Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails by Joe Back - 1959

Spine is in nice shape. Interior is clean and unmarked. Very little shelf-wear. Jacket has some chips, edge-wear, and a former owner name and phone number to front turn-in. Nicely designed book with printed end-sheets and front panel printed in two colors. Lots of incredibly expressive B&W illustrations by Back. Forward by Pat Murray. Conceived as a 'horse packer's bible', this classic guide is chock full of Back's droll and instructive illustrations, as well as plenty of anecdotes punctuated with characteristic cowboy-isms ('Let 'er buck!'). Back homesteaded and worked as a ranch hand and trail guide for several years in Wyoming before attending the Art Institute of Chicago on recommendation of ornithological illustrator Louis Agassiz Fuertes; there he met his wife, illustrator and taxidermist Mary Cooper, and the pair moved back to the Mountain West and purchased a dude ranch where Back sculpted and sold small animal models of pack horses to tourists. 117 pp.