Beschreibung:

Title: Cowboys North and South - with original drawing, inscribed to San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan Author: James, Will Place: New York and London Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons Date: 1924 Description: xvii, [1], 217 pp. Illustrated with drawings by Will James throughout. 9¼x7, original decorative gray cloth with orange stamped vignette on the front cover, lettered in black. First Edition, First State. On the first blank page is an original drawing by James of a man on a horse, along with an inscription to James D. Phelan, former mayor of San Francisco: "To James D. Phelan - With appreciation for help when the going was uncertain and mighty rough - Will James III -'25." After a long political career, the former mayor returned to banking and collected art. His path would have crossed with Will James' in San Francisco, where, from the inscription, he became something of a patron to the young Will James. James had come to San Francisco in September 1919 and enrolled in the California School of Fine Art. "This, Will James' first book, is a series of short stories about cowboy life in the real and actual West as it truly was between the 1870's and the early years of the 20th century. These stories, in colorful words and striking illustrations, portrayed the true working West rather than the Hollywood variety. All of the eight short stories in the book were previously printed in magazines. Seven of them appeared first in Scribner's Magazine, and the last one was printed in The Saturday Evening Post" (Frazier). First state with nothing printed on the half-title verso. "First and best of his many books" - Howes J55; Adams Herd 1153; Frazier p. 1. Lot Amendments The volume does not have a dust jacket. Condition: Some wear and soiling to cloth with light rubbing to extremities, small dent to bottom of rear board; front free endpaper excised, light offsetting to endpapers; very good. Item number: 278786