1540. DOBIE, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. New
York: Bantam Books, [1951]. [12] 212 pp. 16mo, original multicolor pictorial
wraps by Tom Lea. Remarkably fine, especially for a popular paperback of this
vintage. This one is from Dudley R. Dobie’s library and looks so fresh
that it must have been immediately stashed with his other treasures.
First paperback edition (unabridged). Dykes, Fifty Great
Western Illustrators (Lea 128) McVicker A7b. Dobie for the masses, with histrionic
advertising blurb on half-title: “Fabulous wealth and incredibly savagery....
The REAL Southwest. Out of the turbulent history of the Southwest comes this
record of blood and treasure. Here are the arrogant Spaniards sweltering in armor
and encased in fear. Here is the twang of an Apache arrow, the flat crack of
a rifle, the rattle of pistol fire. And here is also silence—the shimmering,
heat-cracked silence of the vast Southwest.” $25.00
1541. DOBIE, J. Frank. As the Moving Finger Writ. [Austin]:
Privately printed, [1955]. 12 pp. Large 8vo, original salmon printed wrappers.
Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from Southwest
Review (Autumn 1955). McVicker D53. Mohr, The Range Country 664. Christmas
greeting from the Dobies, containing an essay on the Texas Review and
its successor, the Southwest Review, with references to Edward Gosse (including
his barbed criticism of an article on cowboy songs), Walter Prescott Webb, John
Lomax, Henry Nash Smith, William Faulkner, et al. $25.00
1542. DOBIE, J. Frank. Babícora. N.p., [1954].
8 pp., map. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers. Very fine, signed by author.
First separate printing, offprint from American
Hereford Journal (January 1, 1954). Cook 52. Dykes, My Dobie Collection, p.
9: “Among the scarce and rare Dobie booklets” (#17 on his rarities
list). McVicker D51. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 18.
JFD’s account of his 1953 visit to William Randolph Hearst’s vast
Babícora Ranch in Chihuahua, “where thousands of commercial Herefords
were raised each year over a long period. The breaking up of this property last
year marked the end of an era.” $75.00
1543. DOBIE, J. Frank. Babícora. N.p., [1954]. Another copy, not signed. Very fine. $65.00
1544. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Ben Lilly Legend. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1950. [vi] [2, inserted autograph leaf] [vii-xv] [3] 237 pp., color
frontispiece portrait by Tom Lea, plates (photographic and reproductions of
drawings by Lilly and Dunton). 12mo, original tan pictorial cloth. Slight foxing
to fore-edges, otherwise very fine in d.j. with Lea illustration. Signed by
J. Frank Dobie.
First edition, signed issue, with signed leaf bound
in after title. This special signed issue was not noted by McVicker. Campbell,
p. 59: “Story of that eccentric Ben Lilly, mighty hunter of bears and panthers,
who spent most of his life hunting big game.” Dykes, Fifty Great Western
Illustrators (Dunton 41), (Lea 143).
“[Dobie’s] biography of Ben Lilly...is an excellent
book on a man no one but Dobie could have got to” (McMurtry, In a Narrow
Grave, p. 48). Among his many muy-macho activities, Lilly was a cattle trader
and trail driver (one of his clients was Zack Miller’s 101 Ranch); chief
huntsman for Theodore Roosevelt (1907); bounty-hunter for stock-killers (bears,
lions, wolves) on New Mexico ranches for the federal government (1914); and “surpassed
all other men in horn-blowing, cow-calling, and whip-popping.” The book
contains much on the GOS Ranch in New Mexico, whose owner Victor Culberson introduced
Lilly to JFD.
Our favorite story in this book is how one of Lilly’s
interminable perverse pranks back-fired on Lilly himself. When leading a herd
of about a hundred and fifty cattle, Lilly encountered a circus caravan and got
the bright idea that it would be fun to stampede the circus animals. Lilly headed
his cattle toward the caravan, but when his cattle saw the elephant, they were
the ones to stampede. It took Lilly a week to regather his cattle. $400.00
1545. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Ben Lilly Legend. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1950. xv [3] 237 pp., color frontispiece portrait by Tom Lea, plates
(photographic and reproductions of drawings by Lilly and Dunton). 12mo, original
tan pictorial cloth. Slight foxing to fore-edges, otherwise very fine in d.j.
illustrated by Lea.
First trade edition. $60.00
“First item to bear the Encino Press device” (Whaley)
1546. DOBIE, J. Frank. Bob More: Man and Bird Man. Dallas:
Encino Press, 1965. vii [1] 27 [2] pp., title and text illustrations by William
Wittliff. Square 8vo, original tan cloth, printed paper label on upper cover.
Superb condition, in publisher’s brown slipcase with printed paper spine
label. Inscribed and signed by publisher-printer William Wittliff: “Con
mucho gusto.” Laid in is an Encino Press invoice for $7.65, with Wittliff’s
ink note to purchaser: “This includes a dinner with us some evening soon.”
First edition, limited edition (#453 of 550 copies),
originally printed in Southwest Review 27:1 (Autumn 1941), with added
introduction containing Wittliff’s touching tribute to JFD and a terrific
description of Bill’s first visit with “The Man of Texas Letters.” Cook
70. One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 34: “A month
before his death, Dobie granted Wittliff permission to reprint his Bob More essay.
This reprint was the first book published by Encino Press.... Scarce.” Whaley, Wittliff 8.
An excellent essay on Robert Lee More (1873-1941), ornithologist
and ranch manager-partner with William T. Waggoner on the vast Three D Ranch,
where More often carried out his ornithological research. Bob More considered
the Waggoner Ranch along Beaver Creek and the Wichita River to be the greatest
bird preserve in Texas. He assembled, organized, and scientifically marked a
collection of some 12,000 to 15,000 bird eggs from 750 species (including the
rare California condor). More’s collection is “considered the finest
west of the Mississippi River and the outstanding private collection of the world” (Handbook
of Texas Online: Robert Lee More).
Bob More, a pioneer conservationist both in his ornithological
and ranching activities, insisted on light stocking and extra tanks to bring
native grasses back to the pristine lushness that would benefit land, cattle,
birds, and man. JFD tells us that Bob More’s standing order to the Three
D Ranch harvesters was to leave a patch of grain around every wild turkey nest
discovered in the field.
According to JFD, Bob More often said: “Birds are man’s
best friends. If they were suddenly destroyed, insects would within a short time
destroy the vegetation on which the human race is dependent.” JFD interviewed
Bob More three times and wrote this essay to document his contributions to ranching
and zoology. Amidst the field of JFD’s cornerstone works, little gems like
this one make us realize the great legacy JFD left us by taking the time to interview
people and preserve fugitive history that might otherwise have been lost. The
Wittliff-Encino connection only adds to the appeal of this excellent book. $150.00
1547. DOBIE, J. Frank. “Bovine Sense of Smell: J.
Frank Dobie in American Cattle Producer Says Old Time Longhorns Could
Smell Water Miles Away,” in The Purebred 1:2 (February 1941).
Pp. 7, 44-45, illustration from The Longhorns. 8vo, original dark blue
printed wrappers with photographic illustration. Edges a bit worn, moderately
foxed, overall very good.
McVicker C181b. $15.00
1548. DOBIE, J. Frank. “The Brush Country of Texas,” in Lincoln-Mercury
Times 2:6 (November-December, 1950). Pp. 1-4, color illustrations by
H. O. Kelly. 4to, original multi-color pictorial wrappers with color illustration
by H. O. Kelly. Fine.
McVicker C296. The illustrations of ranch life in the brush
country are by H. O. Kelly (1884-1955), retired cowpuncher living at Blanket,
Texas, who worked in thirty states as a cowboy, sheepherder, cowhand, logger,
bullwhacker, sharecropper, and occasionally, rodeo rider. Kelly came to public
notice through a one-man exhibit arranged by Jerry Bywaters in 1950. “According
to Francis Henry Taylor, once director of the Metropolitan Museum of New York,
Kelly was ‘one of the few genuine primitive painters we have had in our
country’” (Handbook of Texas Online: Harold
Osman Kelly). JFD’s accompanying article on the brush country of Southwest
Texas, where he was raised on a ranch in Live Oak County, is elegiac. $25.00
1549. DOBIE, J. Frank. Charm in Mexican Folktales. N.p.,
[1951]. 8 pp. 8vo, original light green printed wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from Texas Folklore
Society Publication 24 (The Healer of Los Olmos and Other Mexican Lore).
McVicker D43. In this Christmas keepsake, JFD recounts gathering folklore for
his book The Longhorns. Among the yarns he spins is that of José Beltrán,
an old spent vaquero on the Tom O’Connor Ranch near Refugio, whose job
consisted of trapping wild cattle. One moonlit night while waiting patiently
at the waterhole for his quarry, Beltrán encountered a maverick bull (puro
negro) that actually turned out to be el diablo. $50.00
1550. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales
of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Literary
Guild of America, 1931. xv [1] 367 pp., 6 plates (including frontispiece),
maps, text illustrations, and endpaper maps by Ben Carlton Mead. 8vo, original
orange pictorial cloth. Faint discoloration to binding, mild foxing to frontispiece.
Very good in lightly worn and soiled d.j. with one small tape repair. Related
clipping laid in. Signed by J. Frank Dobie and Ben Carlton Mead.
Literary Guild of America edition, printed from the same plates
as the first edition, second printing (also issued in the same year), with dedication
to JFD’s father, a “clean” cowman (clean is added in this issue),
glossary revised. Basic Texas Books 45B: “Best book ever written
on hidden treasure, and one of the most fascinating books on any subject to come
out of Texas.” Dobie, Big Bend Bibliography, p. [7]. Dykes, Fifty
Great Western Illustrators (Mead 29n). Greene, Fifty Best Books on Texas,
p. 9. Howes D374. McVicker A2a(2). Powell, Southwest Classics, pp. 343-55: “I
have chosen Coronado’s Children...not because it is his best book—my
favorite is The Mustangs, his was Tongues of the Monte—but
rather because it is the one that made him the legendary figure he became, the
one that first brought him national recognition. It is an enthralling book.”
Chapter 5 is devoted to “Tales of the Cow Camp”;
other references to ranching and cowboys are found in the book. The last chapter
(“Shadows and Symbols”) contains the first printing of the enigmatic
symbols that buriers of treasure have used since time immemorial. $50.00
Item 1550
1551. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children.... New York: Literary Guild of America, 1931. Another copy. Covers worn and stained, mild foxing to title, d.j. not present. Reading copy. $10.00
1552. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales
of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
[early 1940s]. xiv, 367 pp. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Endsheets
lightly browned, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. with text illustrations
by Mead. Signed by J. Frank Dobie.
Wartime edition, with printed statement to that effect on
title page, complete and unabridged text on thinner paper and slightly reduced
format, plates omitted. McVicker A2a(6). $15.00
1553. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales
of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
n.d. (ca. 1946). xiv, 367 pp. 8vo, original terracotta pictorial cloth. Endsheets
lightly browned, else fine in fine d.j. with Mead illustration. Signed by
J. Frank Dobie.
McVicker A2a(7). The wartime government regulation of paper
statement has been removed from the title page. Publisher’s ads on d.j.
verso altered from preceding. $15.00
1554. DOBIE, J. Frank. Lost Mines of the Old West: Coronado’s
Children. London: Hammond, Hammond and Company, [1960]. xv [1] 367 pp.,
text illustrations by Mead. 8vo, original ecru cloth. Very fine in very fine
d.j. with illustration of treasure hunter looking very much like JFD.
First British edition. Basic Texas Books 45H.
McVicker A2d, “A line-by-line reprint from the Southwest Press trade edition.” Mead’s
plates omitted. $35.00
1555. DOBIE, J. Frank. Lost Mines of the Old West: Coronado’s Children. London: Hammond, Hammond and Company, [1960]. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original red cloth. Mild staining at lower hinge, else very fine in d.j. with same illustration as preceding. $30.00
1556. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children: Tales
of Los Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. Foreword by Frank H.
Wardlaw. Austin & London: University of Texas Press, [1978]. xxii,
329 [2] pp., title and text illustrations by Charles Shaw. 8vo, original
half terracotta cloth over tan mottled boards. Mint in publisher’s
slipcase.
Limited edition (#135 of 300 numbered copies), signed
by Frank Wardlaw and illustrator Charles Shaw. Barker Texas History Center Series,
No. 3. $75.00
1557. DOBIE, J. Frank. Coronado’s Children. Austin & London:
University of Texas Press, [1978]. xxii, 329 pp., title and text illustrations
by Charles Shaw. 8vo, original half terracotta cloth over tan boards. Very
fine in very fine d.j. illustrated by Charles Shaw.
First trade edition. Basic Texas Books 45I.
$20.00
1558. DOBIE, J. Frank. Cow People. Boston: Little, Brown,
and Co., [1964]. x [2] 305 pp., text illustrations (a few by Mead, but mostly
photographic and full-page). 8vo, original brown cloth. Exceptionally fine,
in very fine d.j. (with photos of cowmen on front and Tom Lea’s portrait
of JFD on back).
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #55.
Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Fifty Great Western
Illustrators (Crawford 24), (Lea 144), (Mead 29). Guns 601. Reese, Six
Score 31: “Pure cow country, with sketches of Ike Pryor, Ab Blocker,
Shanghai Pierce, and many other lesser known cattlemen.” McVicker 18a(1).
Powell, Southwest Classics, p. 351. “Cow People [is] a delightful
compendium of tales of eccentric southwestern ranchers and stockmen, springs
from the author’s firsthand knowledge of such people as well as from extensive
reading about them. Some may downgrade Dobie’s efforts and others dismiss
him altogether, but his books will be read and his influence will endure as long
as there are people who love the lore and legendry of Texas and the Southwest” (WLA, Literary
History of the American West, p. 504). $75.00
Item 1558
1559. DOBIE, J. Frank. “A Cowboy and His Polecats,” in Frontier
Times 38:1 (January 1964). Pp. 13, 67. 4to, original color photographic
wrappers. Back wrap slightly foxed, otherwise fine.
First printing. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators McVicker
C489. JFD, who likes skunks and does not mind their smell (“provided I
am not close enough to receive its full intensity”), states that skunks
have been known to stampede a herd of longhorns. This issue also includes William
D. Wittliff’s “The Bandana, ‘Flag’ of the Range Country” (p.
43) and is signed by him. Charles Russell illustrations grace Mary Stuart Abbott’s
article written at the age of ninety-three: “Child of the Open Range: The
Daughter of Granville Stuart and Later Wife of Teddy Blue Abbott Reminisces about
the Old Days in Montana.” Remington article on Babícora region,
etc. $25.00
1560. DOBIE, J. Frank. Do Rattlesnakes Swallow Their Young? Austin:
Texas Folklore Society, 1946. 24 pp. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers. Very
fine. Inscribed and signed by J. Frank Dobie to Lester Jones: “What a
beautiful medallion that Pony Express! I cherish it. Thank you so much....
June 16, 1947.”
First separate printing, offprint from Texas Folklore
Society Publication 21 (Austin, 1946). McVicker D36. JFD, who likes rattlesnakes
because “they make the country more interesting and more natural,” presents
firsthand accounts (mostly from cowboys and ranchers) documenting that rattlesnakes
sometimes swallow their young to protect them. $75.00
1561. DOBIE, J. Frank. Do Rattlesnakes Swallow Their Young? Austin: Texas Folklore Society, 1946. Another copy. Fine. $50.00
1562. DOBIE, J. Frank. Ella Byler Dobie and Christmas. [Austin]:
The American-Statesman, 1961. Folio broadside printed in three columns. Very
fine.
First separate printing of an article that appeared
in the American-Statesman on December 24, 1961. McVicker D78. JFD’s
tribute to his mother, with recollections of incidents at Rancho Seco in Nueces
County, Texas. “When she was very young, raiders from below the Rio Grande
came up into the border ranches and drove off cattle, killed them and skinned
them for the hides, raided the Noakes Store in Nueces County, occasionally killed
a man. The caution she grew up with never entirely left her so long as she lived
on the ranch. When I was a child and Papa was gone, Mama always had the old .44
Winchester right at her head when she went to bed.” $20.00
1563. DOBIE, J. Frank. The First Cattle in Texas and
the Southwest Progenitors of the Longhorns. Pp. 171-97. 8vo, original
beige wrappers. Very fine.
First separate printing, offprint from The Southwestern
Historical Quarterly 42:3 (January 1939). Cook 238: “Formed Chapter
One of The Longhorns.” Herd 690. McVicker C163a. In this
excellent treatise JFD traces the introduction of cattle to Texas by various
Catholic missions and early Spanish expeditions. The astonishing vitality and
incredible proliferation of longhorn cattle in Texas influenced the lifestyle
of Spanish Texas (“stock-raising [in mission-era Texas] became almost the
only civilian occupation, despite governmental attempts to enforce farming”).
JFD compares the physical nature and mindset of Texas longhorns with cattle in
California, New Mexico, and Arizona and discusses how they impacted regions in
different ways (e.g., the rise of the hide and tallow trade in California, which
was practically nonexistent in Texas).
JFD tells how longhorns were so profuse in early nineteenth-century
Texas that they were generally considered more as game animals than domesticated
creatures. Occasionally Native Americans hunted the longhorns, too, although,
according to JFD, they preferred buffalo and horse meat to beef. He describes
how Texas plantation owners often hired a professional hunter to bring in wild
cattle (mentioning Captain Flack). JFD surmises the longhorns were not domesticated
because they were too difficult to capture and the natural antipathy between
longhorns and domesticated stock Anglo settlers imported to Texas. This treatise
is filled with fascinating information on the nature of longhorns, including
observations and quotations from the great longhorn painter, Frank Reaugh. $65.00
1564. DOBIE, J. Frank. The First Cattle in Texas and
the Southwest Progenitors of the Longhorns. Austin, 1939. Pp. [3]-29.
8vo, original white printed wrappers. Fine.
Reprint from The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 42:3
(January 1939). McVicker D24. $50.00
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