425.     BIRGE, Julius C. The Awakening of the Desert. Boston: Richard G. Badger & Gorham Press, [1912]. [4] 429 pp., frontispiece portrait, plates, endpaper map. Thick 8vo, original red buckram. Upper cover slightly discolored, otherwise fine.
            Second edition, with two preliminary leaves added, foreword and afterword (first edition, Boston, 1912). Flake 528n. Graff 299n: “Although a latecomer, Birge’s account of his trip overland in 1866 from Whitewater, Wisconsin, to Salt Lake City, is a fine first hand narrative.” Howes B463. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 2047: “Of exceptional worth for the light it throws on freighting, army posts, Indians, and a travel season fraught with danger. Descriptions of Nebraska City, Fort Kearny, Morrison’s Ranch, Julesburg.” This 1866 overland includes an account of a brush with the Sioux at Baker’s Ranch. Several chapters on Mormon history, social life, and customs, including a chapter on the Mormon Trail. Chapter 23 is “Some Episodes in Stock Hunting.”      $80.00

426.     BIRNEY, Hoffman. Vigilantes: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall of the Plummer Gang of Outlaws in and about Virginia City Montana in the Early ’60’s. Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, [1929]. [1] 346 pp., plates, map, text illustrations. 8vo, original dark brown cloth. Moderate outer wear, ink ownership inscription on front flyleaf, otherwise fine in slightly worn and soiled d.j. The d.j. is scarce.
            First edition, limited edition (#201 of 250 signed copies). Adams, One-Fifty 11. Guns 214: “About a third of this book appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in short articles before publication in book form.” Graff 1086. Howes D345. Smith 850. Set in the backdrop of the ranching country, some of the executions of outlaws took place on ranches. Includes information on “Tex” Crowell, the notorious horse and cattle thief.         $275.00

427.     BIRNEY, Hoffman. Vigilantes.... Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, [1929]. 346 pp., plates, text illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine in moderately worn, browned, and price-clipped d.j.
            First trade edition.      $95.00

428.     BIRNEY, Hoffman. Vigilantes.... Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, [1929]. Another copy. Remains of pale green paper formerly pasted to front pastedown, small bookplate on front flyleaf, otherwise fine, d.j. not present.      $55.00

429.     BIRNEY, Hoffman. Zealots of Zion. Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Company, [1931]. 317 pp., frontispiece, plates, double-page map, text illustrations. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine in d.j.
            First edition. Farquhar, The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon 37: “Of particular importance because of the chapters on the migration to the San Juan and the amazing episode of ‘The-Hole-in-the-Rock.’” Paher, Nevada 136: “Four chapters are devoted to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The chapter ‘Outposts of Zion’ discusses Mormon settlements in the Great Basin, such as Mormon Station and vicinity and Los Vegas.” Cowboys in the early Mormon era in Utah apparently had pitiful lives: “Those...barefoot boys herded the cattle, winter and summer. They were paid two cents daily for each head in their charge, and a premium was placed on vigilance by the custom of docking the young herders four cents for each cow that was not returned at evening to the home corral” (p. 43).            $70.00

430.     BIRNEY, Hoffman. Zealots of Zion. Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Company, [1931]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original red cloth. Fine in price-clipped d.j.            $70.00

431.     BISHOP, Curtis. Lots of Land: From Material Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas, Bascom Giles. Austin: Steck Company, [1949]. x, 307 pp., illustrations by Warren Hunter. 8vo, original brown cloth. Light foxing to endpapers, otherwise fine in lightly worn and price-clipped d.j.
            First edition. Herd 265: “Chapter 5 deals with the cowboy and the Texas cattle industry.”        $40.00

432.     BISHOP, Nathaniel H. The Pampas and Andes: A Thousand Miles’ Walk across South America.... Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869. [2] 310 pp. 8vo, original plum cloth. A poor copy, binding worn, frayed, and chipped, front hinge cracked, a few nicks and stains to text.
            First edition. Jones, South America Rediscovered, p. 242. Nichols, Gaucho 223: “The description of the gaucho is most uncomplimentary.” Palau 29977. Sabin 5613. Chapter “A Visit to the Pampa Country” has information on cattle, customs of gauchos, ostriches, riding a wild colt, etc.; two chapters on “Life on the Pampas” include gaucho etiquette and visit to a rancho; other sections have information on estancia house and cattle farm, and much interesting information on agriculture, weather, natural history, mining, and local customs. The author achieved his peripatetic feat at the age of 17 on a total budget of $50.       $55.00

433.     BISHOP, Nathaniel H. The Pampas and Andes: A Thousand Miles’ Walk across South America. Boston & New York: Lee and Shepard, Publishers & Charles T. Dillingham, 1883. [2] 310 [2, ads] pp., 4 wood-engraved plates, including frontispiece (“Throwing the Lasso”). 8vo, original drab green pebbled cloth. Moderate shelf wear, especially to spinal extremities, shaken, small bookdealer’s inkstamp on blank flyleaf, generally good to very good. Dudley R. Dobie’s copy, with his ink ownership inscription and pencil notes in regard to the book (on blank endsheet and on 2 laid-in slips of paper).
            “Eleventh edition.” The illustrations did not appear in the first edition.      $55.00

434.     Bits and Pieces: All That’s Left of the Old West and Your Own Western History Magazine (editor, Mabel E. Brown, sole owner). Incomplete run containing 82 issues: (1:1, 4-12); 2:1-9; 3:1-12; 4:1-12; 5:1-3 (2 copies of issue 3), 6-12; 6:1-6; 7:1-6; 8:1-6; 9:1-6; 10:1-4). Each issue has approximately 20 pp. and is illustrated. 4to, original pictorial wrappers. Very fine.
            First printings. Note inside front cover: “BITS AND PIECES is a magazine of Western History with special interest in Northeastern Wyoming and the Black Hills area. It is published monthly in the hope that fragments of history contained in its pages will fill some of the many ‘gaps’ which exist in the jigsaw puzzle of the past.” Much on ranching, and rich in women’s and social history.         $330.00

435.     BIXBY-SMITH, Sarah. Adobe Days...Events in the Life of a California Girl on a Sheep Ranch and in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles While It Was Yet a Small and Humble Town; Together with an Account of How Three Young Men from Maine in Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Three Drove Sheep and Cattle across the Plains, Mountains, and Deserts from Illinois to the Pacific Coast.... Cedar Rapids: Torch Press, 1925. 208 pp. 12mo, original half beige buckram over boards, printed paper spine label. Very fine in defective d.j. (half of upper d.j. torn away and absent).
            First edition. Cowan, p. 55. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 37a. Flake 538a. Hanna, Yale Exhibit. Herd 266. King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 13: “Recollections of growing up on a sheep ranch near present-day Long Beach, California.” Mintz, The Trail 38. Rocq. 4401. Includes an account of herding sheep across the plains from Illinois to California.           $70.00

436.     BIXBY-SMITH, Sarah. Adobe Days.... Cedar Rapids: Torch Press, 1925. Another copy. Contemporary ink gift inscription on blank flyleaf, otherwise very fine, d.j. not present. $55.00

437.     BIXBY-SMITH, Sarah. Adobe Days.... Los Angeles: Jake Zeitlin, 1931. [7] vi [2] 148 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic plates (mostly portraits and photographs of ranches). 8vo, original green cloth with printed paper spine label. Moderate shelf wear and discoloration, front hinge cracked, bookplate and small dealer’s label on front free endpaper, otherwise very good.
            Third edition of preceding, revised and enlarged, illustrations added. Rocq 4403.           $30.00

438.     BLACK, A. P. (Ott). The End of the Long Horn Trail [wrapper title]. Selfridge, North Dakota: Selfridge Journal, n.d. (ca. 1936). [1] 59 pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (mostly photographs). 8vo, original tan printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine.
            First edition. Adams, Burs I:35. Dobie, p. 126: “Printed as the author talked.... Black was blind and sixty-nine years old when he dictated his memoirs to a college student who had sense enough to retain the flavor.... Reading him is like listening.” Dykes, Kid 232. Guns 217: “Tells of knowing Bill Powers when he was wagon boss of the Hashknife outfit.... The author also declares that Calamity Jane was Hickok’s wife and that she owned a ranch near New England, North Dakota.” Herd 267.        $65.00

439.     BLACK, Reading W. The Life and Diary of Reading W. Black: A History of Early Uvalde. Arranged by Ike Moore. Uvalde, Texas: Privately printed for the El Progreso Club, 1934. vi [2] 93 pp., frontispiece portrait, plate of portraits, double-page map, woodcut text illustration. 8vo, original green wrappers, stapled. Light wear and fading to wraps, otherwise fine.
            First edition. CBC 4523. In 1853 Black (Handbook of Texas Online: Reading Wood Black) settled at the present site of Uvalde, engaging in stockraising and trading. Black built the first house in Uvalde, laid out the first streets, and organized Uvalde County. Moore’s essay on Black and the early history of the upper Nueces country (pp. 1-34) is followed by Black’s diary entries from December 30, 1853, to February 19, 1856. Good source on Native Americans in the area at the beginning of Anglo settlement.      $85.00

440.     BLACK, Robert C. Island in the Rockies: The History of Grand County, Colorado, to 1930. Boulder: Pruett Publishing Company for the Grand County Pioneer Society, [1969]. 435 [1] pp., frontispiece, photographic illustrations, maps. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine in publisher’s slipcase.
            First edition, limited edition (#47 of 250 signed copies in slipcase). Wynar 1020. Mostly of mining and railroads and other infrastructure, but area ranches, Stock Growers Association, rodeo, etc. are mentioned.         $140.00

441.     BLACK, Robert C. Island in the Rockies: The History of Grand County, Colorado, to 1930. Boulder: Pruett Publishing for the Grand County Pioneer Society, [1969]. 435 pp., frontispiece, photographic illustrations, maps. 8vo, original grey cloth. Very fine, with printed errata page laid in.
            First trade edition.      $45.00

442.     BLACK, William L. A New Industry: or, Raising the Angora Goat, and Mohair, for Profit...Also a Number of Letters from Farmers, and Ranchmen, in Iowa, Oregon, California, and Other States, Concerning the Utility of the Angora Goat in Clearing Brushy Land.... [Fort Worth: Keystone, 1900]. 486, xxxvii pp., frontispiece, illustrations (mostly photographic). 8vo, original dark slate blue cloth. Spine faded, light shelf wear, internally very fine, with author’s presentation inscription on fly-leaf and signature on frontispiece portrait.
            First edition. Howes B487.     $100.00

443.     BLAKE, Herbert Cody. Blake’s Western Stories: The Truth about Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), Wild Bill (J. B. Hickok), Dr. Carver, California Joe, Yellow Hand, Tall Bull, the Pony Express.... History and Busted Romances of the Old Frontier [wrapper title]. Brooklyn: Herbert Cody Blake, 1929. 32 pp., photographic portraits. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers, stapled. Slight wear to wraps, otherwise fine.
            First edition. Guns 220: “Scarce.” The cowpuncher-author attempts to debunk Cody’s claims of being an Indian Fighter.     $150.00

444.     BLAKE, Vernon. Goliad. [Goliad: Goliad Printing Company], n.d. (1935?). [2] 48 pp. 8vo, original pictorial wrappers. Fine.
            First edition. CBC 1939. In the late 1800s, cattle ranching was the primary regional activity. Good statistics, such as 42,096 cattle in Goliad in 1930. Includes a photograph of “Herding Turkeys in Goliad County.”     $30.00

445.     BLANCHARD, Leola Howard. Conquest of Southwest Kansas.... [Wichita: Wichita Eagle Press, 1931]. [1] 355 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographs). 8vo, original black pictorial cloth. One corner slightly bumped, otherwise very fine, fresh, and tight. Signed by author.
            First edition. Campbell, p. 165: “Dodge City, among other matters.” Guns 221. Herd 275. Rittenhouse 58. Good coverage of social history and pioneer women in Southwest Kansas.      $80.00

446.     BLANCHARD, Leola Howard. Conquest of Southwest Kansas.... [Wichita: Wichita Eagle Press, 1931]. Another copy. Very fine and bright.        $60.00

447.     BLANKENSHIP, Mary A. The West Is for Us: The Reminiscences of...Edited by Seymour V. Connor. Lubbock: West Texas Museum Association, 1958. [2] 125 pp., text illustrations (photographic and line drawings). 8vo, original tan cloth. Very fine, signed by editor Seymour V. Connor and illustrator Mrs. Doyle Thornhill. Scarce in cloth.
            First edition. King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup, p. 13. Winegarten I, p. 34. The author, who traveled by wagon from Erath to twenty miles south of Lubbock in 1901 and settled in a dugout, was the first woman pioneer in that area. Her account is an excellent source for social and domestic history of pioneer ranch life in the South Plains of Texas at the turn of the century. $55.00

448.     BLANKENSHIP, Mary A. The West Is for Us.... Lubbock: West Texas Museum Association, 1958. Another copy. Very fine.           $45.00

449.     BLASINGAME, Ike. Dakota Cowboy: My Life in the Old Days. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1958]. 317 pp., text illustrations by John Mariani, endpaper maps. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. with minor wear.
            First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #45: “About the best range country book published since...1941.... Authentic, entertaining, informative and slyly humorous.” Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 79 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Ike was a Matador cowboy and bronc peeler and this is a tremendously entertaining book that is also down to earth on all cow country happenings.” Reese, Six Score 11: “Blasingame came to the Dakotas from Texas in 1904 with an outfit of the Matador Land and Cattle Company. The book covers ranch life in the Dakotas for the next eight years.... Well-written. Blasingame recalled his range days vividly and frankly.” $150.00