1665. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. FRONTIER TIMES. “Southwestern
Author Is Honored,” in Frontier Times 8:6 (March 1931). Pp. 242-246,
photograph of Dobie, map (from Coronado’s Children). 4to, original
beige wrappers with photographic illustration. Browned, with ink stamp of W[alter]
P[rescott] Webb on upper wrap and Dudley R. Dobie’s pencil note.
Reprinted from Dallas News. See also in this issue: “Cattle
Trail to Louisiana in 1866” as told by Judge Ed Kone to T. U. Taylor (pp.
249-56, 273-77) and Harry Williams, “Texas Cattle Trails” (pp. 279-81).
Not in Cook or McVicker. $20.00
1666. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. GADDIS, Isabel. Presentation of the
Isabel Gaddis Collection of J. Frank Dobie by Dr. and Mrs. Charles N. Prothro. [Austin:
Von Boeckmann-Jones], 1970. [24] pp., frontispiece portrait of Dobie, text
illustrations. 8vo, original pale grey wrappers with illustration of Dobie’s
symbolic roadrunner. Mint in original mailing envelope.
First printing. Dykes, “Not in Cook” 241.
Includes an introduction on J. Frank Dobie and Isabel Gaddis, along with photographs
illustrating the collection. $15.00
1667. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. GEDDIE, Jack. “What Is a Texan?” in The
Cattleman 28:8 (January 1942). Pp. 28-29, 31, photograph of Dobie. 4to,
original wrappers with photographic illustration. Slight abrasion to edges
of wrappers, light foxing to first and last leaves, otherwise very fine.
First printing. Cook 245 (see also end of note to Cook
383). Geddie pronounces JFD to be “an authentic image of the Texas heritage” and
includes a section “Raised in Cow-Country.” At pp. 34-37 is C. E.
Fisher’s “Mesquite Eradication Studies at Spur, Texas” (using
sodium arsenic and lye). Great ads, including Flat Top Ranch, Adair Ranch, Houston
Fat Stock Show (with photo of Gene Autry touting the world premiere of the Flying “A” Ranch
Rodeo). $20.00
1668. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. McVICKER, Mary Louise. The Writings
of J. Frank Dobie: A Bibliography. Lawton: Museum of the Great Plains,
[1968]. xv [1] 258 [2] pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (mostly
photographic, some by Lea and Mead), facsimiles. 8vo, original white cloth
over brown cloth. Very fine in publisher’s acetate d.j. and slipcase.
First edition, limited edition (#487 of 500 copies,
signed by author). Basic Texas Books B132: “The best bibliography
so far.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Lea 194), (Mead
52). Introduction by Harry H. Ransom. $75.00
1669. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. MOLYNEAUX, Peter. “A Vaquero of
the Brush Country: New Book Reveals That J. Frank Dobie Is an Authentic Literary
Artist,” in Texas Monthly 5:1 (January 1930). Pp. 7-23, photographic
portrait of Dobie. 8vo, original orange printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly
stained and chipped. Two ink stamps of Oscar Dancy.
Cook 278. This issue contains a fine portrait of JFD and Peter
Molyneaux’s review of Vaquero of the Brush Country, concluding: “About
the most genuine book about cowboys and cow country ever written.” Also
present is T. J. Cauley, “Longhorns and Chicago Packers: Relation of Texas
Cattle to the Rise of the Packing Industry in the Windy City.” $25.00
Item 1669
1670. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. Photographs: 3 color snapshots of Dobie
and friends taken at Cactus Lodge, John P. Barnes Ranch, December 5, 1946.
Each photo measures 8.3 x 11.1 cm, in envelope addressed to J. Frank Dobie
from Central Motor Company, Waco, Texas. Faded, small tear on one photograph.
Notes taped to backs of photos with subjects and place listed. Address on envelope
(702 Park Place, Austin, Texas) marked through with pencil and rerouted to
General Delivery, Kerrville, Texas.
Photos are of: (1) L. L. (Tex) Colbert, “Pancho” Allen,
Joe N. Mitchell, John F. Barnes, Gen. Thomas Hardin, and JFD; (2) L. L. (Tex)
Colbert, John F. Barnes, and JFD; (3) John Evans, Joe Baldwin, Herbert Calhoun.
$75.00
1671. [DOBIE, J. FRANK]. SLOAN, Dorothy–Books. The Library
of Dudley R. Dobie Part I: J. Frank Dobie Collection. Austin: [Designed
and Printed by David Holman at Wind River Press for] Dorothy Sloan–Books,
1993. [239] pp., plates (some in color), text illustrations. 8vo, original
cream printed wrappers. Fine copy.
First printing. Exhaustive (and exhausting) catalogue
with 3,551 annotated entries and index, documenting every facet of JFD’s
literary output, from manuscripts, autograph letters, and exceedingly rare limited
editions to copious listings of magazine articles and newspaper columns. Also
includes promotional materials and other ephemera, works about JFD, and selected
books and pamphlets from his library. $50.00
1672. DODGE, Grenville M. The Indian Campaign of Winter of
1864-65, Written in 1877, by Major General Grenville M. Dodge, Read to the
Colorado Commandery Loyal Legion of the United States at Denver.... Denver,
1907. 20 [1] pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Covers lightly
browned at edges, otherwise fine. Rare.
First edition. Graff 1108. See Mattes, Platte River
Road Narratives 2006. Rader 1168. Wynar 1701. Dodge reports stock rustling
by Cheyenne, Ogallala, and Brule Sioux and road ranches along the overland route
from Fort Leavenworth and Omaha. He records that some of the action took place
at the ranch of Old Jules (Jules Beni or Bene, French-Canadian-Indian trader
deprived of his ears and executed by Jack Slade a few years before).
Dodge declares: “I predict that if more troops are not
sent into this district immediately, this road will be stripped of every ranch
and white man on it.... What we need are troops, supplies for them, and a vigorous
campaign against these hostile Indians. They must be put on the defensive instead
of us. No difficulty can arise in finding them. Over 2,000 cattle accompany them” (p.
11). $450.00
Lithographed Views & Map of the Black Hills
1673. DODGE, Richard Irving. Black Hills: A Minute Description
of the Routes, Scenery, Soil, Climate, Timber, Gold, Geology, Zoology, Etc.
with an Accurate Map, Four Sectional Drawings, and Ten Plates from Photographs,
Taken on the Spot. New York: James Miller, 1876. 151 [1] [4, ads] pp.,
10 tinted lithographic plates (including frontispiece), 4 charts & profiles
(one folding & 2 colored), folding lithographed map (The Black Hills
of the Cheyenne Map of Exploring Surveys made under the Direction of Lieut.
Colonel R. L. Dodge, 23d. U.S. Infantry 1875, 55 x 36.8 cm,
scale: approximately nine miles to one inch). 12mo, original green cloth,
sides and spine ruled and decorated in black, spine gilt-lettered. Light
shelf wear (slightly more pronounced at spinal extremities), folding map
torn (two clean tears on one panel, no losses), mild to moderate foxing near
plates (mainly affecting blank margins), overall a very good to fine copy,
tight and clean.
First edition. Graff 1111. Howes D401. Jennewein, Black
Hills Booktrails 59: “Colonel Dodge, in charge of the military escort
for the Newton-Jenney party, quickly capitalized on his venture. A good share
of the book concerns geology and resources.” This handsome color plate
book on the Black Hills was published hurriedly after gold was discovered in
the area, and before Custer’s last fight. The work contains much on the
Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, with discussion of gold, miners, Native Americans,
and routes. The attractive plates include “Dodge’s Pass & Trouper’s
Mount, W.T., the outer Rampart,” “From Harney’s Peak Looking
South East,” “Coldspring Cañon, W.T. in Red Beds,” “Devil’s
Tower, Distant View,” “Miner’s Stockade, French Creek,” etc.
The author frequently discusses the suitability of the Black
Hills for cattle ranching, states that the Black Hills “are closed to settlers
by virtue of a treaty with the Indians,” predicts war, and notes rustling
and depredations by Native Americans: “This summer several hundred head
of valuable brood mares were run off from the Laramie plains. The Indians from
the Agencies made no less than four pillaging expeditions to the Loup this summer,
and about the 1st of October, a young man, peaceably herding cattle on Cottonwood
Creek, not far from the post of Fort Laramie, was set upon, killed, scalped by
a party of friendly Indians from the Agencies. These facts, and many similar
ones, are perfectly known to the men who wish to settle the Black Hills...” (pp.
139-40); “As a grazing country it cannot be surpassed; and small stock-farms
of fine cattle and sheep cannot, I think fail of success” (p. 150). $300.00
1674. DODGE, Richard Irving. The Black Hills.... Minneapolis:
Ross & Haines, 1965. 151 [4, index] pp., frontispiece, color illustrations.
8vo, original grey buckram. Very fine in slightly rubbed and price-clipped
d.j.
Reprint of preceding. $45.00
1675. DODGE, Richard Irving. 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,
1878. lvii [1] 448 pp., photographic frontispiece portrait of author, 20
engraved plates, folding lithographed map with partial and outline coloring
(Map of the Western States and Territories of the United States Showing
All the Existing Indian Reservations and the Buffalo Range in 1830 and 1876,
21.7 x 31.5 cm). Thick 8vo, original red gilt-pictorial cloth stamped in
black. Moderate outer wear, book block partially detached from binding, lower
blank margins of two preliminary leaves stained, a few old tape repairs to
map verso, text and plates clean and fine. Engraved armorial bookplate of
John George Fenwick and British bookdealer’s small printed label on
front pastedown.
Second English edition (first English edition London, 1877;
first American edition New York, 1877). Campbell, p. 127: “The best part
of the book is on the bison. This information the author obtained in 1870 from
the buffalo hunter J. Wright Moar, when he visited Fort Dodge.” Dobie,
p. 151: “Outstanding survey of outstanding wild creatures.” Graff
1113n. Howes D404.
Though primarily a survey of Native American culture in the
Great Plains and Rockies, we include this book here for its excellent material
on buffalo and wild cattle. J. Frank Dobie cited this work extensively in his Longhorns for
its chapter on “Wild Cattle,” which is mostly concerned with Texas
longhorns. Dodge believes that buffalo and wild cattle can be cross-bred, but
only when the buffalo cow is the mother of the mule. One of the plates depicts
Native Americans rustling livestock. $100.00
Item 1675
1676. DODGE, Richard Irving. Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three
Years’ Personal Experience among the Red Men of the Great West.... Hartford:
A. D. Worthington & Co., 1882. 653 pp., 25 plates (engraved frontispiece
portrait of author after photograph by Brady; engraved plate of portraits
of Generals Crook, Miles, Custer, and Mackenzie; 6 chromolithographs of Native
American artifacts; 17 engravings of scenes and events). Thick 8vo, original
three-quarter leather over marbled boards. Binding rubbed, spine dry, very
light ink stamps on front pastedown, front hinge cracked (but strong), overall
a very good copy, plates excellent.
First edition. Introduction by Gen. W. T. Sherman,
in which he describes the book as “the best description extant of the habits,
manners, customs, usages, ceremonies, etc., of the American Indian, as he now
is.” Bennett, American Nineteenth-Century Color Plate Books, p.
34: “Minutely and beautifully drawn.” Campbell, p. 114. Eberstadt
104:81. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 137.
Graff 1114. Howes D403. Larned 628. Luther, High Spots of Custer 120: “Suggests
that possibly Custer committed suicide.”
McCracken, 101, p. 26: “According to Eberstadt,
Dodge spent an extended period among the Plains Indians. During this time he
was able to make many firsthand observations in regard to ‘their character
and customs.’ In his introduction to the book, Dodge states he compared
many of his observations with those of leaders in the field—Catlin, Schoolcraft,
etc.—and where his observations differed from theirs, relied on the Indians
themselves.” Pilling 1060. Rader 1172. Raines, p. 68: “The Texas
Indians come in for a share of treatment, and some incidents occur in Texas.” Rosenstock
516. Saunders 2143. Smith 2496. Tate, The Indians of Texas 2777: “Views
the western tribes as depraved and barbaric, but includes considerable information
on Southern Plains tribes.”
Ranching material is found throughout, including “Texas
Cow-Boys” and “Stealing a Herd of Cattle” (chapter 47); Buffalo
Bill; Native American stock (chapter 46 “Domestic Animals” includes
a section on “Indian Stockbreeders”); stock rustling (especially
chapter 42, “A Race of Thieves and Plunderers”); horsemanship (good
coverage of Native American equipage and methods of making saddles, lasso, etc.);
etc. $250.00
1677. DODGE, Richard Irving. Our Wild Indians.... Hartford:
A. D. Worthington & Co., 1884. 653 pp., 25 plates (engraved frontispiece
portrait of author after photograph by Brady; engraved portraits of Generals
Crook, Miles, Custer, and Mackenzie; 6 chromolithographs of Native American
artifacts; 17 engravings). 8vo, original brown gilt decorated cloth. Slight
shelf wear, spine slightly faded, front hinge cracked, small contemporary purple
ownership stamp on title and preliminary page, overall a very good to fine
copy, plates excellent.
Early reprint. Some of the reprints did not include the color
plates, but they are present in this copy. $125.00
1678. DODGE, Ruby McGill. Reynolds Presbyterian Academy and
College. Belton: Peter Hansborough Bell Press, 1960. [14] 128 [4] 16
[1] pp., frontispiece portrait, photographs, illustrations. 8vo, original
tan cloth. Light shelf wear, ink notations to text, otherwise a fine copy.
Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. Not in CBC. This scarce local
history is an unusual source for social history and education in the cattle country.
The foreword is by Rupert N. Richardson, well-known historian(see Herd 188-90).
Noted Scotch-Irish cattleman and judge, John Alexander Matthews, (Handbook
of Texas Online: John Alexander Matthews) founded the Reynolds Presbyterian
Academy, located in the ranch country of Albany, Texas. Matthews was the head
of the celebrated Reynolds-Matthews clan of Interwoven fame (see Reese, Six
Score 78 and Handbook of Texas Online: John Alexander Matthews & Sallie
Ann Matthews Reynolds). $40.00
Curandero of the Brush Country
1679. DODSON, Ruth. Don Pedrito Jaramillo, “Curandero.” San
Antonio: Casa Editorial Lozano, [1934]. 159 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo,
original green cloth with red lettering and ruling. Text browned (due to the
acidic paper on which it was printed), small closed tear (2.5 cm) at lower
portion of gutter on title page, otherwise fine. Signed by the author at Mathis,
Texas. A Borderlands rarity.
First edition. Dobie (p. 70) and Borderlands Sourcebook (p.
332) both list only the 1951 reprint by the Texas Folk-Lore Society. A classic
in the field of folklore and native medicine documenting the life and work of
Pedro Jaramillo (1829?-1907), the legendary curandero, whose medicines and remedies
were used by five generations and whose shrine in Falfurrias at Rancho Los Olmos
is still visited by the faithful today. The University of New Mexico website
on Jaramillo refers to him as “perhaps the most famous curandero of all
time, known as “The Saint of Falfurrias (Texas)” <http://www.unm.edu/~cheo/DonPedrito.htm> and
he is discussed in Chapter 35 of Andrés Saénz’s Early
Tejano Ranching in Duval County published by the Institute of Texan Cultures.
“Don Pedrito...was born of Tarascan Indian parents near
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in the mid-nineteenth century. He moved to South
Texas as a young man in 1881 and settled on the Los Olmos Ranch.... At that time
the only doctor between Corpus Christi and Laredo lived in San Diego; therefore,
Don Pedrito’s powers were often sought. At first he treated only close
neighbors, but soon he began visiting ranches throughout the region between the
Nueces River and the Rio Grande. 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 constantly received money through the mail in the form
of donations, usually in the amount of fifty cents or a dollar. He made generous
donations to several area churches and to the constant stream of poor people
visiting his ranch. He bought food in wagonloads and kept his storeroom well
stocked. More than $5,000 in fifty-cent pieces was found at his home when he
died. Don Pedrito never married, but he adopted two boys. He died on July 3,
1907, and was buried in the old ranch cemetery near Falfurrias. His resting place
has become a shrine and is visited by several hundred persons yearly.” (Handbook
of Texas Online: Pedro Jaramillo). $750.00
Item 1679
1680. DOMÍNGUEZ, Francisco Atanasio. The Missions of
New Mexico, 1776: A Description.... Translated and Annotated by Eleanor B.
Adams and Fray Angelico Chávez. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, [1956]. xxi [1] 387 pp., tipped-in color frontispiece, maps,
text illustrations. 4to, original beige pictorial linen. Very fine in near
fine d.j. (minor marginal chipping). Laid in is a related offprint article, “Paging
Procrustes” by Roland F. Dickey.
First edition. Father Domínguez was Commissary
Visitor to the Franciscan missions of New Mexico. The present work is his travel
journal, beginning on March 1, 1776, with departure from El Paso. He spent the
next fourteen months touring and documenting his observations for an official
report and wrote private letters to his superior as well.
Domínguez’ provides a description of the establishments
of New Mexico (including Isleta), with good documentation on cattle and sheep
grazing operations: favorable pasturage at Laguna and Taos (noting that Comanche
sometimes share pasturage at Taos); introduction of cattle at various missions;
Apache depredations against cattle at Carnué leading to abandonment of
the area; 1681 López expedition to Texas which involved converting 1,490
head of cattle into silver for buying wine, wax, etc.
The editors comment on the use of the word “rancho” in
Spanish New Mexico: “It might be misleading to translate rancho as ranch
in view of the present association of the word in the United States with large
establishment for grazing and breeding horses, cattle, or sheep. The rancho was
a hut, or group of huts, outside the settlement used by farmers and herdsmen,
or by extension, a very modest farm or hacienda. The term originally referred
to a mess, usually a military one, and to the tents or huts used for the lodging
of soldiers.” $150.00
1681. DONALDSON, Thomas C. Idaho of Yesterday. Caldwell:
Caxton Printers, 1941. 406 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (photographic
and vintage prints). 8vo, original green pictorial cloth. Light shelf wear,
otherwise fine in price-clipped d.j. (marginal chipping and two 2.5-cm sections
missing from head and foot of d.j. spine).
First edition of a foundation stone of Idaho history;
this work was edited and compiled by the author’s son, Thomas Blaine Donaldson,
in 1903, after his father’s death. Guns 613. Smith 2508. Donaldson
(1843-1898), historian and government official, has left us an excellent firsthand,
inside accounts of early Idaho, with good material on establishment of the Territory,
biographies of pioneers, politics, stage lines, vigilantes, outlaws, Native Americans,
social and business history, mining, agriculture, and ranching. Donaldson discusses
establishment of the first ranches in the Territory in 1869 and provides biographical
information on some of the early stock raisers.
The author gives insights into the special challenges of ranching
in Idaho: problems with hostile Native Americans, limited markets in Idaho, arid
climate, and the lack of adequate transportation facilities until the coming
of the railroad. “The railroad enabled the individual cattle ranchers to
market beef in Omaha and Chicago. Prior to this date, the capitalists or wealthy
ranchers bought up small bunches of cattle, placed them in immense herds, and
drove them to the nearest shipping points: viz., Winnemucca, Nevada, or Kelton,
Utah, for the San Francisco market; or Ogden, Utah, for the Eastern market. A
cattle drive was expensive not alone because herders and horses were scarce,
but also because of the scarcity of water made it hazardous to trail range-fattened
stock through a desert” (p. 22).
Lamar (Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West,
pp. 314-15) refers to Donaldson’s massive The Public Domain: Its History,
with Statistics (Washington, 1881 & 1884) as “the vade mecum of
western historians” and “indispensable to students of the history
of the West.” Donaldson had an intimate knowledge of and strong official
influence on the realm of public lands and their use. Stockmen, miners, and lumbermen
who wanted special favors or their violations overlooked often exerted pressure
on Donaldson. $50.00
Native American Stock Raising
1682. [DONALDSON, Thomas C. (ed.)]. UNITED STATES. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.
CENSUS BUREAU. Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United
States (except Alaska) at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Washington: GPO, 1894.
vii [1] 683 pp., 203 chromolithograped, engraved, and photographic plates (some
folding, 20 colored, 25 uncolored, 158 photographic), 25 maps (some folding
and/or colored), text illustrations. Large, thick 4to, original black cloth.
The massive binding is worn (small splits at top joints) and the heavy text
is a bit loose, otherwise very fine, the plates and maps superb. Ink ownership
signature on title. Despite the few flaws, this is the best copy we have seen
of this book that is difficult to locate in collector’s condition. Not
only is the book far too heavy for one volume, but also it is a book that people
understandably used and read.
First edition. Graff 4396. Howes D418. McCracken, 101,
p. 47: “Prior to 1850 Indians were not included in the United States Census.
By 1890 the census included Indians living both on and off of the reservations,
as well as those who had ‘abandoned their tribal relations and became citizens.’ This
beautifully illustrated volume enumerates the Indian population in every imaginable
category [and] contains a wealth of the sort of statistical information that
only the government can produce.” This massive state-by-state survey includes
a mine of detailed information and statistics on stock raising among Native American
tribes. The accompanying iconography offers excellent exhibit potential, such
as Julian Scott’s colored lithograph “Issue Day, Indians Running
Beef before Killing.—Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita, and Oklahoma, 1890” and
photograph by W. R. Cross “South Dakota. Issuing Beef Cattle to the Sioux
at Rosebud Agency.” The chromolithographs are by Julian Scott, Gilbert
W. Gaul, Peter Moran, Henry Rankin Poore, and Walter Shirlaw. Photographers include
Muybridge, Cantwell, T. H. Sullivan, and W. H. Jackson.
One plate of special interest is Scott’s colored portrait
of noted Comanche leader Quanah Parker, who not only was a prominent rancher,
but also influenced ranching history after his tribe settled on the Kiowa-Comanche
reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. “Economically, Parker promoted the
creation of a ranching industry and led the way by becoming a successful and
quite wealthy stock raiser himself. He also supported agreements with white ranchers
allowing them to lease grazing lands within the Comanche reservation” (Handbook
of Texas Online: Quanah Parker). The print of Quanah Parker by Julian Scott
is listed in Tyler, Unpublished Typescript on Texas Lithographs of the Nineteenth
Century. $2,000.00
Item 1682
1683. DONNELLY, Thomas C. (ed.). Rocky Mountain Politics. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, [1940]. vi [2] 304 pp., text maps. 8vo, original
navy blue cloth. Very fine in d.j. with minor chipping and a some light staining.
First edition. Herd 715. Malone, Wyomingiana, p.
21: “Introductory chapter discussing geography, people, economic picture,
voting habits of the region. Gives an excellent general history and survey of
the state as a background for its politics.” Paher, Nevada 488.
Saunders 4043. State-by-state review of Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho,
Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona, with sheep and cattle discussed in sections
on economy. $30.00
1684. DONNELLY, Thomas C. (ed.). Rocky Mountain Politics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, [1940]. Another copy. Very fine, d.j. not present. $25.00
1685. DONOHO, M[ilford] H[ill]. Circle-Dot: A True Story of
Cowboy Life Forty Years Ago. Topeka: Crane, 1907. 256 pp., photographic
frontispiece by Kansas photographer R. B. Hansford. 8vo, original red cloth
stamped in gilt and black (title and a dot within a circle). Exceptionally
fine, bright, and tight.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:111. Graff 1129. Guns 614: “Material
on some of the outlaws of the Indian Territory, and the gunmen of Dodge City.” Herd 716: “Scarce.” Howes
D427. Rader 1174.
History interwoven with rustic dialogue, written by a cowboy
about a ranch located in west-central Texas, with descriptions of raising cattle,
roundups, trail drives to Abilene in the 1870s, Comanche raids, Texas fever,
and the hardships and joys of cowboy life. The heroine, Edna, takes over the
family Circle-Dot Ranch after her father is killed in the Civil War and becomes
known as “Circle-Dot, the Cattle Queen.” There was an actual ranch
in Texas named Circle-Dot (Frank Collinson worked at the Circle-Dot at one time).
From the preface: “The Author was a cowboy...and is
thoroughly conversant with every phase of cowboy life. After the lapse of many
years, some of the most pleasant recollections engraved on the tablets of his
memory are of the open plains, the wild cattle, and the irresistible cowboy....
To portray this wild, active and strenuous life, and to give an accurate pen-picture
of this past and forgotten industry, is the mission of Circle-Dot.” $125.00
Item 1685
1686. DOTEN, Alfred. The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903. Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 1973. xx [2] 808 + [6] 809-1,575 + [6] 1,577-2,381
pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, maps, illustrations. 3 vols., 8vo, original
tan buckram gilt. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase.
First edition of one of the most valuable sources on
the social history of the American West. Edited by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.
Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 201: “Throughout, Doten provides
amazingly detailed descriptions of life in the Mother Lode.”
“Feisty Alf Doten is Nevada’s premier diarist.
No less than 55 of his rambunctious years are recorded in 79 leather bound journals
containing more than 20,000 entries and about 3-1/2 million words.... The final
entry was penned just before his death in Carson City in November 1903.... Noted
novelist Walter Van Tilburg Clark devoted massive amounts of time in digging
into archives from Plymouth to San Francisco to make certain what Doten meant....
Starting as a carpenter, [Doten] became a rancher and miner in California’s
Sierra.... In 1865 he began a 39 year journalistic career—first with Virginia
City’s Daily Union, and then after 1867 at the Gold Hill Daily
News where he became editor-owner in 1872. Under Doten, the News became
Nevada’s leading political and mining journal.... He was also a horse breaker,
a surgeon’s assistant, a musical entertainer, a politician, mining expert,
lime-burner, hunter, fisherman, insurance salesman and vigilante—truly
an Alf of all trades. Of unusual social historic interest is Doten’s coverage
of the Comstock after 1878” (Paher, Nevada 491). $100.00
1687. DOTY, Sile. The Life of Sile Doty 1800-1876: A Forgotten
Autobiography. The Most Noted Thief and Daring Burglar of His Time.... [Detroit]:
Alved of Detroit, Inc., 1948. x [4] 288 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations.
8vo, original black cloth. Fine in near fine d.j. (minor wear and a few chips).
Modern reprint of the rare first edition (Toledo, 1880), which
Ramon Adams states is scarce “owing to the fact that the subject’s
family succeeded in destroying many copies of it” (Guns 462). Howes
C556: “A predatory profession, practised chiefly in Michigan, Indiana and
Ohio, and told of with gusto by the old rogue at seventy-five; his horrified
family succeeded in destroying many copies.” Not in Garrett, The Mexican-American
War. Compiled by J. G. W. Colburn, with an introduction by Randolph G. Adams.
Doty led a gang which specialized in cattle rustling and horse
theft. When the Mexican-American War broke out, Doty was pardoned of his crimes
and lit out for Mexico with a team of stolen horses. Finding army life not to
his taste, Doty arranged a rumor of his death and plundered in Mexico, alternately
in U.S. or Mexican uniform. When the Mexicans were about to surrender formally,
Doty felt sorry for General Scott, who was poorly mounted, and immediately remedied
the situation by stealing the finest Mexican charger and equestrian equipage
he could find. General Scott proudly rode to the surrender conference on his
splendid new steed. $50.00
Photographs of Cowboy Life by L. A. Huffman
1688. DOUBLEDAY, Russell. Cattle Ranch to College: The True
Tale of a Boy’s Adventures in the Far West. New York: Doubleday & McClure
Company, 1899. xii [4] 347 pp., pictorial title printed in red and black,
photographic frontispiece, photographic plates of cowboy life, numerous marginal
and text illustrations (by Janet MacDonald and Ernest Seton Thompson). 8vo,
original dark blue pictorial cloth stamped in green, white, and black (cowboy
on a rearing horse), spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Light shelf wear,
hinges starting, otherwise fine.
First edition, with 1899 on title and no ads. Herd 717: “Scarce.” The
author describes a boyhood on a working cattle ranch in the Dakota region in
the 1870s, complementing the text with superb unattributed documentary photographs
of day-to-day ranch life. Some, or perhaps all, of the photographs are the work
L. A. Huffman, pioneer Montana photographer. “The Huffman pictures constitute
one of the finest pictorial records of life on the western frontier” (Thrapp
II, pp. 688-89).
From author’s preface: “This is a true tale of
a boy’s life in the West twenty-five years ago. It is an account of his
amusements, his trials, his work, his play. The incidents described actually
happened and are described substantially as ‘the boy’ [John Worth]
related them to the writer.” $75.00
Item 1688
Item 1688
1689. DOUBLEDAY, Russell. Cattle Ranch to College.... New
York: Doubleday & McClure Company, 1899. [2, half-title with ad on verso]
iii-xii [4] 347 [1] [1, ad] pp., pictorial title printed in red and black,
frontispiece, photographic plates of cowboy life, numerous marginal and text
illustrations (by Janet MacDonald and Ernest Seton Thompson). 8vo, original
dark blue pictorial cloth stamped in green, white, and black (cowboy on a horse),
spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Light shelf wear and moderately rubbed,
interior very fine.
First edition, early reprint, with date of 1899 retained
on title but with added advertisement on half-title for H. H. Lewis’s A
Gunner aboard the “Yankee” and page of publisher’s ads
at end. The rear ad refers to the book as a “6th Thousand” printing
and declares: “The immediate success of this book was to be expected from
its unique attractiveness.” $30.00
| <Back to Table of Contents | <Back to Home Page | View next group of items> |