Divided almost equally between history and description. This is one of the best, as well as one of the earliest, works published about Texas while it was a republic." Graff 3010. Howes N115. Rader 2479. Raines, p. 154: "One of the rare and reliable books on Texas." Streeter 1318: "Newell was a minister of the Gospel who came to Texas in the early spring of 1837 seeking his health, and decided while there to write a history of the Texas Revolution to defray his expenses." See New Handbook IV:991.
($2,000-3,000)

Item 124

124. NICHOLS, J. W. Now You Hear My Horn: the Journals of James Wilson Nichols, 1820-1887. Austin & London: [Carl Hertzog for] University of Texas, [1967]. xvi [6] 212 pp., illustrations, endpaper maps. 4to, original brown cloth over green cloth. Very fine in d.j.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 152: "One of the most delightful American pioneer narratives ever written, and a valuable contribution not only to our knowledge of events in Texas history but to our understanding of the frontier spirit as well." Printer at the Pass 218.
($30-60)

125. NIXON, Pat Ireland. The Medical Story of Early Texas 1528-1853. [Lancaster, Pa.]: Mollie Bennett Lupe Memorial Fund, 1946. [2] xv [1] 507 pp., plates. 8vo, original green cloth, paper labels on spine and upper cover. Occasional light foxing, otherwise fine. Nixon's signed presentation inscription to Dudley R. Dobie: "In appreciation of your friendship & of what you mean to the History of Texas. For Dudley Dobie, Pat Ireland Nixon Mch 31, 1947."

First edition. Basic Texas Books 153: "Best work on Texas medical history, this is also one of the best state medical histories ever published.... Chapters on quackery, military and naval medicine, diseases peculiar to Texas, hospitals, and other related subjects." Howes N161.
($80-150)

126. NOEL, Theophilus. Autobiography and Reminiscences. Chicago: Theo. Noel Company, 1904. 348 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, plates. 8vo, original embossed maroon cloth. Fine and bright.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 154n. Nevins, Civil War Books I, p. 138: "Important because of the light it throws on Sibley's campaign in the Southwest."
($200-400)

127. NORTH, Thomas. Five Years in Texas; or, What You Did Not Hear During the War.... A Narrative of His Travels, Experiences, and Observations, in Texas and Mexico. Cincinnati: Elm Street Printing Co., 1870. 231 pp. 12mo, original blind-stamped green pebbled cloth, beveled edges. Light outer wear and first few leaves foxed, but generally very fine. With manuscript corrections on three pages; these changes appear in the second edition.

First edition. Coulter, p. 190 (citing the second edition): "This account of Texas during the Civil War, by a Northern merchant turned preacher to evade the Confederate draft law, is written in a friendly spirit but contains some sharp criticism and incisive observations on the manners and customs of Texans. In January, 1861, he left his home in Freeport, Illinois, went by train to Cairo and on a Mississippi River steamer to New Orleans. Crossing the river, he went by train to Brashear City (Berwick Bay), embarked for Galveston on a ship of the Morgan Line, went into Texas to Houston, and established himself as a merchant at Brenham. Driven out by violence near the end of the war, he went to Matamoros, Mexico, until Lee's surrender when he embarked with his family for New Orleans, returned to Galveston, continued on to Brenham, and finally left Texas." Howes N193. Nevins, Civil War Books I, p. 138: "A barbed commentary on the Lone Star state." Parrish, Civil War Texana 67: "One of the best accounts of Texas during the Civil War, with much on outlawry and crime." Raines, p. 158.
($300-500)

128. __________. 1871. 12mo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, beveled edges. A few minor stains on covers.

Second edition of preceding, printed on thicker paper.
($100-200)

129. OLMSTED, Frederick L. A Journey through Texas; or, a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier; with a Statistical Appendix. New York: Dix, Edwards, 1857. [2] xxxiv, 516 pp., engraved frontispiece & folding map (Map of Part of the State of Texas. Prepared by J. H. Colton & Co. New York (7-3/8 x 9 inches). 12mo, original brown blind-stamped cloth. Spine loose and extremely fragile (in need of stabilization), some outer wear, front hinge cracked, internally very good.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 157: "The most civilized of all nineteenth-century books on Texas...also the most interesting and the most dependable.... Olmsted offers many insights into economic and social life. He gives one of the earliest descriptions of the Texas cattle ranch.... A splendid, enlightening book." Clark, Old South III:481n. Dobie, p. 52. Graff 3097. Howes O79. Raines, p. 159: "No better book yet written on travels in Texas." Sibley, Travelers in Texas, p. 216. "Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1902), noted landscape architect and writer of travel books...made extensive tours throughout the South from 1852 to 1857. One of the products of this travel was A Journey through Texas. On his route via Natchitoches down the Old San Antonio Road, through the German settlements, down to the coastal prairie towns, through San Antonio, Eagle Pass, Houston, and Liberty, Olmsted commented on all phases of town and country life in Texas. Olmsted was a fervent opponent of slavery, and his journeys through Texas and the other slave states confirmed his deep-seated antipathy to forced servitude and to the South in general" (New Handbook IV:1149).
($200-400)

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130. PAGÈS, [Pierre-Marie-François de]. Travels Round the World, in the Years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771...Translated from the French, The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged. London: J. Murray, 1793, 1793, 1792. xx, 300 + xii, 268 + xxii [2] 303 pp., foldout chart, table. 3 vols., 8vo, contemporary full mottled tree calf, spines gilt with red morocco labels. Foot of Vol. II spine chipped, spines worn and dry, contemporary ink ownership inscription on Vol. I title, text fine and crisp.

Second English edition, best edition, enlarged and revised, with three added voyages. Clark, Old South I:285: "He describes briefly the physical character of [Texas and the South] and his contacts with Indians and with the Spaniards in Texas. His account is objective and quite impersonal, and he has been commended by students of the region for his accuracy." Graff 3161. Hill, p. 526n (consult his lengthy bibliographical note): "Of great importance for its information on the Spanish colonial empire in North America and in the Orient." Howes P13. Monaghan 1151. Sibley, Travelers in Texas 217n. Spence 889. Streeter 1027n (citing the one-volume edition published at Philadelphia in 1795). Tate, The Indians of Texas 1938: "A source rich in details on the Caddoes and the Lipan Apaches." Wagner, Spanish Southwest 165b.

The French author gives an account of his five-year journey around the world that began in Santo Domingo and thence to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Red Rivers to Natchitoches. Pagès traversed Texas by horseback in 1767, travelling via Nacogdoches, San Antonio, Laredo and into Mexico. An important circumnavigation with a great deal more of interest than the Texas section. For instance, the third volume (not present in the first English edition of the work) contains the author's account of his adventures during Yves-Joseph de Kerguélen-Trémarec's unsuccessful second voyage toward the South Pole in search of Terra Australis Incognita. Also, an important work for whaling and the natural history of the whale. (3 vols.)
($1,500-2,500)

131. PAINE, A. B. Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger: A Story of Frontier Reform...with Introductory Letter by Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Little & Ives, 1909. 448 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates by D. C. Hutchison (some in color). 8vo, original maroon cloth, photographic portrait on upper cover. Front hinge cracked (but strong), a bright copy in the rare d.j. with facsimile of Theodore Roosevelt's letter (narrow voids at blank folds of d.j., touching one letter).

First edition, "Special Subscription Edition" (no priority of issue). Adams, Guns 1669; One-Fifty 110. Basic Texas Books 158B: "Life of the most famous Texas Ranger of the time, the man who it was said would 'charge hell with a bucket of water'.... The importance lies in its bringing nationwide attention to the legend of the Texas Ranger. From Paine's book it was only a short hop to the motion picture stereotype that persists to the present day." Campbell, p. 78. Dobie, p. 60. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Hutchison) 33; Western High Spots ("Ranger Reading"), p. 118: "Ranks high." Howes P14. Rader 2570. "[McDonald's] admirers see him as one of the 'Four Great Captains'.... McDonald's detractors have portrayed him as an irresponsible lawman who accepted questionable information, precipitated violence, hungered for publicity, and related tall tales that cast himself in the hero's role" (New Handbook IV:392-93).
($250-500)

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Item 132, detail from binding

132. PALLISER, John. Solitary Rambles and Adventures of a Hunter in the Prairies. London: John Murray, 1853. xiv [2] 326 [2, ads] pp., engraved frontispiece, pictorial title, plates. 8vo, original brown gilt pictorial cloth. Slightly shelf slanted, light outer wear to fragile binding, occasional mild foxing, contemporary ownership inscription on half title. Withal, a very good copy of an increasingly scarce book, difficult to find in original pictorial cloth.

First edition. Clark, Old South III:377: "Leaving Liverpool early in 1847, Palliser, prominent English geographer-explorer, world traveler, and big game hunter, landed at Halifax to journey southward to Wheeling and down the rivers to New Orleans. He visited there for several weeks before leaving for more than a year's hunting in the Trans-Mississippi West.... Many of the first seventy-five pages of this excellent book, record Palliser's favorable impressions of Mississippi steamboats, the city of New Orleans and its French quarter, an interesting hunting trip up the Arkansas, and a Louisiana sugar plantation. He made a side trip from St. Louis to Mammoth Cave before setting out for the Yellowstone and Big Horn country." Dobie, p. 155n. Graff 3168. Howes P43. Phillips, Sport, p. 285: "This is one of the best books of this period of Western hunting." Plains & Rockies IV:228:1. Smith 7856.
($500-750)