Among The Shoshones.

WILSON, ELIJAH NICHOLAS ["UNCLE NICK"].

Publication: Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Company, 1910,

First edition. First issue. 8vo. Original dark green cloth, hand-written titles on orange labels affixed to front cover and spine, 222 pp., frontis. [photograph of E. N. Wilson], preface, illustrated, portraits, plates. A variant binding when compared in a side-by-side comparison with the actual trade edition. This copy is 23cm in height compared to 21cm for the trade edition. The major difference between the two is the 2cm in height of this edition, which was probably bound from leftover sheets as some of the illustrations that are bound-in are ony 21cm while others are 23cm. The existence of this edition is even more curious when reviewing Wilson's comments in Bauer Sale (1958), lot 515, "When the book was in sheets, ready for binding, objection was made to the passage beginning on page 194. Under pressure I rewrote that part and added 25 pages to the original but had 20 copies bound as originally written." Bound in at the end following a typewritten leaf is a set of the altered sheets, pp. 185-247 of the second issue (222 pp. plus 25 additional pp.), "excluding some objectionable sentences," the material was found to be objectionable by the Mormons for its anti-polygamy viewpoint. Graff 4702: "A good narrative of Rocky Mountain trapping. Uncle Nick crossed the plains by ox-team in 1850, and thenceforth was trapper, Indian fighter, pony express rider, ox-team freighter, overland stage driver, companion of Kit Carson, and adventurer in Utah and through all the Rocky Mountain country. The first issue was rigidly suppressed." Howes W520: "Blunt, unrestrained narrative of a trapper, Indian fighter, etc., of the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming and Montana to Idaho and Utah. The 247 page reprint omits the account of how he lost his Mormon fiancee [given on pp. 194 to 200 of original edition]." Flake 9909: "This first edition was suppressed as critical of polygamy." Bauer Sale 515: "When the book was in sheets, [quoting Elijah N. Wilson], ready for binding, objection was made to the passage beginning on page 194. Under pressure I rewrote that part and added 25 pages to the original but had 20 copies bound as originally written. These I kept for the members of my family." Wilson was also critical of the church's handling of the Mountain Meadows massacre, and in general their handling of Indian affairs as he was sympathetic to the Indian point of view. Wilson, Wyoming was named in honor of Elijah N. Wilson. Light wear to spine ends and corners, some pages carelessly opened, a few pages repaired or lightly soiled, binding lightly shaken, else very good copy of a rare book with the rare unexpurgated tale.

Inventory Number: 28498