The Cowboy: An Unconventional History of Civilization on the Old-Time Cattle Range

Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.: University of New Mexico Press, 1979. Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/4" x 7 3/4. Mays, Buddy - Cover Photo. 402 Pages Indexed. Revised and Enlarged Reprint of the Scribner Edition. No marks or stamps to this tight square book with a faultless interior. This book is a 1979 UNM Press reprint of the 1936 Revised and Enlarged Edition of the original 1922 publication. This classic was printed six times during its first year of publication in 1922. It is a detailed social history of the manners, customs, and daily routine of the men who herded the cattle in the late 19th century. It is more than a compendium of lively descriptions. It is foremost an accurate, intensely interesting picture of cowboys as they were, not as they have been romanticized in movies and novels. From the Preface to the Revised and Enlarged Edition -- in this new edition the text has been much enlarged as concerns branding, roping, trail-driving, riding of bucking horses, social customs, technical terms and old-time slang. Incidentally, the four misstatements in the prior editions have been corrected. Three of them were the allotting of Francois-Xavier Aubry to the Pony Express, the styling of John Chisum as John Chisholm, and the assertion that the murderer at Jackson Lake rowed to the northern end of the lake instead of, as in fact, across its southern end --- this last error inexcusable inasmuch as the author had accompanied Tazewell Woody in the pursuit. As to the fourth misstatement, it was due to the little Imp who sometimes interferes with correct typography and always watches over author's manuscripts. A page of the manuscript which related to marks on cattle had been lost in transit. The words at the bottom of the preceding page and those at the top of the following page happened to match so well that the Imp linked them together, made a sentence which was grammatical, though inaccurate; and the printing was done before the omission was discovered. The text, thus amended, continues to pay tribute to my friends of long ago, men with legs shaped like horse collars, men who founded an empire and, while still in the glad confidence of youth, rode into history. The ranchers and the cowboys merit serious study because they were the principals in one of the nine convulsive migrations that collectively enpeopled America's West. The West (the area west of the Missouri River), unlike the East, was settled through relatively methodical and homogeneous expansion behind a slowly advancing frontier. It was primarily settled, insted, by successive groups of people who leaped over the frontier and swept across many miles of no-man's land before they halted. Each of these groups had its own goal, and possessed a special incentive for its thrust. Includes a center section with four pages of black and white photographs. Contents in 18 Chapters: The Beginnings of Ranching, Ranchmen and Farmers, Definitions and Cowboy Ways, Cowboy Character, What the Cowboy Wore, Saddles, Bridle Lariat and Quirt, Equipment and Furnishings, Diversions and Recreations, The Day's Work, Live Stock, Branding and the Round-Up, The Cattle Drive, Breaking Horses, Visit to Town, I Rustling, Trailing, and Later Phases of Western Migration. Plus and Appendix of Notes.