Buffalo, Custer, Wyoming and More from Old West Books
A photograph at the Custer Monument when it was still new.
One of the old buffalo hunters who changed his ways as he realized the great herds were disappearing was Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones. Instead, he became their savior. He captured young animals and placed them in protected areas, including Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. He even tried breeding them with cattle for a while. Among the many admirers of his work was Theodore Roosevelt, who named Buffalo Jones the first game warden at Yellowstone Park. His friends included the more famous "Buffalo" man, Buffalo Bill. Item 38 is Colonel Henry Inman's 1899 biography, Buffalo Jones Forty Years of Adventure. It is actually incomplete as Jones lived another 20 years. $375.
Item 1 is an early (1881) photograph of the Custer Monument at the Custer Battlefield site. The photograph, taken just five years after Custer met his fate, came from David F. Barry. Barry was a notable western photographer, specializing in images of Indians and military figures. Among those he photographed was Sitting Bull, Custer's nemesis, and Custer himself in the days before his great miscalculation. $1,250.
Item 49 is the aforementioned Charles Siringo's most controversial work, Two Evil Isms. Pinkertonism and Anarchism by a Detective Who Knows, As He Spent Twenty-two Years in the Inner Circle of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency. Siringo was quite peeved at Pinkertons by this time as they had used his confidentially agreement to censor earlier writings about his adventures with the agency. Pinkertons had sent him on numerous undercover assignments, tracking down both criminals and unions, whose strikes the agency had been hired to break. Siringo's attack on anarchism as well as "Pinkertonism" was an indication that Siringo never became fond of unions (whose leaders he considered anarchists) any more than he liked the company hired to destroy them. Pinkertons got a court order to destroy this edition, and bought up as many copies shipped before the order as they could, but some escaped their grasp. This is a survivor. Published in 1915. $3,950.
Old West Books may be reached at 719-260-6030 or oldwestbooks@earthlink.net. Their website is www.oldwestbooks.com.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
