Cowboys And Cattlemen. A Roundup From Montana, The Magazine Of Western History

KENNEDY, MICHAEL S. [SELECTED AND EDITED BY]

Publication: Hastings House, Publishers, 1964, New York

First edition. 8vo. Limited edition of 199 copies bound in pony hide, and signed by the editor. This is copy 13. Inscribed on the verso of the front free fly leaf to friends at Christmas time and signed by the editor. This copy contains an original full page colored art signed by Cornelius C. Smith, which is very nicely done and colorful. Full pony hide, xii, 364 pp., introduction, profusely illustrated mostly from old photographs, index. An excellent compilation of articles from "Montana, The Magazine of Western History." Selected stories acquaint the reader with life on the cattle range in Montana, with minor reference to Wyoming and North Dakota, from its beginning in the 1860s until the end of the open range in the early twentieth century. "Northern range land is brought into bold relief from the dim period of buffalo occupancy through the barbed-wire revolution, the eventual end of the open range, the failure of the homesteader, and the establishment of the new type of Montana ranching business. Ranching life is all there: the driving of cattle from Texas to the Northern ranges; herding and finally shipping them or their progeny East to the cornbelt markets; destroying the killer wolves which wrought havoc on the range; hunting down rustlers; the devastating hard winters which decimated the herds of big rancher and little cattleman alike and left the countryside strewn with carcasses; breaking broncos; the sheepmen; and finally the breaking up of the range at the hands of the homesteader who turns its grass upside down and in turn is defeated by a climate never intended for farming." Some of the selections are written by professional historian while others represent the reminiscences of various range men. Accounts of Pierre Wibaux, Con Kohrs, Moreton Frewen, Bob Fudge, William Burnett, and the Newman Brothers. Great articles of Montana's early ranching days by L.A. Huffman, J. Frank Dobie, Mark H. Brown, Joe B. Frantz, Lewis Atherton, Robert H. Fletcher, Helena Huntington Smith, among others. Fine, bright copy housed in the fine original slipcase.

Inventory Number: 51561