Rare Book Monthly
The Wild Southwest<br>From Almagre Books
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Item 516 is an Altus, Oklahoma, printing of Elda Roberts’ A History of the Roberts Family or The Stubborn Fisherman. It’s a tribute and biography of her husband, George Roberts, a deep-sea fisherman and guide. Almagre in their description notes that “George was known for never wearing shoes: he could write his name with a pen between the toes & strike matches on his foot calluses.” That’s more information than we need. Never, never let your spouse write your biography. $45.
If you’d rather buy a collection than add to one, item 627 is a collection of 127 titles in 144 volumes about the Mexican Revolution of 1910. About 75% are in Spanish and were printed in Mexico, with the remainder in English. Publication dates range from 1911 to the 1980s with the bulk being from the period 1930-1960. $2,500.
Billy McGinty was an Oklahoma cowboy who served with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and was known as a great bronc-rider. He also promoted what some consider to be the first country and western band, Billy McGinty’s Oklahoma Cow Boys (later Otto Gray’s Oklahoma Cow Boys). The band was enormously popular in the 1920s and 30s. McGinty is now a member of the “Cowboy Hall of Fame.” Item 265 is The Old West: As Told by Billy McGinty, a 1937 work published in Ripley, Oklahoma. It covers his work on numerous ranches and time as a deputy sheriff in Clifton, Arizona. $600.
Price Daniel, Jr., was born with the right pedigree for Texas politics. He was a great-great-great grandson of Sam Houston, and his namesake father, Price Daniel, Sr., served as governor and senator for the state. Daniel married into the right society and reached the post of Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He would advance no further. His marriage broke down and Daniel remarried a Dairy Queen waitress, who would in time shoot him to death. In a memorable trial, legendary Texas lawyer “Racehorse” Haynes would get her acquitted on the grounds the shooting was accidental. The scandalous story would eventually become a movie, “Bed of Lies,” with Chris Cooper as Daniel, Susan Dey (former Partridge family daughter) as Vickie Daniel, and future Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson as Haynes. Now you’re thinking this next item must be a book about this controversial Texan. Wrong. Item 573 is a collection of Price Daniel, Junior’s, book catalogues. You see, Daniel was also a bookseller specializing in Texana, and this is a group of his catalogues from the 1960s. $90.
Almagre Books may be reached by phone at 812-334-0465 or by email at wwroth@kiva.net.
