With a Letter from James H. Cook to Dudley R. Dobie
1124. COOK, James H. Fifty
Years on the Old Frontier As Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. xix [1] 291 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait,
plates (mostly photographic plates, some foldout, one in color). 8vo, original
navy blue cloth. Upper corners slightly bruised, otherwise fine in the rare
d.j. (good to very good, with some mild to moderate staining and a few small
chips and tears). Laid in is author’s ALs (2 pp., 8vo, in ink on his engraved
stationery) to Dudley R. Dobie dated March 6, 1936, in original mailing envelope.
Responding to Dobie’s praise for the present book, Cook responds (in part):
“I am one of the ‘Old Boys’ who being ‘short’ of schooling which an Author should
have, has attempted to tell a few straight stories relative to the life of which
I was a part.” Cook invited Dudley and J. Frank Dobie to come “break bread”
with him at his ranch in Agate, Nebraska.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:88. Campbell, p. 84.
Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the Cattle Industry 19. Dobie,
p. 100. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #4: “Nothing better on cow work
in the brush country and trail driving in the 70s has appeared.” Dykes, Collecting
Range Life Literature, p. 12; Kid 87: “Cook managed a ranch for English
capitalists in southwestern New Mexico from 1882 to 1887, and writes that he
took a hand in restraining a number of cowboys who seemed to desire to become
noted desperadoes. After their capture, a number of them told him that they
did not know ‘where they got the idea that the life of an outlaw was a desirable
career.’ Cook believed that many of them sought to imitate Billy the Kid, and
that the reading of trashy novels was a contributing cause.” Graff 863. Guns
484: “An outstanding western book with much on outlawry and a good firsthand
account of the battle between the cowboys and Elfego Baca, a fight in which
the author participated.” Herd 569. Malone, Wyomingana, p. 3.
Rader 907. Reese, Six Score 23: “Cook’s career spanned the whole West;
much of it was concerned with cattle.” Saunders 2833. Smith 2008. Cook was a
direct descendant of the noted explorer Captain Cook. $375.00
1125. COOK, James H. Fifty Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. Another copy. Occasional mild stains to text (mainly confined to last few leaves and last plate), otherwise fine (d.j. not present). Author’s signed presentation copy to Mrs. Stephen G. Skinner, dated at Agate, Nebraska, October 1923. $165.00
1126. COOK, James H. Fifty Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. Another copy. Light shelf wear, paper lightly age-toned, otherwise fine, without the d.j. $85.00
1127. COOK, James H. Fifty
Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. xix
[1] 291 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (mostly photographic plates,
some foldout, one in color). 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Slight shelf wear,
contemporary ink ownership inscription on front pastedown, otherwise fine.
First edition, second printing. $50.00
1128. COOK, James H. Fifty
Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. xix
[1] 291 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates (mostly photographic plates, some
foldout, one in color). 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in near fine
d.j. (slightly dusty). Author’s signed presentation copy to C. Nash, dated at
Agate, June 9, 1925.
First edition, third printing. $125.00
Outstanding Association Copy to One of the Cowboys Who Did Not Desert
1129. COOK, James H. Fifty
Years on the Old Frontier As Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. xix [1] 291 pp., photographic plates
(some foldout). 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Very fine in near fine d.j. (slightly
chipped ). Author’s signed presentation copy: “To A. A. Spaugh with the compliments
of his old time friend, the author, James H. Cook. Agate Nebraska, Jan 17th
1929. In these days of luxuries, and rapid transit, let us not forget the days
when we taught the Spanish ‘Longhorns’ how to make nice trails ‘North of 36.’”
Spaugh has marked in red pencil a couple of passages in the book where Cook
refers to him or incidents involving him. Laid in are two photos of author (one
at his desk writing, with his dated and signed ink note on verso: “This photo
will prove that the ‘Old Trail’ Boys are far more pretty than when they worked
with the ‘Cows’ on the ‘Chisholm Trail’”; and the other from 1937, showing Cook
with the daughter of Chief Red Cloud (then over 100 years old), “One of the
last of the old Sioux ‘Wild Women.’” Affixed to rear pastedown are three more
photos of Cook, these with Spaugh (contemporary ink identifications). Penciled
telegram affixed to back pastedown (Harold J. Cook telegraphs Spaugh on January
2, 1942, that “Father died Sunday afternoon”). Related newspaper clippings laid
in.
First edition, fourth printing. One passage in Cook’s book
referring to Spaugh is on pp. 82-83: “By the time we got to Indian Territory
we were all about played out. It had been raining a great deal, and we had lost
a lot of sleep. One night we had a terrible storm and were up all night. It
rained all the next day, and we were with the cattle again all that night. The
rain continued the following day, and when night fell every old cowboy in the
outfit—that is, those over thirty years of age—quit the herd and went to camp,
where they lay down in the mud. They said they could not stand it any more and
must have rest. The only ones who stayed with Mac Stewart (for he was with the
cattle all the time, and would have fallen dead from his saddle before he would
ever have let them get away from him) were three very young cowboys named Charley
Dyer, Bert Helbert, and Addison Spaugh, and myself. I could scarcely keep myself
awake at all, and would even go to sleep riding along, in spite of myself. At
last I went to the wagon, got a piece of tobacco from the cook, and repeated
my old trick of rubbing some of the spittle on my eyelids and into my eyes.
By thus torturing myself I kept going. The cattle were so nearly worn out by
this time that they could not run, but kept drifting about all night. In the
morning the sun came out warm and bright, and the cattle, after grazing a while,
all lay down to rest.... Stewart did not say a word to the men who had left
the herd, but I could see very plainly that they would never again go over the
trail with him.” $500.00
1130. COOK, James H. Fifty Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. Another copy. Light shelf wear, slight discoloration along lower edge of back cover, otherwise fine in lightly worn d.j. Author’s presentation copy to Ira C. Prichard. $110.00
1131. COOK, James H. Fifty Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. Another copy. Slight shelf wear, lower corners bumped, else fine. Dust jacket not present. Presentation copy from Emil Kopac to A. L. L. Condit, with author’s signed inscription dated March 4, 1931. $85.00
1132. COOK, James H. Fifty Years on the Old Frontier.... New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925. Another copy. Slight shelf wear. Presentation copy from one noted Western writer to another: “To William MacLeod Raine, In memory of the many kindnesses you have shown me and may you find something of interest in this book. Sincerely, William M. Breakenridge.” $60.00
1133. COOK, James H. Longhorn
Cowboy.... Edited and with an Introduction by Howard R. Driggs. New York:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1942]. xi [3] 241 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations
by Herbert Stoops. 8vo, original beige pictorial cloth. Binding lightly soiled,
slight browning to endpapers, otherwise fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition. Dobie, p. 100. Dykes, Fifty Great Western
Illustrators (Stoops 17). Guns 485. Herd 570: “This book is
founded upon the original edition [see item 1124 herein]...and arranged for
younger readers.” Malone, Wyomingana, p. 18. Saunders 2834. $70.00
1134. COOK, James H. Longhorn Cowboy.... New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1942]. Another copy. Covers soiled, corners bumped, endpapers lightly browned, internally very good. Dust jacket not present. $10.00
1135. COOK, Jim Lane. Lane
of the Llano: Being the Story of Jim (Lane) Cook As Told to T. M. Pearce.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1936. xiv, 269 pp., frontispiece portrait,
text illustrations, endpaper maps with border composed of brands. 8vo, original
tan pictorial cloth. Slight shelf wear, otherwise very fine in very good d.j.
with a few minor chips.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:89. Dykes, Kid
239: “Cook’s father was John Chisum’s partner on the Concho in 1867 and as a
boy of nine, Jim Cook accompanied a herd from there to the Pecos in New Mexico.”
Guns 486. Herd 572. Saunders 2835. Firsthand account of life on
the Llano Estacado of Texas and eastern New Mexico. $80.00
1136. COOK, John R. The
Border and the Buffalo: An Untold Story of the Southwest Plains; The Bloody
Border of Missouri and Kansas; The Story of the Slaughter of the Buffalo; Westward
among the Big Game and Wild Tribes; A Story of Mountain and Plain. Topeka:
Crane & Company, 1907. xii, 351 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations
(some full-page, mostly photographic). 8vo, original beige pictorial cloth.
Lower corners lightly bumped, endsheets a bit browned, otherwise fine, with
related 4-page poem (“Address to the Hunters, after the Ninety Days’ Scout”
by Vox Buffaloreum) tipped in at back. Newsclipping laid in.
First edition. Campbell, p. 58: “A classic of the Hide Hunters.
The author’s personal account. A collector’s item.” Dobie, p. 159. Dykes, Kid
46: “Very scarce.” Guns 487: “Contains some information about the Benders
of Kansas.” Graff 864: “Border warfare between Missouri and Kansas and the slaughter
of the buffalo are the principle subjects.” Howes C730. Rader 909. Rittenhouse
128. Saunders 2836. Tate, Indians of Texas 2032. There was not room enough
on the vast plains for buffalo, Native Americans, cattle, and farmers, and in
the struggle for survival, the buffalo were the first to succumb. Frontiersman
Cook (1844-1917) grew up in Kansas and Indiana and fought with the 12th
Kansas Infantry in anti-guerilla service. He visited Texas, New Mexico, and
other points in the West and lived in Dakota Territory and Eugene, Oregon, in
later life. The fame of this candid southern plainsman (and the emphasis of
the present book) is the destruction of the buffalo, which Cook graphically
relates from a firsthand perspective. Ranching interest is interspersed throughout
the book. Cook tells of his 1873 trip to Texas (chapter 2), where he became
embroiled in a feud and stampede related to the Texas cattle fever trouble along
the Indian Territory border. Chapter 3 on his sojourn in New Mexico includes
the amusing story of an atheist and some cowboys who were driving a herd of
cattle to Taos from the Arkansas River. While engaged in a buffalo hunt on the
Llano Estacado in Texas, Cook noted that in summer of 1881 approximately 200,000
head of Texas cattle were herded across the North Fork of Red River; he observed
several trail drives in progress (3,000 head destined for the Wind River country
and another 2,500 head to stock a range on the Cimarron in southwest Kansas).
He comments: “We hunters were making it possible for this to be done” (chapter
7). $190.00
1137. COOK, John R. The Border and the Buffalo.... Topeka: Crane & Company, 1907. Another copy. Very fine. $140.00
1138. COOK, John R. The
Border and the Buffalo.... Chicago: Lakeside Press; R. R. Donnelley &
Sons Company, 1938. [1, ad] xliv, 480 pp., frontispiece portrait. 16mo, original
red cloth, t.e.g. Fine.
Second edition, edited by Milo Milton Quaife, with added introduction,
notes, and index. Quaife comments in his introduction: “As long as we continue
a meat-eating race, the calling of the butcher will remain an essential one....
Although the destruction of the buffalo was a necessary preliminary to the advance
of civilization over his domain, the professional killers who performed the
service have gathered no haloes; instead they have almost universally met with
disapproval and contempt. John R. Cook...was a commonplace man who by force
of circumstances became a professional buffalo-killer. More than this, he regarded
his work as a patriotic service.... For unadorned realism, the narrative he
prepared has seldom, if ever been surpassed. Historically, it has two claims
to importance; it presents the clearest first-hand recital ever written of the
wholesale destruction of earth’s grandest ruminant; and it supplies as good
a defense of the work of the destroyers as can be made.” $50.00
1139. [COOK BOOK]. The
Texas Cook Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Cooking. Seguin: The South Texas
Printing Company, [1950]. 200 pp., text illustrations by A. Medlin. 8vo, original
white pictorial boards lettered in red, upper cover with illustration of a cowboy,
spiral bound. Very fine.
First edition. Chosen for the cover illustration, a caricature
of the stereotypical cowboy in full regalia. Text from the recipe for Huevos
Rancheros: “They tell us to tear up all other Rancheros recipes. This one is
‘IT.’ We do know when our rancher friend dictated it to us in the bank one day,
she sounds like a person who knows her Mexican cookery” (p. 9). $55.00
1140. COOKE, Philip St. George,
William Henry Chase Whiting & Francois Xavier Aubry. Exploring
Southwestern Trails, 1846-1854. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938.
383 [2] pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, foldout map. 8vo, original red cloth,
t.e.g. Very fine.
First edition. Southwest Historical Series 7; edited by Ralph
P. Bieber. Campbell, pp. 137, 191-92. Clark & Brunet 19:VII. Edwards, Enduring
Desert, p. 27. Flake 2500n. Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 202.
Howes S791. Paher, Nevada 128. Rittenhouse 47. Wallace, Arizona History
IV:51. This volume contains three accounts of travel in the Southwest. Cooke’s
journal as commanding officer of the Mormon Battalion on its march from New
Mexico to California in 1846-1847 first appeared in print as a government document
(SED 2, 1849). The present version “follows Colonel Cooke’s manuscript journal
more accurately” (Plains & Rockies IV:165n). “The Battle of the Bulls”
(a herd of wild cattle attacking the wagon train) was one of the more bizarre
incidents in Cooke’s astonishing march with the Mormon Battalion across the
Colorado Desert to San Diego to open a wagon road to California. While in the
region of the “Ranches of Albuquerque” trying to purchase replacement livestock
and rations in preparation for the rigors of the dreaded jornada de muerte,
Cooke found that the entire male population had deserted one of the villages
of the “Lunas” (great sheep holders) in order to pursue Navajos who had rustled
6,600 sheep; Cooke’s men recovered the herd and purchased a portion of it. The
party rounded up wild cattle near the vast old Arizpe Ranch at San Bernardino
(near the northern boundary of Sonora), which, according to Cooke, had lost
some 80,000 head of cattle to Apache rustlers, as had other ranches in the region.
After a perilous journey, the party arrived in California at Warner’s Ranch
(good description of the ranch and Warner). Regarding the other two accounts
in this volume: Whiting established the southern route (which would become so
important for Texas cattle drovers supplying the California market); and after
Aubry grew weary of his occupation as a Santa Fe trader, he made two journeys
(1852 and 1854) to California to drive New Mexican sheep westward. $220.00
1141. COOLIDGE, Dane. Arizona
Cowboys. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1938. 160 pp., frontispiece,
photographic plates by the author. 8vo, original maroon cloth. Faint browning
to endsheets, small label partially removed from lower pastedown, otherwise
fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about the
Cattle Industry 20. Dobie, p. 100. Guns 488: “Contains a chapter
on the Pleasant Valley War between the Grahams and the Tewkesburys.” Herd
573. Wallace, Arizona History VII:21. Firsthand account of cowboy life
on the Arizona range in the early 1900s. Dane Coolidge (1873-1940), Harvard-trained
naturalist and writer of western fiction and non-fiction, worked in the West
as a field collector of animals and as wild-life photographer before turning
to writing fiction and non-fiction. “He worked his way through mining towns,
on Indian reservations, and ranches, collecting stories and everywhere making
friends among the Indians” (Tuska & Piekarski, Encyclopedia of Frontier
& Western Fiction, pp. 54-55). $95.00
1142. COOLIDGE, Dane. Arizona Cowboys. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1938. Another copy. Very fine, without the d.j. $65.00
1143. COOLIDGE, Dane. Comanche
Chaser. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1938. 255 pp. 12mo, original tan
cloth. Minor soiling to covers, a few spots on spine, endpapers browned, overall
very good. Author’s signed presentation inscription in ink: “Comanche Chaser
With many thanks to my kindest critic, G. W. Harris. From Dane Coolidge, Berkeley,
Cal., April 3, 1938” on a card tipped onto front free endpaper.
First edition. “In 1937 The New York Times declared
‘no man alive today writes better Westerns’” (Tuska & Piekarski, Encyclopedia
of Frontier & Western Fiction, pp. 54-55). Novel centered on French-Canadian
Hautecoeur at his forted ranch in the valley of the Little Cimarron, New Mexico,
“a tract of land, much as kings conferred.... Every morning the Mexican herders
drove their bands of bleating sheep through the gateway to the plains below;
and up the valley, well shut in by the high walls of the canyon, thousands of
cattle grazed along the meandering stream. Such was the domain of the noble
Frenchman.” The action opens with Comanche rustlers making off with the Utes’
prize herd of horses, but then the tables turn. A contemporary review of the
book in the New York Herald Tribune stated: “A humdinger and no mistake,
complete with Utes, Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches, two heroic trappers, a couple
of nice girls.... A grand fantasia based on the Kit Carson days.” $80.00
1144. COOLIDGE, Dane.
Death Valley Prospectors. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1937. 178
pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates by author. 8vo, original orange
cloth with photograph by author. Very fine in lightly worn d.j. (price-clipped).
Pencil presentation inscription to scholar Margaret Long from Anne Martin.
First edition. Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 55: “Activities
of notable Death Valley characters.” Paher, Nevada 378: “Stories of emigrants
and prospectors begin with 1849.” Rocq 2292. The chapter on Death Valley Scotty
reveals that as a young man he was a bronco rider and worked as one of Buffalo
Bill’s Big Six cowboys. $80.00
1145. COOLIDGE, Dane. Fighting
Men of the West. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, [1932]. 343 pp.,
frontispiece, photographic plates (some by author). 8vo, original red cloth.
Endpapers lightly browned, otherwise fine in near fine d.j. (slightly chipped).
Newsclipping laid in.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:90. Campbell, p. 68.
Dobie, p. 140. Dykes, Kid 182: “Despite the fact that John S. Chisum
hardly ever carried a gun, Coolidge devotes a chapter to him.... Since [Chisum]
was a thief on a grand scale, stealing entire herds rather than a cow or two,
he became the cattle king of his day.” Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 55:
“Even in its reprint editions this book is hard to come by.” Guns 489.
Herd 574. Howes C742. Rader 916. Saunders 2840: “Biographies of Charles
Goodnight, John Chisum, Clay Allison, and others.” Wallace, Arizona History
X:21. Tuska & Piekarski, Encyclopedia of Frontier
& Western Fiction, p. 55 (evaluating the present work, Death Valley
Prospectors, and Texas Cowboys as the best of the author’s non-fiction
books). One of the chapters is devoted to noted rustler-regulator
Texas Ranger John R. Hughes (see item 1150 below). $85.00
1146. COOLIDGE, Dane. Fighting Men of the West. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, [1932]. Another copy. Binding moderately discolored, fore-edges and a few leaves foxed. Dust jacket not present. $35.00
1147. COOLIDGE, Dane. Jess
Roundtree, Texas Ranger. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1933.
252 pp. 12mo, original blue cloth. Spine faded, a few spots to upper cover,
moderately foxed, overall very good.
First edition. Romantic Western novel set against the backdrop
of 1880s Texas range life. “[Coolidge] spent a good deal of time in mining towns,
on Indian reservations, on round-ups, and with Texas Rangers on the
Rio Grande, collecting material for stories” (Handbook
of Texas Online: Dane Coolidge). $30.00
1148. COOLIDGE, Dane. Long
Rope. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, [1935]. 254 pp. 12mo, original
orange cloth. Lightly worn, spine sunned, a few stains to binding, fore-edges
foxed, endpapers browned. Author’s signed presentation inscription tipped onto
front free endpaper: “To G. W. Harris. My Good Angel on the Times. With
many thanks for his boost on Long Rope. Dane Coolidge, April 28, 1935.”
First edition. Western novel about rodeo cowboys. $55.00
1149. COOLIDGE, Dane. Old
California Cowboys. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1939. 158 pp.,
frontispiece, plates (author’s photos and old prints). 8vo, original light blue
cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. with only slight wear (price-clipped).
First edition. Dobie, p. 100: “Well illustrated by photographs.”
Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 59 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating”
#110): “Coolidge, sometimes historian and a better than average western novelist,
was an itinerant photographer. He visited the roundups, camps, and ranches taking
pictures everywhere.” Herd 575. The book is divided into three sections,
California, Arizona, and Mexico, and discusses the historical background of
vaqueros from the Spanish era to modern times. $55.00
Item 1149
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