SONGS OF THE COWBOYS

Estancia, N.M.: News Print Shop, [1908].. 50pp. 12mo. Original textured red wrappers printed in gilt. Wrappers a bit rubbed, chipped at spine ends. Upper right corner of first few leaves with very slight wear. Very good. The first edition of this rare little classic of the open range, the first collection of cowboy songs to be published, printed for the author in a small edition. "Jack" Thorp (1867-1940) was a New York native, but moved out west as a teenager. He eventually ended up working as a cowboy himself in New Mexico, where he took a strong interest in collecting and preserving the traditional cowboy songs he heard, and in writing some of his own. The songs he collected in this pioneering booklet include an early version of the now-classic "The Streets of Laredo" titled "The Cowboy's Lament," along with other tunes such as "Little Joe the Wrangler," "California Trail," "The Pecos River Queen," "Windy Bill," "Cowboys New Years Dance," and "Speckles." A considerably expanded edition was printed by Houghton Mifflin in 1921, and Thorp continued to write other songs, poetry, and fiction about cowboys until his death. Thorp's literary papers, including manuscript drafts and records of many of these songs, are held by the Huntington Library.

"Thorp has a secure place in range literature because of his contribution in cowboy songs....[He] had a perspective of both range and civilization. He was a kind of troubadour himself" - Dobie. "There is no record of an 'honest to goodness' cowboy ever becoming a 'songbird,' in fact, few of the breed could carry a tune, nevertheless, the nature of their work was such that whistling, humming, and singing were important personal assets that helped to make short days out of long ones, and most of them gave it a fling....[A] puny little book that sold for a quarter...now classed as excessively rare" - Merrill. DOBIE, pp.122, 129. MERRILL ARISTOCRATS, pp.10, 25.