The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days (Classics of the Old West series) by Adams, Andy - 1981

Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1981. Hardbound . Reprint Edition. BINDING/CONDITION: dark brown bonded leather with gilt text, raised decoration on the front cover, all edges gilt, ribbon place marker; the bookplate issued with the series is affixed to the front endpaper; no owner writing on the bookplate (or elsewhere); Very Good+ condition. This is a volume from the Time-Life Classics of the Old West; a facsimile reprint from the 1903 Houghton Mifflin first edition, including the original black and white illustrations by E Boyd Smith. J Frank Dobie said of this book: ''If all other books on trail driving were destroyed, a reader could still get a just and authentic conception of trail men, trail work, range cattle, cow horses and the cow country in general from [this book]... It is a simple, straightaway narrative that takes a trail herd from the Rio Grande to the Canadian line, the hands talking as naturally as cows chew cuds, every page illuminated by an easy intimacy with the life.'' Ramon Adams explains, that this is considered fiction, "but [Andy] Adams said 'its only fictional elements are the names of characters and ascribing to a single drive occurrences which actually were divided among several.' It has become a classic as a picture of trail driving, and no bibliography on cattle would be complete without it''. (Rampaging Herd Number 8; Six Score Number 2; Life and Literature of the Southwest, pages 94-95; 44 Range Country Books Number 34; 50 Great Western Illustrators, Smith Number 21) This includes the publisher's insert. 8vo (8.5 inches tall) 387 pages. Marbled endpapers.