Western Americana

Boston: Beacon, 1994. . First printing. . Fine in fine dust jacket (as new.) . Includes excerpts from Austin's 'Earth Horizon' and 'The Land of Journeys' Ending' and Muir's 'The Grand Canyon of the Colorado' and 'Travels in Alaska.' Selected by Ann Zwinger, who also wrote the introduction and provided the illustrations for this attractive volume. In her introduction, she states: 'Muir and Austin are the first truly western nature writers... Their writing, their point of view, their dedication to the mountains and the deserts of the West have sustained western nature writers from their day forward.' Austin was also a pioneering feminist and her writings are often tinged with her political awareness. xxvi, 182 pp. more information

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Sacramento, California: 1966. . First printing in wrappers. No hardcover edition. . Just about fine in stiff illustrated wrappers. . The history of gold mining (including at Negro Bar, named after the first miners there), journalism and the prison at Folsom in Northern California. SIGNED by the author inside the front cover. more information

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Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971. . 1st trade paperback printing. . SIGNED by Beagle on the title page. Near fine. . Back in the late 60's, Beagle and photographer Michael Bry spent a year traveling around California in a 1957 Volkswagon van, and this book, a very personal picture of a special time in California's history, was the result. In addition to Bry's black and white photographs, it includes color photos by Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde and others. Large format, with a new preface for this edition. more information

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Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971. . First printing. . SIGNED by Beagle on the title page. Near fine in near fine dust jacket (remainder spray, bit of sunning to edges of cloth boards, creasing to front flap of dj.) . Back in the late 60's, Beagle and photographer Michael Bry spent a year traveling around California in a 1957 Volkswagon van, and this book, a very personal picture of a special time in California's history, was the result. In addition to Bry's black and white photographs, it includes color photos by Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde and others. Large format. List of photographs. 252 pp. more information

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Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, (c 1952.) . Trade paperback (later printing.) . Very good condition. . Originally published in 1952, and winner of the Commonwealth Club of California;s gold medal for non-fiction, this is a dramatic story of political graft, of the man who symbolized it, and of the reformers who exposed Ruef. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 345 pgs. more information

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Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1968. . Trade paperback. . Very good (bookplate.) . Originally published in 1952, and winner of the Commonwealth Club of California;s gold medal for non-fiction, this is a dramatic story of political graft, of the man who symbolized it, and of the reformers who exposed Ruef. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 345 pgs. more information

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Pasadena, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1976. . Special limited edition of the first printing - #453 out of 500 copies with a color plate of the coat of arms of the Republic of Chile tipped in, limitation on verso of this plate. . Near fine in a near fine dustjacket (prev owner's name, price-clipped.) . Chilean accounts of the California Gold Rush - taken from diaries and personal accounts. It is estimated that the Chilean population in California during the gold rush reached 7,000 - in the early years, they represented the 2nd largest foreign contingent. Many of these Chileans were highly educated, including some of the most famous writers of their country - so their writings are sophisticated, perceptive and often laced with a wry humor. Photographs, bibliography and biographical information about the writers. more information

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New York: Harper & Brothers, (1956.) . First printing. . Ex-library with the usual markings, but overall tight and clean in a rather fragile and somewhat worn dj. (spine label.) . Covers the Mexican borderlands, the mountain men, the pioneers on the overland trails, Texan Revolution, Mexican-American War, Mormons, the California gold rush, and Manifest Destiny, and more. Many maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. xix [3] 324 pp.  more information

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San Antonio Texas: The Naylor Company, (1962.) . 2nd printing. . very good in a very good dust jacket (a rather derogatory inscription on front endpaper, otherwise tight and clean.) . Includes accounts of Wild Bill Hickok, Bill Longley, Henry Starr, Ben Thompson, Clay Allison, Bat Masterson, Frank Leslie and others. Perhaps not the most accurate history, but always entertaining. Photographs. 175 pp. more information

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Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1973 . First printing. . Very near fine in a like dustjacket (title on front cover of book has impressed itself on reverse of dj.) . Chronicles fascinating growth of the Jewish community in Utah. Discusses Mormon-Jewish relations in Utah and Southern Idaho. Lithographs and photos. Includes index. 252 pgs. Hard to find in the first edition. more information

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New York: Hyperion, 1995. . First thus. . Near fine in glossy illustrated wrappers. . Trade paperback reissue of this western pbo originally published in 1989. A historical novel about the Texas revolution of 1835-36 - the story of 2 prison escapees from Louisiana and their trip into Texas territory. more information

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Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1966. . First printing. . Very good in red cloth (slightly faded binding, little edge wear) . Tales of the self-sufficient, self-reliant men known as burro prospectors. They were uninhibited lovers of independence and solitude with a certain personal charm and usually a sardonic sense of humor. Number 14 in the series of keepsakes issued by the Friends of the Bancroft Library for its members more information

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Portland, OR: Metropolitan Press, 1935 & 1936 . First edition. . Good in good dustjackets (some mottling to the red cloth, edgewear and chipping to the dustjackets, but uncommon in dj.) . Designed to be an authoritative and readable history of the state from the earliest days of discovery and exploration - Vancouver's visit, the discovery of the Columbia River, the Lewis and Clark expedition - through its settlement, the discovery of gold in Oregon, the Indian wars, and more. Illustrated with photographs, map endpapers. Each volume has notes and references, volume 2 also has an index to both volumes. 416 pp., 916 pp. more information

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Lodi, CA: Lodi Centennial Citizens Advisory Committee, 1969. . 2nd printing, a trade paperback (index added.) . Near fine in a illustrated wrappers. . INSCRIBED on the title page by the author and dated in 1994. Local history of the California town originally incorporated in 1869 as Mokelumne, illustrated with many photographs. Among the interesting pieces of information is this comment about the fact that in 1878 the town had two newspapers, both run by woman - who were sisters - and one of these women, Laura deForce Gordon, was a noted suffragette, the second woman admitted to the bar in California, and the second woman (after Susan B. Anthony) admitted to the bar of the US. Index. 128 pp. Laid in is the original handwritten receipt by the author. more information

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New York: Putnam, 1936. . First printing. . Very good+ in a quite worn dustjacket (some loss of paper along the top of the spine of the dj, chips, other edgewear, pc.) . Includes accounts of trips to Alaska, Chicago, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, Mexico, and especially many trips of excursions around California, including the Mother Lode country of the Sierra Foothills, the high Sierras, the desert and more. Illustrated with many photographs. more information

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New York: Putnam, 1936. . First printing. . Very good in blue cloth with orange lettering, no dj. . Includes accounts of trips to Alaska, Chicago, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, Mexico, and especially many trips of excursions around California, including the Mother Lode country of the Sierra Foothills, the high Sierras, the desert and more. Illustrated with many photographs. more information

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Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921. . First printing. . Very good in a dark green cloth spine with gilt lettering and light green cactus-patterned paper covered boards (gift inscription.) . A collection of poems about the West -from Jim Bridger to the Cliff Dwellers to the Geysers of Yellowstone, with many humorous ones set in the set in the small Arizona town he calls "Cactus Center." Frontispiece and illustrated half title and title pages. 123 pp. more information

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Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Co. , 1995. . First printing. . Fine in red cloth, no dj as issued. . An introduction to the lives and memoirs of 11 early American travelers and settlers in California, and of the role the books which these men wrote men played in promoting California to Americans back east. The Merchant & Traders included Alfred Robinson, William Heath Davis, and William Dana Phelps; those who came ' Before the Mast' included Richard Henry Dana , and William Henry Thomes; the Mountain Men included James Pattie, Kit Carson, Zenas Leonard and others, and finally the 'Exponents of Empire' included Thomas Jefferson Farnham and Henry Augustus Wise. 5 pages of portraits and plates. Bibliography and index. 278 pp. more information

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New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. . Later printing. . Near fine in a fair only dust jacket (large chips, edgewear, now protected by an archival cover.) . Classic work on the subject, first published in 1950. From the Missouri, west to the Columbia River, south through the great Sacramento valley of California, down to Santa Fe, the mountain men were the first in the great wave that eventually spread US dominion over the West and Southwest - "the dramatic story of men who belonged to a calling that had no counterpart.Before missionaries, gold-seekers, and cattlemen, this reckless breed opened pathways to the western sea. Their story is in the very bones of our history." Illustrated with a color frontispiece, 16 plates and 4 maps. Bibliography, Index 361, xx pp. more information

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Dallas, TX: Ram Publishing Co., (1974.) . 2nd printing - a trade paperback. . Very good in wrappers (a few corners creased.) . Called the "definitive work on the Lost Dutchman Mine" of Arizona's Superstition Mountains. Cover includes artist Jon Browder's conception of Jacob Walzer. Illustrated with phtographic reproductions and maps. List of suggested reading. 98 pp. more information

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Reno & Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1986. . First printing. . Fine in a fine dustjacket. . A fascinating, entertaining and scholarly look at this important, but often neglected, aspect of social history. While the book focuses on the California gold rush of 49 and the Nevada mines in the early 1900's much more is covered - including nutrition on the Overland trail, restaurants in the mining towns, etc. Much of the material is based on early diaries. Profusely illustrated. Index, bibliography. 246 pages. more information

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San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984. . Fifth printing. . Near fine in very good dust jacket (light stamp to top edge, price-clipped, some sunning to spine of dj.) . An excellent nonfiction work on Custer, frontispiece by Leonard Baskin. Bibliography, index, 441 pp. Map endpapers. more information

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Stevensville, Montana: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co. (1990.) . First printing, a trade paperback, issued simultaneously with hardcover. . Very good in glossy illustrated wrappers (some crinkling from dampness to the lower margin of the last several pages, not affecting the text.). . A collection of some of the most exciting adventures (and humorous stories) from the author's days as a wilderness outfitter in western Montana for more than a half a century. SIGNED on the title page with the words "Thanks for allowing me to come into your life" and dated 1990. Illustrated with photographs throughout. 190 pp. more information

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New York: George H. Doran, 1926. . First US printing. . Very good+ in beige cloth with dark green lettering and illustration on the front cover and spine - some spine slant, light wear to edges of boards. . Novel of mystery, romance and adventure set among the gold miners of the Yukon in Northwestern Canada, by this British writer-adventurer who traveled extensively in the remote northwest. more information

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Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (1986.) . First printing. . Very near fine in a near fine dustjacket. (faint stamp inside front free endpaper.) . A detailed account of the 'silent army' of merchants, outfitters, freighters, land speculators, town builders, railroad promoters and others... who came after the mountain men and fur traders." Illustrated with 120 contemporary photographs and line drawings and 20 pen and ink drawings by Al M. Napoletano. Notes, bibliography, index. 368 pp. Map endpapers. more information

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New York: Literary Guild of America, 1931. . Book club edition. . Good condition overall in tan cloth covered boards with gilt lettering and illustration on the front cover (binding cracking just before title page.) . Fascinating tales of the lost mines - including the Lost San Saba Mine, the Lost Nigger Mine, the Breyfogle Mine, La Mina Perdida, and more. Includes many legends and much history of Texas and the Southwest. Illustrated by Ben Carleton Mead. Notes. Glossary. 367 pp. more information

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New York: Grosset & Dunlap, nd (c 1930.) . Reprint. . Good condition overall in tan cloth covered boards with red lettering - some fraying and wear to the cloth at the corners and ends of the spine. . Fascinating tales of the lost mines - including the Lost San Saba Mine, the Lost Nigger Mine, the Breyfogle Mine, La Mina Perdida, and more. Includes many legends and much history of Texas and the Southwest. Illustrated by Ben Carleton Mead. Notes. Glossary. 367 pages. more information

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New York Scribner's, (1999.) . First printing. . Fine in fine dust jacket. . SIGNED on the title page. Set in Seattle, San Francisco, Montana, and Alaska,this novel is the story of a generation, shaped by the sixties, which has reached its time of reckoning, and of a man who must uncover secrets of his past. 316 pp. more information

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New York Scribner's, (1999.) . First printing. . Very near fine in a fine dustjacket. . Set in Seattle, San Francisco, Montana, and Alaska,this novel is the story of a generation, shaped by the sixties, which has reached its time of reckoning, and of a man who must uncover secrets of his past. more information

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New York: Atheneum, 1993. . First printing. . Fine in a fine dustjacket. . The story of his family's move from defense housing in boomtown Arizona to the Montana high country during World War II - based mostly upon letters written by his mother. SIGNED by the author. 160 pp more information

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New York: Atheneum, 1993. . First printing. . Fine in a near fine dustjacket (price-clipped). . The story of his family's move from defense housing in boomtown Arizona to the Montana high country during World War II - based mostly upon letters written by his mother, and left to him by his uncle only many years after her death. This is the story of rediscovery of his mother through her own words, many years after he wrote about his family in his 1978 book 'This House of Sky.' 160 pp more information

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New York: Atheneum, 1993. . First printing. . Very good in very good dust jacket. . The story of his family's move from defense housing in boomtown Arizona to the Montana high country during World War II - based mostly upon letters written by his mother. more information

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New York: Atheneum, 1993. . First printing. . Fine in a fine dustjacket. . The story of his family's move from defense housing in boomtown Arizona to the Montana high country during World War II - based mostly upon letters written by his mother, and left to him by his uncle only many years after her death. This is the story of rediscovery of his mother through her own words, many years after he wrote about his family in his 1978 book 'This House of Sky.' 160 pp more information

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New York Scribner's, (1999.) . First printing. . Very near fine in a fine dustjacket (date written inside front endpaper.). . Set in Seattle, San Francisco, Montana, and Alaska,this novel is the story of a generation, shaped by the sixties, which has reached its time of reckoning, and of a man who must uncover secrets of his past. 316 pp. more information

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Reno, NV: University of Nevada Oral History Program, (1996.) . First printing. . SIGNED by both authors on the half title page. Fine in fine dust jacket. . An account of the early days of Nevada gaming - the home-grown variety which sprung up in the small mining towns after gambling was legalized in 1931. Douglass, who recounted his story to his son, a professor involved in Reno's oral history program, began his career in Tonopah in the 1930's and eventually wound up as owner of the Cal-Neva, so his story spans the development from the simple slot machines (his primary business was the Nevada Novelty Company) to the growth of the large casinos. Illustrated with a frontispiece and 10 black and white photographs, notes, index. xvi, 255 pp.  more information

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Reno, NV: University of Nevada Oral History Program, (1996.) . First printing. . Fine in a good dust jacket (several closed tears to dj, now protected by an archival cover.) . An account of the early days of Nevada gaming - the home-grown variety which sprung up in the small mining towns after gambling was legalized in 1931. Douglass, who recounted his story to his son, a professor involved in Reno's oral history program, began his career in Tonopah in the 1930's and eventually wound up as owner of the Cal-Neva, so his story spans the development from the simple slot machines (his primary business was the Nevada Novelty Company) to the growth of the large casinos. Illustrated with a frontispiece and 10 black and white photographs, notes, index. xvi, 255 pp.  more information

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Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., Inc., 1920. . First printing. . Very good in dark blue cloth with orange lettering on spine & front cover (previous owner's name, little rubbing to the spine, minor shelfwear.) . A very appealing guide book (in a small format) to the American West with the focus on the National Parks - or as the author describes this is his preface 'for the automobilist, Paradise awaits you!' Contents include the Southern Rockies: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Springs & Pike's Peak, Salt Lake City & Zion National Park; the Northern Rockies: the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park; the Northwest: Alaska and Crater Lake National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Lake Chelan & the Columbia River Region; California: Northern, central & Southern California, and San Francisco; and the Southwest: the Grand Canyon, and historic places in New Mexico & Arizona. Frontispiece of Yosemite Park. Map endpapers: front is a map of the western U.S., showing the national parks and main railroad lines; back endpaper is a 1914 National Highways Association map of the U.S. showing major highways, with a note: 'This map shows the plan of the National Highways System. The roads are actually built.' Includes a list of reference books and an index. 206 pp. more information

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Portland, Oregon: Metropolitan Press, Publishers, 1935. . First printing. . Near fine in blue cloth with gilt lettering (some offsetting to the endpapers.) . A book of cowboy poetry by this Oregon author, perhaps best known for his biography of Chief Joseph - while Fee acknowledges that these poems might not be his best writing, he is publishing them because of the interest in 'the Great West and its fine inheritance.' 78 pp plus 1 pp with an interesting offer if a reader is willing to rate the poems. Recently reissued in paperback, this remains rather uncommon in the hardcover first edition. more information

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California Forgotten Trails (1998.) . First printing, a trade paperback, not issued in hardcover. . INSCRIBED by Tom Fisk, the storyteller. Fine condition. . True life adventure stories of a young boy growing up during the Depression and World War II years, mostly on his own, in the wild southwest of Arizona, and in Wyoming, working in the mines and on ranches, doing what he had to do to survive. An interesting oral history. Illustrated with photographs and with double page full color paintings from the 'BroncPeeler' collection by Fred Harman. Glossary of cowboy terms according to Tom. more information

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College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, (1976.) . First printing. . Fine in near fine dust jacket (price-clipped.) . The first essay in on Yellowstone National Park, the second looks at the 'Western Impact on the Nation', and the third, one of Frantz's most controversial, is called 'The American West: Child of Federal Subsidy' and was originally presented in 1963. Foreword by W. Eugene Holton. The first book to be published in the series 'Essays on the American West.' sponsored by the Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation. 82 pp. more information

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New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1989.) . First printing. . Fine in fine dust jacket. . A combination of travelogue, story of discovery and exploration and a commentary on American culture, past and present - but most of all, a very entertaining work. From the dust jacket: "The Great Plains are the short-grass prairies in the middle of the continent where the Crow and Sioux and the Cheyenne and Comanche had a few decades of prosperity between the coming of the horse and the coming of the army, where forty million buffalo were wiped out in about ten years and cowboys drove herds of longhorn cattle north from Texas, where farmers plowed up every foot of sod they owned to plant wheat to feed the World War I Army. Whole counties blew away in the dust bowl. Frazier visits "ghosty" places where the past is more alive than the present- the site of Sitting Bull's cabin on the Grand River in South Dakota, a rock shop made of fossilized dinosaur bones, an abandoned house where Bonnie and Clyde terrorized the inhabitants one night in 1933, the house of the murders in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and Nicodemus, Kansas, population 50, founded 110 years ago by black homesteaders." Photographs, notes, index. 290 pp. Map endpapers. more information

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Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1993. . First printing. . F/F (as new.) . Previously unpublished letters and journals of the Glasgow brothers , merchants from St. Louis, who were hauling several wagon loads of goods to Mexico when war broke out. Their letters include details of trail life, encounters with historical figures like Stephen Watts Kearny and firsthand accounts of the battles of Sacramento and Santa Cruz de Rosales. Edited and annotated by Gardner, foreword by Marc Simmons. Illustrated. 229 pgs including notes, bibliography & index. more information

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New York: Harper & Brothers, (1926.) . Early printing (originally published in 1925.) . Overall good condition - Some wear to edges of boards, corners, label on spine chipped - a faded spot on spine and a barely legible library stamp on front pastedown. . Stories of the Far West - the "real" west - including the Columbia River area, Salt Lake City, New Mexico and San Francisco. Illustrated with drawings by the author. more information

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Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1961. . First thus. . Very near fine in a bright and attractive red dj with slight edgewear. . Revised edition of a work originally published in 1952, with a new preface and an additional chapter. Includes a brief history of reclamation in the West beginning with the Mormons in 1847 with an irrigation channel near Salt Lake City. A very comprehensive study of the planning, construction, operation and financing of such projects. Among the federal projects discussed are the Boulder Canyon, California's Central Valley, the Columbia Basin, the Missouri River and more. Illustrated with photographs. 486 pages. A presentation copy INSCRIBED by the author, who was also the Chief Engineer of the Calif Dept of Water Resources and the Asst Dir of the US Bureau of Reclamation. Laid in are two brochures on "Reclamations's Recreational Opportunities" and the "American River Division" of the Central Valley Project. more information

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Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1986. . First printing. . F/F (as new.) . Contains 30 sketches describing the travels of the Graham and his wife along the borderlands between the Southwestern US and Mexico from 1879-1881. One sketch, "The Waggon-Train" was written by his wife, Gabrielle. Each selection has a separate preface by the editor . 145 pages including a glossary and bibliography. more information

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New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966. . First printing. . Fine in a very near fine dust jacket. . The stocks-and-bonds, Havana-cigar, mahogany-and-leather side of the cowboy era. - Politics, investors and operators from 1870-1900." No gunslingers in this book, but instead it focuses on the Eastern capitalists who financed the business of raising capital and arrived in Pullman trains, rather than on horseback - men like Marshall Field, William Rockefeller, E. C. Converse and Nathan Thayer. Photographs, bibliography and index. xix, 319, vii pp. more information

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New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923. . First printing (with code L-W.) . Fair condition in red cloth with black lettering on spine, illustrated front cover. Front hinge cracked, prev owner's name, some fading to the cloth spine and wear to the edges, lacking the dj. . Frontispiece and 2 other plates. more information

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Denver: Centennial School Supply Co., 1905. . Revised edition of a work originally published in 1892. . Very good+. A slim volume, bound in green cloth with black lettering on front covers. . Updated to include the legislative changes enacted by the 15th General Assembly, A brief sketch of the history of Colorado and the prinicipal facts of the operation of the state government. more information

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New York: Eagle Brook / William Morrow, 1999. . Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) . Fine in glossy illustrated wrappers. . A combination of personal ancedotes, historical facts, interviews with prairie residents, even some recipes and cooking hints, tell us what it like to be inspired and sustained by a simpler way of life. Illustrated with photographs by Bob H. Miller. more information

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Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. . First printing. . F/NF. . A study of the frontier settlements - the isolated farms and small towns, the ethnic colonies (Germans, Scandanavians, African-Americans) and the co-operative utopias, colonies based on religion like the Mormons and the Huttites, and the expanded family lifesyle of the Mexican ranchero and its adaptation in the American Southwest. Illustrated with many photographs, extensive bibliography. more information

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