Beadle, J[ohn]. H[anson]
Western Wilds, and the Men Who Redeem Them
San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1878. Early edition. Subtitled: "An authentic narrative, embracing an account of seven years travel and adventure in the Far West; wild life in Arizona; perils of the plains; life in the cañon and death on the desert; thrilling scenes and romantic incidents in the lives of western pioneers; adventures among the red and white savages of the West; a full account of the Mountain Meadow Massacre; the Custer defeat; life and death of Brigham Young, etc."
$225
Beadle, a newspaperman with a fierce dislike for Mormons and a flair for popular history, wrote a number of books about life in the Western United States. For this work, Beadle traveled from Ohio, where he lived, across the continent to the Pacific, visiting Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, the Dakotahs, among other states and territories.
He combines personal experience, interviews, and history into a colorful travelogue that both promoted the adventures to be had in the West with the hardships found there. In the process, he met many Native Americans and spent time with Navajos, Cherokees, Sioux, Pawnees, Creeks, etc.
He also devotes several chapters to criticizing Mormons and another chapter to the Custer massacre.
Western Wilds was published first in 1877 and saw many reprints over the next five years. Most (if not all) copies were printed in Cincinnati with many different title-page imprints. This is a very scarce copy destined for San Francisco. OCLC, the combined catalog of thousands of libraries, locates only two copies of this book with a San Francisco imprint, both dated in 1880 (Universities of Oklahoma and Iowa), and no holdings of this 1878 San Francisco edition.
624 pages. Illustrated throughout with wood engravings and a double-page folding color lithographed map of the major Indian tribes. Half-leather with gilt spine and marbled edges. A very good, attractive copy with light wear to the gilt half-leather binding. Although this is a relatively common title, this is a much nicer than usual copy.
$225.00
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