1615. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1946]. Another copy. First edition but not publisher’s sample. Fine in somewhat worn and soiled d.j. $35.00
1616. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Texan in England. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1946]. Another copy. Corners bumped, else fine, d.j. not present. $15.00
1617. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tongues of the Monte. Garden City:
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935. vii [3] 301 pp., text illustrations.
8vo, original yellow decorated cloth stamped in red and black. A very fine,
bright copy in fine d.j. with design matching binding (price-clipped). The
flamboyant binding and d.j. on this unusual and attractive book are very fresh
and bright.
First edition, second printing (“first edition” removed
from title verso). Campbell, pp. 156-57. “Creative in Dobie’s best
manner.” McVicker A4a(1). “Tongues of the Monte is about as
close as Dobie ever got to writing a novel” (Abernethy, J. Frank Dobie, p.
18).
Tongues of the Monte is a key work on the life, social
history, and folklore of the vast ranches and haciendas of the Borderlands and
the world of the Mexican vaquero. JFD spent his youth among Spanish-speaking
people and was always fascinated by their culture. The book opens with protagonist
Don Federico (thought to be JFD himself) riding through the eastern cordillera
of Mexico, where he encounters four vaqueros killing a bull (“Blood-drinkers
are rare among vaqueros, and I was enthralled by the sight”).
Tongues of the Monte, JFD’s favorite of his own
works and deemed by Larry McMurtry as JFD at his best, is a quasi-picaresque
novel vividly revealing the life of the Mexican earth and its people, based on
JFD’s Guggenheim-funded adventures traveling two thousand miles through
the brush country east of the Sierra Madre in the early 1930s. $100.00
1618. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I
Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942.
xii [4] 301 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original green cloth. Faint foxing
to upper fore-edge and endsheets, otherwise very fine in very good pictorial
d.j. (slight wear and mild foxing). Signed by author.
Second edition of Tongues of the Monte, issued under
a different title and with revised foreword by author. McVicker A4a(2). In the
expanded foreword JFD reveals the permutations of the title Tongues of the
Monte, originally to be The Hacienda of the Five Wounds (for the vast
hacienda of the Marqués de Aguayo, “which included almost half of
Coahuila”—Handbook of Texas Online: Marqués de San
Miguel de Aguayo).
In the new preface JFD comments: “I must have been about
grown before I came to know that ‘cowboy’ is not a literary word.
Most of the cowhands I knew were Mexicans, and all of them were called vaqueros.
My father was a stockman, having driven horses up the trail to Kansas with Mexican
vaqueros, then turning to cattle.” $75.00
Item 1618
1619. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942. Another copy, signed “Pancho Dobie.” Faint foxing to upper fore-edge and endsheets, otherwise very fine in very good d.j. (slight wear and mild foxing). $75.00
1620. DOBIE, J. Frank. [Tongues of the Monte] The Mexico I Like. Dallas: University Press [for] Southern Methodist University, 1942. Another copy, not signed by JFD. Some staining and spotting to binding, otherwise fine in fine d.j. $25.00
1621. DOBIE, J. Frank. Tongues of the Monte. Boston: Little,
Brown, and Company, 1949. xiv [4] 301 pp., text illustrations. 8vo, original
yellow decorated cloth stamped in red and black. Very fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
Third edition, second printing, with the expanded preface
that appeared in the SMU edition (see preceding), and the neat original binding
design repeated. McVicker A4a(3)n. $35.00
1622. DOBIE, J. Frank. Two Kinds of People. Pasadena:
Grant Dahlstrom at the Castle Press for the Friends of Lawrence Clark Powell,
1953. 4to broadside printed in black and terracotta in double column, small
illustration of a Southwestern landscape. Very fine.
First separate printing (#3 of the Southwest Broadsides).
McVicker D50. JFD worries about the impact of the oil industry on Texas land,
referring to the Tom O’Connor ranch on the Texas coast (“A kind of
oil culture dominates Texas with more force than cattle ever dominate...only
the devil would want to pipe it into the green pastures of heaven”). JFD
then relates the poignant story of Tom O’Connor’s demise and how
the old cattleman ordered all of his cattle herded and brought to the ranch house
so that he could hear “natural” sounds in his last hours. Most excellent
printing and very strong text. $40.00
1623. DOBIE, J. Frank. Up the Trail from Texas. New York:
Random House, [1955]. [8] 182 [2, ads] pp., tinted text illustrations (some
full-page) by John C. Wonsetler, illustrated endpapers. 12mo, original rose
decorated cloth stamped black and blue. Superb copy in very fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p.
78 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “Primarily for younger
readers...dandy book about real trail drivers.” McVicker A16a(1). This
book remains a fun, informative book for readers of all ages. $30.00
Item 1623
A Vaquero of the Brush Country
Branded by Dobie in Ink
1624. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country...Partly
from the Reminiscences of John Young. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929.
xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color frontispiece of the
formidable J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper maps by
Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned
boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Fragile board edges worn
as usual, front free endpaper detached, some foxing (heavier at endsheets
and adjacent to plates, including title), good to very good copy. Signed
by J. Frank Dobie and with his manuscript brands in ink.
First edition, “Rio Grande River” on endpaper
maps. Basic Texas Books 44: “Dobie’s first complete book...a
lasting contribution to the literature of the Texas range. It presents the memoirs
of John Duncan Young, a South Texas cattleman, as interpreted by Dobie.... The
text includes, in addition to Young’s life as a pioneer cattleman, sections
on roundups and cattle drives, on the hide and tallow business in Texas, on Billy
the Kid and the Mexican outlaw Cortina, on life in the South Texas brush country,
on Mexican and Indian warfare along the border after the Civil War, and on the
folk ways of the Texas cattle industry.” Campbell, p. 85. CBC 84 & 3164.
Cook 7. Dobie, p. 102. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #11. Dykes, Kid 141;
Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 14; My Dobie Collection, p.
8: “Scarce” (#31 on his rarities list); Western High Spots, p.
20 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West” #8); p. 103 (“The
Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 606. Herd 702. Howes D376. McVicker
A1a(1). One Hundred Head Cut Out of the Jeff Dykes Herd 12. Rader 1162.
Reese, Six Score 34.
A Vaquero of the Brush Country makes clear how much
the Texas cowboy owes to his Mexican counterpart for techniques, equipment, and
colorful language. “Gallons of ink have been spilled by historians and
other interpreters of the cowboy in an attempt to set the record straight, to
preserve the cowboy in print as he really was. Some of the best nonfiction on
the cowboy may be found in the memoirs and autobiographies of cowboys themselves....
Many of old-time cowboys left behind accounts of their adventures.... Perhaps
the most literary of these accounts is J. Frank Dobie’s A Vaquero of
the Brush Country” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, pp.
499-500).
In his introduction, JFD sets the stage for John Young, telling
of George Saunders’ declaration: “John Young would charge hell with
a bucket of water.” JFD further remarks: “A common object of both
Mr. Young and myself has been to place in a clear light certain characteristics
of ranch people that, on account of the prolific work of sensation mongers and
sentimentalists, require stressing. The men of the Western saddle, however untutored
in books some of them may have been—were not ignorant. Their profession
was one that demanded skill, alertness, resourcefulness, close observation, will
power, and fidelity. It was a profession that engendered pride. They were laborers
of a kind, it is true, but they regarded themselves as artists, and they were
artists. Years of experience, of practice in deftness, and of study in animal
psychology were necessary to perfect a top hand. No genuine cowboy ever suffered
from an inferiority complex or ranked himself in the ‘laboring class’....
He considered himself a cavalier in the full sense of that word—a
gentleman on horse, privileged to come it proud over all nesters, squatters,
Kansas Jay-hawkers, and other such earth-clinging creatures.” $400.00
Item 1624
Item 1624
1625. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Covers worn (especially edges), front hinge cracked, some foxing (heavier at endsheets and adjacent to plates, including title). Contemporary ink gift inscription on verso of frontispiece. $125.00
1626. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas:
Southwest Press, 1929. xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color
frontispiece of the J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper
maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned
boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Some edge wear, occasional
slight foxing, a few small ink ownership stamps, else fine in the scarce and
beautiful pictorial d.j., which is lightly worn and foxed and split along spine
with no losses.
First edition, second printing, title verso states
second edition, “Rio Grande River” on endpaper maps. McVicker A1a(2).
Reese, Six Score 34: “Supposedly, the word ‘River’ [in
the words ‘Rio Grande River’ on the endsheet map] was later removed
at Dobie’s insistence, as being redundant. However, I have recently handled
a copy of the second edition, so noted on the verso of the title page, with the
map still reading ‘Rio Grande River’” (Reese Company catalogue
42, item 440), and have seen other similar copies, so I doubt the accuracy of
this point.” $125.00
1627. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Ex-library (ink stamps on front endpapers and dedication leaf, embosure on imprint, call number in pencil on title verso and dedication, back endpapers abraded where library materials removed), worn and foxed, d.j. not present. Reading copy. $20.00
1628. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas:
Southwest Press, 1929. xv [1] 314 pp., 6 plates (photographic, including color
frontispiece of the J. M. Dobie longhorn), text illustrations and endpaper
maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original half tan cloth over snakeskin-patterned
boards, tan printed paper label on upper cover. Fragile binding lightly stained
and with usual wear (especially corners), mild to moderate foxing to text,
otherwise very good, with 1933 gift inscription on front free endpaper.
First edition, fourth printing (title verso states “fourth
edition”), “Rio Grande River” gaffe on endpaper maps corrected.
McVicker A1a(3). $25.00
1629. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy. Binding worn, occasional foxing, generally very good, with printed label of Herbert Fletcher’s Houston bookstore on front free endpaper. For more on bookseller and publisher Fletcher, see Handbook of Texas Online: Herbert Herrick Fletcher. $35.00
1630. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original navy blue cloth. Fine in publisher’s original glassine d.j. (worn). Signed by J. Frank Dobie, and with his manuscript brands in ink. $45.00
1631. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original dark maroon cloth. Offsetting to endsheets, otherwise fine in pictorial d.j. (worn and chipped). $35.00
1632. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original rose cloth. Bookplate and ownership signature of E. C. Crampton on front pastedown. $20.00
1633. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1936]. xvi, 302 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations,
and endpaper maps by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original tan cloth. Spine light,
mild staining along joints, internally fine, in d.j. (lightly worn and price-clipped).
Second edition. McVicker A1b(1). $25.00
1634. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... London:
Hammond, Hammond & Co., [1949]. 274 [2] pp., 2 plates (including frontispiece),
text illustrations by Justin C. Gruelle. 8vo, original brown cloth. Endsheets
and fore-edges foxed, else fine in d.j. with a few small, closed tears.
First British edition. McVicker A1c. $45.00
1635. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country.... Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, [1952]. xvi, 302 pp., frontispiece, text illustrations,
endpaper maps by Justin Gruelle. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine,
bright, price-clipped d.j. with full-color Gruelle illustration. Signed by
JFD.
Third American edition, first issue, fourth printing (February
1952). $25.00
1636. DOBIE, J. Frank. A Vaquero of the Brush Country (Condensed
Edition).... New York: Pennant Books, [1954]. [6] 184 pp. 12mo,
original color pictorial wrappers. Superb copy, remarkable for a paperback
of that era.
Fourth American edition, first printing of the Pennant paperback
edition. McVicker A1d. $15.00
1637. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Voice of the Coyote. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1949. viii [2, signed leaf] ix-xx, 386 pp., tinted frontispiece
and illustrated title, text illustrations (some full-page) by Olaus Murie.
8vo, original brown cloth with gilt illustration of coyote. Very fine in near
fine d.j. (a few short closed marginal tears, no losses).
First edition, signed issue, with leaf autographed
by JFD bound in after title. Campbell, p. 127. Dobie, pp. 22, 167: “Not
only the coyote but his effect on the human imagination and ecological relationships.
Natural history and folklore; many tales from factual trappers as well as from
Mexican and Indian folk.” Dykes, Kid 398. Herd 703. Malone, Wyomingiana, p.
21: “Fascinating account of the coyote’s behavior and of other plains
animals. Usable in any plains state.” McVicker A12a(1).
WLA, Literary History of the American West, p. 540: “Dobie...expresses
anger at those who slaughter coyotes for no good reason.” On the perennial
debate of coyotes as predators of the cattle range, JFD remarks: “The master
studies of the relationships of the coyote to other animals of its environment
have been made within the past ten years by Adolph Murie, biologist and naturalist,
a pioneer in the field. His yet unpublished study of Cattle Losses and the
Coyote on a Southwestern Range (Arizona) leaves the coyote generally guiltless
of predation on cattle, though exceedingly active on carrion. However, Emerson’s
Law of Compensation always works. As cows are bred up for sow-like weight and
form they lose their protective instincts.... I still think that a range cow
should have enough elemental life in her to keep coyotes off her offspring. Unless
she has, the meat from her kind will descend to the level of hothouse chicken
so far as invigorating qualities are concerned.” $450.00
1638. DOBIE, J. Frank. The Voice of the Coyote. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1949. xx, 386 pp., tinted frontispiece and illustrated title,
text illustrations (some full-page) by Olaus Murie. 8vo, original brown cloth
with gilt illustration of coyote. Condition fine, but rated only as very good
due to former owner’s occasional ink notes. Dust jacket price-clipped
and with a few short tears.
First edition, trade issue. $75.00
1639. DOBIE, J. Frank (ed.). E 342: A Collection of Stray
Mavericks Caught, Roped, and Branded by Members of the “Big Corral” (English
342: Life and Literature of the Southwest).... Austin: University
of Texas, 1941. [4] 47 leaves (mimeographed). 4to, tan wrappers with title
and brand printed in red, stapled (as issued). Very fine.
First printing. McVicker B44. Second in a series of
anthologies from student writings, edited and with a foreword by their professor,
JFD. “Dobie affected to scorn what he termed ‘our institutions of
so-called higher learning,’ but in fact (and almost single-handedly for
a long time) he worked to make the study of western regional literature respectable
in the university” (WLA, Literary History of the American West, p.
247). $100.00
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