Auction 5: Lots 144-151

144. REID, Samuel C. The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's Texas Rangers; or, the Summer and Fall Campaign of the Army of the United States in Mexico—1846; Including Skirmishes with the Mexicans...and Sketches of the Lives of the Celebrated Partisan Chiefs, Hays, McCulloch, and Walker. Philadelphia: Zieber, 1847. 251 pp., frontispiece portrait of General Taylor, plates, map. 12mo, original brown blind-stamped cloth. Light outer wear and discoloration, some browning to text (especially to plates), occasional foxing.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 170: "This is the best contemporary account of the Texas rangers in the northern campaigns of the Mexican War. Written by a Louisiana lawyer who served with the Rangers under Jack Hays and Ben McCulloch, it is an excellent account of one of the most rambunctious military forces ever assembled out of Texas." Clark, Old South III:390. Dobie, p. 60. Dykes, Western High Spots ("Western Movement—Its Literature"), p. 13; ("My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West"), pp. 22-23 & 25: "Particularly hard to find in the original printed stiff wrappers, but any first printing in decent condition is a 'buy'... In addition to the vivid picture it provides of the war with Mexico, the book sketches the lives of Ben McCulloch, Jack Hayes, and Samuel Walker (of Colt Revolver fame), three of the most famous Rangers during the days of the republic" ("Ranger Reading"), p. 117. Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 142. Graff 3451. Howes R175: "Adventures in the Mexican War and in border campaigns against Comanches." Raines, p. 172: "A well written story of the Texas Rangers, by one of their own number." Vandale 141.
($500-800)

145. __________. 1848. 12mo, original brown printed wrappers bound in later three-quarter brown morocco over tan cloth, spine with raised bands (bound by Stikeman). Minor wear to fragile wraps, plates lightly browned, generally fine and clean.

First edition, second issue (same as the 1847 issue, except date on title is 1848). Basic Texas Books 170A. Dykes, Western High Spots ("My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West"), p. 23: "Particularly hard to find in the original printed stiff wrappers;" ("Ranger Reading"), p. 117: "So far as I know, the first book about the Texas Rangers."
($400-600)

Item 146

146. RHODES, Eugene Manlove. Penalosa. Santa Fe: Writers' Editions, [1934]. 34 pp. 12mo, original red printed wrappers. Very fine. J. Frank Dobie's copy, initialled by him in pencil and dated April 1934.

Limited edition (#151 of 500 copies), signed by author. An early production of the Writers' Editions, a cooperative venture set up by Gustav Baumann, Haniel Long and others in the Santa Fe-Taos area in 1932 to foster regional literature. The following year the Writers' Editions group persuaded Rydal Press to move to Santa Fe from Pennsylvania.
($150-300)

147. RICHARDSON, R. N. The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement.... Glendale: Clark, 1933. 424 [4, ads] pp., plates, double-page maps. Large 8vo, original blue cloth. Endsheets browned, fore-edges slightly foxed. A bright, unopened copy.

First edition, limited edition (750 copies). Basic Texas Books 171n. Clark & Brunet 207: "A classic account of the conflict on the southern Plains between white encroachment and Comanche resistance. It is recounted in a scholarly and impartial manner, and the book has long been considered a classic in frontier literature." Dobie, p. 35. Dykes, Western High Spots ("Western Movement—Its Literature"), p. 18. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 68: "This is straightforward history, done well and done professionally by a writer I consider the equal to any historian the Southwest has produced." Tate, The Indians of Texas 2415.
($150-300)

148. RICHARDSON, R. N. The Frontier of Northwest Texas, 1846 to 1876.... Glendale: Clark, 1963. 332 pp., frontispiece, plates, maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Endsheets lightly browned, else very fine.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 171n. CBC 5014. Clark & Brunet 208: "Exemplary in its careful scholarship and pleasing readable style." Tate, The Indians of Texas 2416: "Still recognized as a 'standard' among later writers...views the long years of strife primarily through the eyes of army officers, Texas Rangers, and settlers." Chapters on Marcy, Forts Phantom Hill and Chadbourne, Reservation War, immigration routes, Butterfield stage line, cattlemen, Native Americans, etc. Very scarce.
($80-125)

Item 149, Maj. B. McCulloch

149. ROSE, Victor M. The Life and Services of Gen. Ben McCulloch. Philadelphia: Pictorial Bureau of the Press, 1888. [6] [25]-260 pp., portraits. 8vo, original dark brown blind-stamped cloth. Very fine and tight.

First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots ("Ranger Reading"), p. 117. Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 246. Graff 3572. Howes R443: "Most famous Texas Ranger." Nevins, Civil War Books II, p. 86: "The standard study of the ill-fated Texas Ranger." Parrish, Civil War Texana 87: "An admirable tribute to the most famous Texas Ranger. Nearly fifty years old when he took command of Confederate troops in Northern Arkansas and southern Missouri in 1861, McCulloch boasted a sterling record as an Indian fighter and Mexican-American War scout. Victorious at Wilson's Creek, he fell at a crucial moment during Elkhorn Tavern (Pea Ridge) in March, 1862. At the time he was the second ranking brigadier general in the South and seemed destined for greatness in the Trans-Mississippi theater." Raines, p. 178: "With a fine sketch of John Henry Brown [McCulloch's aide-de-camp]." Vandale 146. See New Handbook IV:384-85.
($2,500-3,500)

150. RUCKER, Lucy. A Brief Sketch of the Life of the Rev. L[indsey] P. Rucker, with Detailed Account of his Thrilling Adventure among the Indians, in the Year 1854 [wrapper title]. [Brenham?, ca. 1920?]. [12] pp. 8vo, original dark green printed wrappers. Fine copy of a rare pamphlet.

First edition. Not in CBC, Howes, Rader, Tate, or other standard bibliographies. We wish that we could tell you more about this pamphlet. RLIN search netted UT Austin, Sul Ros, and Houston Public Library. Tennessean Rucker (1815-1890, Episcopal minister, educator, and pioneer surveyor) came to Texas in 1838, helped establish the Episcopal Church in Texas, and spent twenty years as rector of St. Peter's Church in Brenham. The section "Masonry among the Comanche Indians" recounts Rucker's experiences while surveying in the Panhandle in 1854. A potentially hostile situation between Rucker and a Comanche chief was neutralized when they realized that they were both Masons. Rucker is listed living in Washington County in the 1840 Census for the Republic of Texas.
($300-500)

151. RUXTON, G. F. Life in the Far West. New York: Harper, 1849. xii, [13]-235 [1] [4, ads] pp. 8vo, original green cloth. Spine and edges sunned, first and last few leaves foxed.

First American edition of a Western classic. Cowan, p. 546. Flake 7460. Graff 3623. Howes R554. Plains & Rockies IV:173:1: "Of particular interest is an account of the Walker expedition of trappers to California." WLA, A Literary History of the West, p. 91: "Ruxton...crowded a great deal of adventure and literary achievement into his 27 years.... He kept notebooks and diaries rich in authentic detail, from which he could distill superb scholarly articles on the ethnology of Indians and graphic accounts of his adventures. He captured the character and vernacular of mountain men and traders better than anyone else has done. No novelist could presume to achieve verisimilitude in portraying fictional mountain men without drawing upon Ruxton."
($200-400)