Western Americana

Kansas City: Sheed Adams & McMeel, Inc. 1978. Signed by the author in full as Barry Holstun Lopez. First edition / First printing. Blue paper-covered boards. Fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Early signature with the middle name included, and uncommon thus. A lovely copy of a fragile book.

Chicago: Poole Brothers. Near Fine. 1915. Pamphlet. Clean soft pictorial cover. 8" x 9." Travel pamphlet with a center vertical fold. Illustrated with B/W photographs. Wonderful excursions by railroad or ship. What travelers say about the trip to Atlin, Dawson, Fairbanks and Nome. Ocean steamers service to Skaguay. Map of White Pass and Yukon Route and connections. River and lake steamer service to Atlin. Hotels. Alaska ; B/W Photographs; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 6 pages .

Albert Dressler, San Francisco, 1930; First Edition; Copy #195 of a limited edition of 525; large 8vo, 72 pages; illustrated; green cloth; blind stamped black titles. The life and times of John Thomas Mason, who came to Sierra County in 1851 to join the Gold Rush, remained in Rabbit Creek for the next 79 years, and was still alive at the time of writing of this book. Fine, in a Very Good Plus dust jacket that has a single 3/4" closed edge tear on the back panel.

New York: Hastings House, 1964. First edition / First Printing Mauve cloth. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with light wear.

A very nice copy of Sitgreaves Report. 1853. Senate Exec. Doc. 59. All 79 plates are present and the map is professionally reproduced in full size (27 x 47 inches) and placed in rear pocket. Howes S528; Wagner-Camp 230:1; Graff 3809. A note on collation: it is difficult. It helps to have reference materials and more than one copy. I have both and can guarantee this collates complete. Only condition issue is moderate to heavy foxing in places. That is a common problem with this volume. No prior ownership markings, stamps, or vandalism. In a beautiful modern quarter leather and marbled boards fine binding by Starr Bookworks. A very nice example of this work in fine binding and high quality full size facsimile map to complete the work. Please see scans of the book you will receive.

London: Printed for the Author, 1778. First edition. Bound in 3/4 calf with raised bands and gilt titles, decorative endpapers. Published London: Printed for the author, 1778. 8vo., 5 1/2" x 8 1/4", xvi, [17]-543, [1] pp. errata page, two folding, engraved maps that are fully hand-colored, plus four plates - Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi, An (Indian) Pipe of Peace, and two plates of native peoples. Includes a Chippewa vocabulary. Large bookplate of Otto Oren Fisher on front pastedown. Jonathan Carver (1710-1780) was an explorer, mapmaker, author, and one of the first white men to explore and map areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Part of a small expedition to map uncharted territory west of the Mississippi, he visited many of the Native American groups residing in the area. He "penetrated farther into the West than any other English explorer before the Revolution" (Howes). While French explorers had been in the area earlier, they did not leave behind detailed maps or… Read More

San Jose: Self Published [San Jose Notta Bros.], 1916. First Edition. Good. , limited to 300 [9.25x6.25in]; 68 pp., [2], six leaves of halftone portraits of Jayhawkers and illustrated scenes; Brown stiff paper wrappers with gilt stamped lettering on front, brown endpapers, stapled binding, covers extend beyond text block; Age wear to paper covers with creases and chips on all edges and corners, missing 1/4" bottom spine, several small stain and ink spots on covers faded and gilt lettering dulled, offset of 1920 newspaper article tipped in on the death of Stephens and prior owner ink signature on front leaf, oval stain on upper fore edge of first 12 pages, age toning of text throughout; Overall condition of this type and material quality is Very Good. [Kurutz 601, Cowan II p. 613, Graff 3972, Howell 50 1636, Adams 2136]. Lorenzo Dow Stephens (1827-1921) was part of a an Illinois company that left for California in March 1849. The company traveled to Fort Laramie, South Pass, Fort Bridger and Salt… Read More

Pruett Publishing, 1990. Hardcover with dust jacket. Used- Fine condition. First edition. Book is clean and tight. Book shows light shelf wear. Very slight crease on the bottom left corner on the front cover of the dust jacket. No markings on the inside of the book. Photos are of the book we have here at Barbed Wire Books.

New York: The Cadmus Book Shop, 1921. First Edition. Near Fine. Limited to 250 copies, [8.5x6in], 95 pp.; Dark Royal Blue cloth covers with gilt lettering on front and spine, all edges trimmed; Minimal rubbing to corners and spine top and bottom. A near fine copy. [Wagner-Camp 105, Howes W471, Graff 4682]. Joseph Williams (1778-?) was an Indiana Methodist minister, that in 1841, at the age of 63, traveled, independently, overland from Independence, MO to Oregon and back. From a book review in the Washington Historical Quarterly (July, 1921), Williams '... was prompted to make his tour to Oregon ... to preach to the Indians ... and ... see the country. ... This Narrative throws some rather valuable side lights upon the conditions in the Oregon Country notwithstanding the author's frequent digressions upon the wickedness which he everywhere found." From Wagner-Camp, "A few days out [from Independence], he joined the Bartleson Party with whom Father De Smet was traveling [apprehensive about the… Read More

Potts Point NSW: Hordern House, 2004. First Edition. Fine/Fine. [11.25x8.5in]; xi [introduction], 690 pp.,732 articles with 4000 names of persons and ships, index of persons, index of ships; Gray green cloth covers with gilt lettering on front and spine, all edges trimmed, three gold page mark ribbons, light gray illustration of explorers looking at map on a promontory overlooking land on front and back end papers; Pictorial color illustration on dust jacket of Gill painting of Australian "Desert Interior" circa 1846 [also on end papers], black lettering on front and spine; Publisher prospectus tipped in. Raymond Howgego (1946- ) is an independent researcher, scholar and traveler. He has been researching the history of travel and exploration for much of his adult life. His first book in this series, Encyclopedia of Exploration To 1800, was issued in 2003 was the distillation of that research that took some fifteen years to complete. This book is the second in the series and cites more than 10,000… Read More

The Shagganappi by E. Pauline Johnson [aka Tekahionwake] (1862-1913). Toronto: First Canadian edition, The Ryerson Press, 1913. USED. Good+ CONDITION / FAIR CONDITION ORIGINAL SILVER AND ORANGE DUST JACKET. QUITE RARE THUS. Please see our photos. A clean, solid copy that shows minor foxing. 5 5/8 X 8 ½. By Tekahionwake, important tribal historian and member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk.

Olibama Lopez Tushar, 1975. Paperback. Used- Fine Condition. Book is clean and tight. Book shows very light shelf wear with slight fading along back spine. Book is signed by the author on the title page. No further markings on the inside of the book. Photos are of the book we have here at Barbed Wire Books.

San Francisco, CA: Pacific Coast Blue Book Publishing Co., Pacific Building, Press of the Franklin Linotyping Co., 1915. Tall 8vo. 908 pp., printed on blue-tinted paper throughout. Numerous text maps, several maps, photo-illustrated ads, illustrated ads, Shell Oil Co. service station colour lithograph ads on rear endpapers. Limp publisher’s calf, gilt lettering on front cover, Shell gilt logo advertisement on back cover (ex-lib markings on endpapers, title, perforated stamp on title, chipping & wear to fore-edges, rebacked w/ renewed lettering on spine, linen tape joint repairs at gutter margins of endpapers), still a good copy, which was a Multnomah County Library duplicate sold through their Title Wave bookstore at some point. First edition, thus, of this surprisingly scarce automobile travel tour guide for California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, prior to World War I. This volume edited by Beck, combined the four different Automobile Club Pacific Coast Blue Books issued for… Read More

San Francisco, CA: Visalia Stock Saddle Co., 2117-2123 Market St., [1928]. 4to. 7 x 8 in. 64 pp., printed in sepia and black & white. With 100s of text illusts, some photo illustrations, some diagrams. Tan coloured softcovers, cover art of fine Walker saddle, and the Visalia Stock Co. “Extra Vine Angora Chaps” on back cover, stapled as issued (very minor creasing to left fore-edge, small closed tear at foot of spine), still a VG bright copy. First edition of this well-illustrated saddle and tack catalogue from one of the most important makers of western harness and saddlery in the West from the 19th through the 20th Centuries. Founded in 1869 in three Sonora, Mexico saddle makers, Ricardo Mattley, Juan Martarell, and Alsalio Herrera, which was then bought by David Walker in 1870 retaining the three talented craftsman for over 20 years as he built the brand. Edmund Walker Weeks (d. 1930) Walker’s nephew took over the company in 1887, moved the company to San Francisco in 1890, where it survived… Read More

Quarto in oblong format (11 by 14 1/2 inches) Oakland, California: Thompson & West [Printed by Pacific Press Printing and Publishing House], 1880. First, Original Edition. [3] iv-vi [2], [1] 12-192 pages; eighty-seven full page lithographic views, including a double page bird's-eye-view of the Wolfskill Ranch; full page colored map showing the Western States of Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California dated 1878.

Good condition: stamped-embossed original cloth over boards, with title in gilt centered on the front cover; professionally re-backed, with new corners, new endpapers to match the period; title in gilt on spine. Loss to lower right margin of one view, not affecting that image, archival repair to tear in margin of another plate, not affecting that image; another view, and pages 19-22, 37-38, 129-130 provided in facsimile, and are compatible to the contents - the book is in otherwise original condition, with binding and contents intact.

The fine plates are of local businesses, residences, farms,… Read More