The Pony Express. The Record Of A Romantic Adventure In Business.

ARTHUR CHAPMAN

Publication: G P Putnam's Sons, 1932, New York

First Edition. Tan Cloth, 319pp., 8 Plates, Map on Endpapers. A well-documented and interesting history of the Pony Express. Accounts of "great rides" and Indian fighting, plus an account of the killing of David McCanles by "Wild Bill" Hickok at the Rock Creek, Nebraska Pony Express Station. "Another effort to correct the wild legend of the Hickok-McCandless trouble at Rock Creek Station. The author also devotes a chapter to Joseph Spade."--SixGuns 412. Fine in dust jacket with some very light edge wear to spine and spine ends. There is an important lengthy, signed inscription on the half-title by Byron McCandless, grandson of David McCandless, who was killed by "Wild Bill" Hickok at the Rock Creek Pony Express Station. An exceptionally important and highly controversial event in the life of "Wild Bill", the inscription is as follows: "U.S.S. Raleigh, San Francisco, Cal., 27 April 1932. My grandfather, David Colbert McCandless, was owner of the Rock Creek Station, and was shot by the hostler "Duck Bill" Hickok, from behind a curtain, with my grandfather's rifle--left behind in the Station when leased to the Company. Byron McCandless, Captain U.S. Navy." Byron McCandless graduated from the Naval Academy in 1905, was an officer in the Navy for many years, earning the Navy Cross in World War I and the Legion of Merit in World War II. A unique and important inscription. A highly desirable copy!