A VAQUERO OF THE BRUSH COUNTRY.

Dallas: Southwest Press, 1929. xv,314pp. Color frontis of a Longhorn. Endpaper maps. Illustrations by Justin C. Gruelle. Photographs. Half tan cloth over snakeskin patterned boards, printed paper title label on the front cover. First edition, fourth printing. Externally, slight rubbing to the fragile snakeskin boards, overall, very good+, or better. Internally, the expected age toning, else, very good. Jenkins, BTB 44: “Dobie’s first complete book…a lasting contribution to the literature of the Texas range. It presents the memoirs of John Duncan Young, a South Texas cattleman, as interpreted by Dobie…The text includes, in addition to Young’s life as a pioneer cattlemen, sections on round ups and cattle drives, on the hide and tallow business in Texas, on Billy the Kid and Mexican outlaw Cortina, on life in the South Texas brush country, on Mexican and Indian warfare along the border after the Civil War, and on the folk ways of the Texas cattle industry.” Reese, Six Score 34: “Dobie felt that his book, with The Longhorns, was ‘a fairly full and accurate account of the beginnings and early development of ranching in Texas.’”  A much nicer copy than usually found. One of Dobie’s best, it weaves the reminiscences of John Young into a comprehensive view of the cattle business.