Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2014 Issue

Texas and the West from Kenston Rare Books

Texas and the American West.

Kenston Rare Books has released their catalogue for Spring 2014. Fine Books on Texas and the American West. This is overwhelmingly a collection of Texiana, though multiple titles can be found on bordering states Oklahoma and New Mexico, and a few from farther off western locations such as Montana. Texas is a land rich in oil, rich in cattle, and rich in history. There is no limit to what can be said about Texas, and the many books in this collection testify to that point. These works cover the days from Texas first achieving its independence from Mexico to the middle of the last century. Here are a few of them.

 

Smuggling across the Mexico-Texas border is nothing new, even if what is being smuggled changes. Today, the trafficking is in drugs and humans, and as ever, the border is a porous boundary. During Prohibition, it was liquor that was being smuggled in from Mexico. Item 95 is Horsebackers of the Brush Country: A Story of the Texas Rangers and Mexican Liquor Smugglers, published in 1968. It was privately printed for the author, Maude T. Gilliland, who had a close look at her subject, her husband, father and grandfather all being Texas Rangers. The “Tequileros” used pack animals to carry their loads through the brush country of South Texas, at times ending up in violent confrontations with the Texas Rangers. The first part of this book is Gilliland's account of this activity, while the second part provides photographs and short biographical sketches of those who attempted to intercept the trade – Rangers, Customs Inspectors, Sheriffs, Border Patrolmen, and U. S. Marshals. This copy is signed Priced at $275.

 

The booklet depicted on this catalogue's cover is the Official Souvenir Guide Texas Centennial Exposition. It may not have a date but one is not necessary. It could only be 1936. It contains a listing of the various pavilions and other features of the fair, a master plan of the grounds, a map of the host city of Dallas, photographs and advertisements. Many of the buildings are described, including the Electricity Building, Texas Hall of State, Chrysler Hall, and the Hall of Negro Life. Item 231. $100.

 

Despite the cute nickname, “Little Reddy,” Robert McKimie, was not a nice man. Ask Johnny Slaughter. No, ask his heirs. An army deserter, McKimie killed a man in Utah and was sentenced to 15 years, but escaped. He then hooked up with the Sam Bass-Joel Collins gang outside of Deadwood, South Dakota. They took to robbing stages making the run to Cheyenne. It was there that he shot and killed stage driver Johnny Slaughter, a well-known, popular driver and son of a Cheyenne Marshal. He claimed it was an accident, but even his compatriots realized this was not a good move. They ran him out of the gang. McKimie would move on, spending time in numerous locations before buying a business and settling down in Ohio. He was eventually tracked down there by a South Dakota lawman, put in jail, escaped, returned to crime, and was finally recaptured. “Reddy” was a contradictory personality, a likeable, western storytelling businessman befriended by his Ohio neighbors, but who was especially brutal as a criminal. Item 31 is The Life and Adventures of Robert McKimie, Alias “Little Reddy,” from Texas... by J. W. Bridwell, published from Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1878. The rest of McKimie's story becomes vague. He was convicted and spent 14 years in an Ohio prison. After release, he reportedly returned to the Black Hills region of South Dakota, but what became of him after that is not known. Item 31. $1,750.

 

Here is another book about a bad man, or a whole bunch of bad men: Vicente Silva & His 40 Bandits. This is a 1947 first edition in English of a book written by newspaper reporter Manual de Baca and originally published in Spanish in 1896. Silva was a prosperous saloon keeper in Las Vegas, New Mexico, who decided he had a need to supplement his income. The saloon became headquarters for his “Forty Bandits” or “White Caps,” whose members were unknown, but who terrorized the area. Their specialties were stealing cattle and horses that they would sell in Colorado, robbing ranches, and holding up itinerant workers who had just received large paychecks, robbing and killing them, their bodies never to be found. In time, the law found some of the horses on Silva's property. They convinced one his bandits to act as a spy, but Silva and his men figured it out and killed the man. However, Silva then feared his own brother-in-law would tell the law, so Silva had him killed. Then he feared his wife was asking too many questions concerning the disappearance of her brother, so he killed her too. He ordered three of his men to dig a pit for her body, but when he arrived, the men, now fearful that Silva was losing his mind and was a danger to them, killed Silva and dumped both bodies in the grave. With their leader gone, the gang quickly fell apart and security returned to the community. Item 72. $125.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
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    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
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    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
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    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.

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