Guide To Life And Literature Of The Southwest With A Few Observations.

J. FRANK DOBIE

Publication: The University of Texas Press, 1943, Austin

First edition. 8vo. Gray wrappers, 111 pp., frontis., "A Declaration" by J. Frank Dobie, illustrated by Peter Hurd, Tom Lea, Ed Borein, C.M. Russell, Buck Dunton, Harold Bugbee, et al. "J. Frank Dobie wrote many books about the US West based on his extensive travels collecting stories. He grew up on a Texas ranch, served in the horse drawn artillery in World War I, and gradually became a somewhat cynical academic. This book was an expansion of the syllabus for a course he taught starting in the 1930s, at a time when his colleagues insisted there was no Southwest literature to study. He traveled by horse and mule throughout the southwest and Mexico collecting stories from vaqueros and of lost gold mines and much more, and wrote many books based on those primary sources. The book includes bibliographies, often annotated, for each of the topic chapters, which cover include cowboy‘s, Negro folk songs and tales, mining, women pioneers, Spanish Mexican strains, Indian culture and much more. Dobie says, "The Guide includes most of the books about the Southwest that people in general would agree on as making good reading." Fine, unread copy of the elusive true first edition.

Inventory Number: 49283