153.            ASBURY, H. Sucker’s Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America from the Colonies to Canfield. New York: Dodd & Mead, 1938. x, 493 pp., plates. 8vo, original grey cloth. Slight shelf wear and endpapers browned, otherwise very good in price-clipped pictorial d.j. with light wear.
            First edition, later issue (in the grey cloth rather than pictorial boards). Guns 88: “Makes mention of many gunmen, such as John Wesley Hardin, Bat Masterson, King Fisher, the killing of Hickok, Soapy Smith, and the Clantons.” Includes a useful bibliography on gambling. Occasional cattle industry interest, such as a discussion of the unsavory character of cow towns like Abilene, Hays, and Dodge City in the 1870s. An intriguing gambling story relating to ranching: Tombstone gambler John Dougherty made the biggest raise ever risked on a poker hand in 1889; After rich Colorado City, Texas, cattleman Ike Jackson upped the ante with his ranch and 10,000 head of cattle, Dougherty raised the pot further by forcing New Mexico Governor L. Bradford Prince to sign a paper pledging the entire Territory of New Mexico; Jackson lost his ranch and cattle.   $40.00

154.     ASH, George. Captain George Ash: His Adventures and Life Story As Cowboy, Ranger, and Soldier. London: Drane’s, [1923?]. 234 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates. 12mo, original pink cloth. Edges bumped, spine sunned and stained, endpapers browned. Uncommon.
            Second edition (the first edition, published at Eastleigh, England the same year is very rare). Guns 89n: “This scarce little book tells about cattle rustling and outlawry in the Mexican border country.” Herd 176n. Howes A348n. In his preface, the Canadian-British soldier of fortune states: “After serving on the great ranches of the West as a cowboy I became an officer in the Texas Rangers. Foolishly crossing over into Mexico I fell into the hands of outlaws, was thrown into prison, to be released by that daring revolutionist, Pancho Villa, under whom I was forced to serve for nearly two years.” Ash describes how he worked as a cowboy in Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas (Bar L Ranch) and served in the Texas Rangers. The crude photographs capture the author in a variety of cowboy poses.            $250.00

155.            ASHLEY, Carlos. That Spotted Sow and Other Hill Country Ballads. Austin: Steck, [1949]. 63 pp., illustrations by Bugbee (terracotta on grey backgrounds). 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Minor cover wear, else fine.
            First edition. Campbell, p. 223. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Bugbee 11). Range verse. Ashley grew up in the San Saba country of Texas and practiced law as a vocation and ranching by avocation.            $15.00

156.     ATEN, Ira. Six and One-Half Years in the Ranger Service: The Memoirs of Ira Aten; Sergeant Company D, Texas Rangers [wrapper title]. Bandera: Frontier Times, 1945. [2] 64 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic illustrations. 4to, original slate blue wrappers with photographic illustration. Text browned due to acidic paper, otherwise very fine. A fragile pamphlet, seldom found in as good condition as this copy.
            First book edition (first published as a series in the Frontier Times). Campbell, p. 77. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 118 (“Ranger Reading”): “Highly readable.” Guns 91: “Aten tells of his efforts to suppress wire cutting and other lawlessness in Texas.” Herd 179: “Scarce.” Foreword by J. Marvin Hunter. See Thrapp IV, p. 19.            $125.00

157.            ATHEARN, Robert G. High Country Empire: The High Plains and Rockies. New York, Toronto & London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1960. viii [2] 358 pp., 16 photographic plates, endpaper maps. 8vo, original olive cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
            First edition. Includes Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and North and South Dakota. In the chapter on “The Cow Kingdom” the author declares: “From time to time in man’s experience, economic opportunities fall into place like tumblers in a combination lock. This happened to western cattle-raisers about 1865. Cattle could be picked up in quantity in Texas for four or five dollars a head; they would sell in a place like Minnesota for forty. The animals could be driven long distances. North of Texas, in present Kansas and Nebraska, were open plains rich in grass, a place to fatten the herds. Reaching out to this giant pasture were two principal rail branches, the Union Pacific and what would later be called the Kansas Pacific. It did not take enterprising Americans long to visualize the possibilities and to act. Shortly the Indians watched clouds of dust rise over bands of what they termed the ‘pinto buffalo,’ as the cowboys hazed their stock toward the rail heads. Now, the braves told each other, the invasion was from the south, as well as the east.”    $35.00

158.            ATHEARN, Robert G. Westward the Briton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953. xiv [2] 208 pp. 8vo, original maroon cloth. Very fine in d.j. Signed by author.
            First edition. Herd 180: “Many English men and women came to America’s West and wrote books about their experiences. Mr. Athearn deals largely with their reactions.” Several chapters are devoted to cowboys, cattle, and ranching. Contains a useful annotated bibliography.            $55.00

159.            ATHEARN, Robert G. Westward the Briton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953. Another copy. Very fine in d.j.            $50.00

160.            ATHEARN, Robert G. & Carl Ubbelohde. Centennial Colorado: Its Exciting Story. Denver: E. L. Chambers Publishing, 1959. 93 [3] pp., color photographic illustrations, map. 8vo, original multicolor wrappers. Tape stains to inside back cover, otherwise very fine. Signed by authors, and with related newsclipping laid in and contemporary ownership signature of Edith Williams Blunk.
            First edition. Wynar 4. Contains a chapter on ranching and references to the topic throughout, including documentary photos. $15.00

161.            ATHEARN, Robert G. & Carl Ubbelohde. Centennial Colorado.... Denver: E. L. Chambers Publishing, 1959. Another copy. Very fine.      $10.00

162.            ATHERTON, Faxon D. The California Diary of Faxon Dean Atherton, 1836-1839. San Francisco & Los Angeles: [Ward Ritchie Press for] California Historical Society, 1964. xxxii, 246 [1] pp., frontispiece, 15 plates (one foldout), folding map. 8vo, original blue buckram. Mint, in publisher’s mylar d.j. and slipcase.
            Deluxe limited edition (#241 of 325 copies, signed by editor Doyce B. Nunis, Jr.). Atherton (1815-77), “Massachusetts-born merchant, after a very successful career as a trader in Valparaiso (1833-60), where he had married into an aristocratic Chilean family...moved to California (1860), although he had already visited it (1836-38) on a voyage about which he wrote a diary (published 1964) [present work].... He lived as a country squire on a great estate in the part of Menlo Park renamed Atherton for him. His son married Gertrude Atherton” (Hart, Companion to California). Atherton has left us an excellent account of the last years of Mexican California, with observations on the hide and tallow trade and descriptions of many of the vast old ranchos. Editor Nunis’s detailed notes add to the value of this book.            $110.00

163.            ATHERTON, Gertrude. California, an Intimate History. New York & London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1914. [2] ix [3] 329 [1] pp., frontispiece, 39 photographic plates. 8vo, original red decorative cloth, t.e.g. Very fine and bright, partly unopened.
            First edition. Cowan, p. 22. Atherton includes many references to ranching and cattle in the early chapters, with good descriptions of the social life of pastoral California. Atherton also touches on the abandonment of the great California ranchos at the onset of the Gold Rush. She explores the fascinating history of Concepción Argüello, daughter of a Spanish governor of Alta California, who at age 15 became engaged to Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, founder of the Russian-American Company. Doña Concepción’s long wait for Rezanov and her later life as a Dominican nun served as a source of literary inspiration to Atherton and Bret Harte.            $40.00

164.            ATHERTON, Gertrude. Golden Gate Country. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, [1945]. xi [1] 256 pp., endpaper maps. 8vo, original tan buckram. Bookplate, contemporary pencil gift inscription, text lightly age-toned.
            First edition. Rocq 8145. Edited by Erskine Caldwell. Includes an account of Miss Abigail Smith Tuck, who married a wealthy rancher, John Marsh, “the First of the Cattle Kings.” Also has a chapter on Henry Miller and his start in ranching the San Joaquin valley.   $30.00

165.            ATHERTON, Lewis. The Cattle Kings. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, [1961]. xii, 308 pp., frontispiece, portraits, photographic illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original white cloth decorated with brand. Very fine in d.j. with minor chipping.
            First edition. Aydelotte, p. 3: “Atherton in his fine book The Cattle Kings (1961) had tried to correction the distortion created by excessive attention to the cowboy. ‘I have concentrated on the role of the Western cattleman in American culture. I believe that ranchers were far more important than cowboys in shaping cultural developments... As hired hands on horseback who compromised with their environment at relatively low levels, cowhands exerted little influence on the course of American history. On the other hand, ranchers tried to dominate their environment, and at least succeeded in modifying it.’”Guns 92: “Has some information on the Johnson County War.” King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 13: “Includes some factual information on the wives of the ‘Cattle Kings.’” Mohr, The Range Country 627: “Excellent account of Goodnight, Littlefield, Kohrs, King, and many others.”            $40.00

166.            ATHERTON, Lewis. The Cattle Kings. Bloomington & London: University of Indiana Press, [1971]. xii, 308 pp., photographic illustrations. 8vo, original brown cloth decorated with brand. Very fine, without the d.j.
            First edition, fourth printing.            $10.00

167.            ATONDO [Y ANTILLON, Isidro de]. First from the Gulf to the Pacific: The Diary of the Kino-Atondo Penisular Expedition. December 14, 1684–January 13, 1685, Transcribed, Translated, and Edited by W. Michael Mathes. Los Angeles: [Printed by Grant Dahlstrom at Castle Press, Pasadena, California for] Dawson’s Book Shop, 1969. 60 [2] pp., folding map, decorated title, text illustrations (photographic). 12mo, original green cloth. Very fine.
            First edition, limited edition (500 copies). Baja California Travels Series 16. Mathes translates and ably edits this diary recording the inland expedition to cross the Baja California peninsula in search for fertile terrain and possible settlement on the Pacific Coast of California. Atondo acted in his capacity of secular authority, and Kino (father of the cattle industry in the Southwest) served as ecclesiastical authority. After two weeks of hard travel beginning December 14, 1685, the party achieved the first European crossing of the Baja California peninsula. Their plan was to travel from San Bruno to Magdalena Bay, but the party went too far north. A second expedition was undertaken in January, but the party was not able to cross the rugged Sierra de Giganta and returned to San Bruno with a report that the land was not well suited for settlement. Although Kino petitioned to continue the development of California, authorities ordered abandonment of California (12 years later Salvatierra would finally open California to permanent settlement). We include this important diary because of Kino’s importance to the cattle industry and because the diary shows Kino’s methods of assessment of the land traversed for development of stockraising (documenting water resources and pasturage), agriculture, and mining.  $55.00

168.            ATWOOD, A. The Conquerors: Historical Sketches of the American Settlement of the Oregon Country, Embracing Facts in the Life and Work of Rev. Jason Lee. N.p.: Jennings & Graham, n.d. [copyright 1907]. 316 pp., frontispiece portrait, 8 plates, 12 portraits, 2 maps, facsimile. 8vo, original blue cloth, t.e.g. Bookseller’s label on pastedown, endpapers lightly browned, otherwise very fine.
            First edition. Smith 353. Chapter 2 discusses Jason Lee’s formation of a cattle company in Oregon in 1837. The cattle company purchased 800 head of longhorn Mexican cattle and 16 horses at $3-$5 a head; and about a hundred of the cattle were lost on the rough drive from California to Oregon. This difficult and exasperating experience was the first major cattle drive to Oregon, and is well known through the celebrated diary of Philip Leget Edwards. Many other references to cattle and ranching are present in this book, especially in the final chapter, where statistics are provided.            $35.00

169.            ATWOOD, E. Bagby. The Regional Vocabulary of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1962]. xiii [1] 273 pp., maps, tables. 8vo, original red cloth. Light shelf wear, otherwise fine in fine d.j.
            First edition. Basic Texas Books 3: “This is the most important work on Texas linguistics.... Scholarly, yet utterly fascinating.” CBC 4930. Much on ranching vocabulary, along with “Southwestern Words” and “Lexicographical Pilón: Authorities for ‘Border’ Spanish.”            $80.00

170.            ATWOOD, Wallace W. The Rocky Mountains. New York: Vanguard Press, [1945]. 324 pp., plates (mostly photographic), portraits, maps (1 foldout), text illustrations. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in lightly soiled d.j.
            First edition. Herd 183. Malone, Wyomingana, p. 12: “An appreciation of the splendor of the Rockies and a scientific geological treatise.... Illustrated with striking photographs and drawings. Use of the mountains for mining, ranching, tourist enjoyment.”            $40.00

171.            AUGUST, Ray. “Cowboys vs. Rancheros: The Origins of Western American Livestock Law” in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly 96:4 (April 1993). [Austin]: Texas State Historical Association, 1993. Pp. 457-88. 8vo, original multicolor pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
            First printing. Has good information on cattle law, with sections on fencing, the history of branding (with pictures of Egyptian and Mexican brands), rustling, recording, and strays. The colorful cover illustration is Ila McAfee’s painting, “Longhorns Watering on a Cattle Drive” (in the Gilcrease Collection).            $10.00

172.            AUSTIN, Mary. The Flock. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and Company & Riverside Press, [1906]. [10] 266 [2] pp., frontispiece and text illustrations by E. Boyd Smith. 8vo, original tan cloth. Covers stained and lightly abraded, interior clean and bright.
            First edition, second state. Campbell, p. 129. Dobie, pp. 93, 95. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Smith 30). Edwards, Enduring Desert, p. 14: “Narrative of the sheep in California.... Mary Austin writes charmingly.... The flock, the herder, the dogs, the predators, the land itself—all are depicted in absorbing detail.... An imperishable classic of the desert.”            $35.00

173.            AUSTIN, Mary. Isidro. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and Company & Riverside Press, 1905. vii [3] 425 [3, ads] pp., 4 color plates by Eric Pape. 8vo, original olive gilt-pictorial cloth. Binding rubbed and a few small abrasions, interior fine.
            First edition of author’s first novel. Erisman & Etulain, Fifty Western Writers, p. 299. Lyday, p. 13. The hero of this novel set in Southern California must choose between managing his father’s sheep ranch and entering the priesthood. Central to the plot is a shepherd named El Zarzo, a young woman disguised as a boy.     $65.00

174.            AUSTIN, Mary. The Land of Little Rain. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and Company & Riverside Press, 1903. xi [5] 280 [2] pp., pictorial title page, frontispiece, 3 full-page plates, numerous marginal decorations by E. Boyd Smith. Square 8vo, original dark olive green pictorial cloth gilt, t.e.g. Light shelf wear (especially at foot of spine and lower front corner), a few small stains, interior quite fine.
            First edition of author’s first book. Cowan, p. 24. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Smith 29); Dykes, Western High Spots, pp. 50, 70 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #32). Edwards, Desert Harvest 1: “Mary Austin’s delightful classic of the desert stands conspicuously alone in its unique literary style and in its vivid portrayal of life on the desert;” Enduring Desert, p. 14: “Ranks among the all-time great books on California.” Graff 114. Howell, California 50:273: “The illustrations and marginal decoration by E. Boyd Smith vividly capture the atmosphere of the desert life described in this literary classic.” Howes A400. Notable American Women I, pp. 67-69: “Mary Austin determined upon a writing career. While moving with her husband from one parched desert town to another she worked at the craft and made studies of the Indians she encountered. A dozen years of ‘picking and prying’ into the mysteries of the wastelands at last crystallized in fourteen sketches which she wrote at white heat. They were published in 1903 as The Land of Little Rain, her first book, which brought her sudden renown and survives yet as a Western classic.... Mary Austin’s chief accomplishment as an author remains her treatment of the arid regions of the West and their manifold life, including that of the Indian. Her nature writings, which include permanent classics, are justly equated with those of John Muir, John Burroughs, Thoreau, and the two Bartrams.” Powell, California Classics, pp. 44-52. Zamorano 80 #2. “There was a fence in that country shutting in a cattle range, and along its fifteen miles of posts one could be sure of finding a bird or two in every strip of shadow.... None other than this long brown land lays such a hold on the affections.... Men who have lived there, miners and cattle-men, will tell you this, not so fluently, but emphatically, cursing the land and going back to it” (p. 15-16).            $410.00

175.            AUSTIN, Mary. The Land of Little Rain. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and Company & Riverside Press, 1903. Another copy. Carl Hertzog’s copy with his bookplate. Fair copy only: Extremities and corners frayed, upper hinge broken (but repaired with masking tape), occasional foxing and staining to interior, front free endpaper with contemporary manuscript ownership inscription and small stamp, printed slip about author, and old pencil notes noting prices in 1945, 1955, and 1981.            $220.00

176.            AUSTIN, Mary. The Land of Little Rain. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin and Company & Riverside Press, 1950. xviii [2] 133 [2] pp., 48 photoplates by Ansel Adams, endpaper maps. 4to, original yellow and orange cloth. Very fine in d.j. with light chipping and a few clean marginal tears.
            First printing of this handsome edition of Austin’s 1903 classic, enhanced by the addition of Ansel Adams’s superb photographs. Introduction by Carl Van Doren.            $275.00