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 ABE.com 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
Item 1437
Item 1437
Item 1437
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
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