Rollie Burns: Or An Account Of The Ranching Industry On The South Plains

WILLIAM CURRY HOLDEN

Publication: The Southwest Press, 1932, Dallas

First edition. First state binding and one of 500 copies with the portrait frontispiece. Decorated tan cloth, 243 pp., 20.4 x 14.5 cm., frontispiece, preface, index. Written in the author's hand in ink on the front free fly leaf is the address of Rollie C. Burns / 2407 14th St. / Lubbock, Texas. "Born in 1857 in Missouri, he had been brought to Texas by his parents about the beginning of the Civil War, and he grew up near Denison, then the only shipping point on the cattle trail north and a fascinating place for boys who were to become cowboys. One month short of his sixteenth birthday Burns ran away from home to join a scouting expedition to the Texas Panhandle, and by the time he settled in the Lubbock area in 1881, he was an experienced buffalo hunter, scout, and bronc buster. It was as a cowboy and rancher that Rollie Burns made his reputation, and in these pages C. Holden tells Burns's story of a life filled with adventure. Here are scenes of cattle drives, rough towns, Indians, lobo wolves, double-dealing cattlemen, etc." Six Score 60 says, "An excellent picture of ranching in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s in West Texas." Holden, author of several excellent books and a Texas historian with many contributions to the history of the western part of the state of Texas. Former owner's neat inked name at top of front pastedown sheet, else a fine, bright and tight copy that lacks the elusive dust jacket. Scarce.

Inventory Number: 53236