Toward the Sun

Important association copy. See below.Grades FINE even if it were a modern book and this one is a century old with no defects other than not looking bright. Perhaps the best in existence

Author Beede was a judge and a student of the North Dakota Indians and known for his books Sitting Bull-Custer and Heart-in-the-Lodge. This book of poems is not wholly-Indian related but largely so. He asked Melvin R. Gilmore. Curator of North Dakota Historical Museum, to ad a commentary and Gilmore has done so in the form of a 22-page Appendix. This particular copy must have been Gilmore's as he has signed the appendix AND made a manuscript note to Beede's text. On page 22, he adds a note to explain the meaning of the Dakota word 'Hwin" and on page 195 he corrects "than" to "when." It seems reasonable to assume this is the first printing of the first edition and given by Beede to Gilmore

According to the archivist note, to the Aaron McGaffey Beede and Ralph gordon Beede Papers, University of North Dakota, Beede was a North Dakota pioneer. He graduated in 1884 from Bates College and took up teaching, and the study of law. He attended the Andover Theological Seminary (in Massachusetts) and received his Bachelor of Divinity degree there in 1890. From 1891 to 1894 Beede served as superintendent of schools at Alfred, Maine. He departed for South Dakota and was teaching there in 1895. He then moved on to North Dakota. In 1899 Beed received a doctorate degree from Wesleyan University (Bloomington, Illinois).

During the period 1901-1916, Beede was a missionary in Sioux country. (He had learned the Sioux language at age fifteen.)

In 1914 he was appointed the first county judge of Sioux County. He entered the private practice of law in 1922, and in 1924 served as state's attorney from 1925-1927.