Auction 5: Lots 55-64

Item 55

55. DODGE, R. I. 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, 1877. lvii [1] 440 [36, ads] pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, folding colored map. 8vo, original red pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and black. Moderate outer wear and lightly stained. Armorial bookplate. Laid in is a 4-page autograph letter signed from the author to John G. Adair (New Handbook I:23) of the JA Ranch discussing the present work, its reception by critics, news that he is now stationed at Fort Riley "on the Kansas Pacific R.R." and that there is no large game nearby. Also laid in are an English dealer's 1939 invoice to Dudley R. Dobie for the book (£16) and J. Frank Dobie's hasty pencil note to Dudley commenting on Dodge's letter: "Dudley this is Dodge's letter—but book cost $9.00—Want it? Letter to John Adair of JA Ranch is really interesting. Looks like genuine collector's copy to me."

First English edition (U.S. edition came out the same year under title The Plains of the Great West). Dobie, p. 151: "One of the best chapters of this source book is on the buffalo." Graff 1112. Howes D404. Phillips, Sport, p. 102: "A valuable account of the extermination of the southern buffalo herd. Indian fighting and plains game. One of the best of hunting books on the West." Rader 1170.
($200-400)

Item 56, frontispiece

56. DODSON, Ruth. Don Pedrito Jaramillo "Curandero." San Antonio: Casa Editorial Lozano, [1934]. 159 pp., frontispiece portrait. 12mo, original green cloth. Very fine, with author's signed inscription on front end-paper. Very scarce.

First edition of a folklore classic. Borderlands Sourcebook, p. 332 (lists the 1951 Texas Folklore Society reprint). Dobie, p. 70. A classic in the fields of folklore and native medicine, documenting the life and work of Jaramillo (?-1907), the legendary curandero of Southwest Texas who worked in the ranch country between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Born of Tarascan Indian parents near Guadalajara in the mid-nineteenth century, Jaramillo moved to South Texas in 1881 and settled on the Los Olmos Ranch. "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 was buried in the old ranch cemetery near Falfurrias. His resting place has become a shrine and is visited by several hundred persons yearly" (New Handbook III:910-11). Dodson, a student of J. Frank Dobie, sought to present a true picture of the area between the Nueces and Rio Grande (New Handbook II:668).
($200-400)

57. DOMENECH, E. Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico: A Personal Narrative of Six Years' Sojourn.... London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1858. xv [1] 366 pp., frontispiece lithograph (Sandstone Formation in the Prairie Northwest of Texas), large folding map of Texas based on DeCordova. 8vo, original blue cloth stamped in gilt and blind, a.e.g. Binding worn, frayed, and slightly shelf slanted, hinges cracked, text lightly browned. A shabby copy with contemporary prize inscription and frontispiece lithograph not called for by bibliographers and the excellent map that is frequently lacking.

First English edition (first published in Paris in 1857). Bradford 1350. Field 443. Graff 1120. Howes D408. Plains & Rockies III:356an. Rader 1176. Raines, pp. 69-70. Tate, Indians of Texas 2040: "Describes the 1840 Council House Fight as a plot by the Texans." New Handbook II:672: "[Domenech] may have been the first priest to be ordained in Texas.... The book describes the trials of early Catholic missionaries and is filled with vivid sketches of the Texas frontier and anecdotes about its people. He found Houston 'infested with Methodists and ants' and dismissed Austin, 'the seat of the Texian legislature,' as 'a small dirty town' with 'only one wretched hotel.' His colorfully detailed narrative of the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in Texas, amid the tensions of the boundary disputes with Mexico and the devastation of an epidemic of cholera, has no counterpart." See Horgan's comments in The Great River (II, p. 793). The excellent map, which is not listed by Wheat, follows De Cordova's conformation.
($250-500)

58. DOMENECH, E. Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860. xxiv, 446 [1] [2, ads] + xii, 465 [1] [26, ads] pp., 59 engraved plates on tinted grounds, folding, colored map. 2 vols., original terracotta cloth. Light wear to spinal extremities, old tape repair on map verso (not affecting image), overall very good to fine, the plates excellent.

First edition. Clark, Old South III:305: "The important part of this work has been described as 'a category of the Indian tribes of North America, and some short vocabularies of some of their languages.' It includes descriptions of Indians in Texas and Louisiana." Cowan, p. 178. Field 444. Graff 1121. Howes D410. Pilling 1061. Plains & Rockies IV:356:1. Raines, p. 70. Wheat, Transmississippi West 1003. The plates, based on Catlin and U.S. government reports, include Native Americans and their material culture, scenes on the Canadian and Little Colorado Rivers in Texas, Salt Lake, the Great Basin, Willamette Valley, Pyramid Lake, etc. (2 vols.)
($300-500)

Item 59

59. DUGANNE, A. J. H. Camps and Prisons: Twenty Months in the Department of the Gulf. New York: Robens, 1865. 424 [6, ads] pp., engraved plates (Camp Groce, Shreveport Prison, Camp Ford, Texas, etc.). 12mo, original purple cloth, gilt pictorial spine, beveled edges. Other than occasional mild foxing, a fine, tight copy. Very scarce, in any edition.

"Third edition" (actually third printing of first edition, same date and collation). Basic Texas Books 47B: "The best account of prison life in Texas during the Civil War, this is also one of the few good contemporary accounts of the impact of the war on Texas. Nevins called it 'unimpassioned and well written,' and Coulter said it is an 'observant account of conditions in the Federal Army, in Confederate prisons, and the countryside of Louisiana and Texas.... A first-rate travel account.'" Coulter 136. Nevins, Civil War Books II, p. 190. Parrish, Civil War Texana 26: "All issues and states of this book are rare and seldom come on the market."
($400-800)

Item 60, "Author Riding Up To Wallace's Ranch"

60. DUVAL, John C. The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace, the Texas Ranger and Hunter. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger; Macon, Ga.: J. W. Burke, 1871. 291 pp., engraved frontispiece portrait, 7 plates. 12mo, original green cloth, gilt pictorial spine. Binding slightly rubbed and lower cover lightly stained, text pages 70 and 71 stained, generally fine (much nicer than usually found), with gift inscription dated December 25, 1870. Small photograph (early twentieth-century copy) of Wallace laid in. Contemporary corner protectors.

First edition, first issue (no footnote on p. 173 and "Deringers" on p. 153). Agatha, p. 51: "One of the best Ranger stories on record." Basic Texas Books 50: "A well-written account of a fascinating Texas Ranger and hero." Clark, New South I:65. Dobie, p. 55: "Duval served as a Texas Ranger with Big Foot Wallace, who was in the Mier Expedition. His narrative of Bigfoot's Adventures is the rollickiest and most flavorsome that any American frontiersman has yet inspired." Dykes, Western High Spots ("My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West") 2 & ("Ranger Reading"), p. 116: "Much has been written about Big Foot Wallace but to me [Duval's book] is by far the most entertaining.... This is also a fine Ranger book as Duval served with Wallace in Captain Jack Hays's company in 1845. 'Texas John' or Jack Duval's book on Wallace is usually available in one of the numerous later issues, but the 'Philadelphia, 1871,' or first edition, is definitely rare." Graff 1187. Howes D602. Raines, p. 73. Vandale 54. Very rare biography of the legendary Ranger, frontiersman, and folk hero. New Handbook VI:807-08.
($1,500-2,500)

Item 61, spine

61. DUVAL, John C. The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace, the Texas Ranger and Hunter. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger; Macon, Ga.: J. W. Burke, 1872. 8vo, original green cloth. Light wear to binding, slightly shelf-slanted, overall very good to fine, binding bright and interior very fine. Gift inscription dated 1871.

"Second edition," actually first edition, second issue, printed from the same plates as preceding, but with errors corrected and one footnote added. Basic Texas Books 50A.
($400-800)

62. __________. Early Times in Texas. Austin: Gammel, 1892. 135 [1] 1-253 pp. 12mo, original brown flexible cloth. As usual, lightly browned due to cheap paper, otherwise a very fine copy, with Dudley R. Dobie's signature in ink on front free endpaper. This book is notoriously difficult to find in collector's condition, and this a very nice copy.

First edition, first issue (including The Young Explorers). Agatha, p. 51. Basic Texas Books 51: "The most literate of all 19th century Texas memoirs.... Of all personal accounts of old-time Texas, his book is perhaps the best written and most interesting." Dobie, p. 55. Graff 1188. Howes D603. Rader 1248. Raines, p. 74. WLA, A Literary History of the West, p. 108: "The Duval books [present work and his biography of Big Foot Wallace, see above], published originally in 1870 and 1892, respectively deal with the battle for Texas independence.... They continue the Turnerian view of the West as a place of growth and freedom. Young Duval...came to Texas with 'a vision of a freer life and a wider range of action than was possible elsewhere'.... But these tales have their own way of arriving at the truth. Like footpaths winding through the woods-lot, they lead in the right direction and get you to your destination sooner even than does the big road. As artifacts in the development of western studies, [they] are significant. They lack in critical discrimination, to be sure, but they worked to establish the potential of western materials and helped to emphasize the essential historical coherence of the materials.... They provided the foundation for more sophisticated works to come." A classic account of pioneer life in Texas by "the first Texas man of letters" (J. Frank Dobie).
($400-700)

63. DUVAL, John C. Early Times in Texas. Austin: Gammel, 1892. 135 [4] [243]-253 pp. [Bound with]: Young Explorers, or Adventures of Jack Dobell in Texas [wrapper title]. Austin: Gammel, n.d. 238 pp. 2 vols. in one, 12mo, original printed upper wrappers bound into later three-quarter blue morocco over cloth. Paper browned, otherwise fine, with book plate of Texas collector, Jno. C. Ingram.

First separate edition of Early Times, and a later printing of Young Explorers (words "in Texas" added to wrapper title). Basic Texas Books 51B.
($150-300)

Item 64

64. DUVAL, John C. Early Times in Texas, or the Adventures of Jack Dobell...edited by Mabel Major and Rebecca W. Smith Illustrated by Jerry Bywaters. Dallas: Tardy, 1936. xxiv [4] 284 pp., illustrations. 12mo, original orange cloth. Fine in the scarce d.j. (also illustrated by Bywaters). "Best edition" (Basic Texas Books 51G). The editors state that Duval's adventures after his escape from Goliad made him seem the Robinson Crusoe of Texas.
($30-60)