Mercer, Asa | The Banditti of the Plains, 1894

Western Art and Design from Bar Cross Ranch, Wyoming

Asa Mercer

The Banditti of the Plains or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892: The Crowning Infamy of the Ages. [Cheyenne, Wyoming: for the Author, 1894]

8vo. Advertisement leaf, 12 wood-engraved text illustrations, 6 of which full-page; one endleaf detached but present, textblock shaken. Publisher's black pebble-grain cloth; rubbing to extremities with some fraying, spine worn. Collector's clamshell box with chemise.

First edition of "one of the rarities of western Americana" (Adams). Asa Mercer documents the Johnson Counter War, where larger cattle companies persecuted the smaller cattlemen in the land of Wyoming. Mercer championed the struggle of the latter, resulting in a bold invective that has since evolved into a parabolic tale of the Wild West and the struggles for power within it.

The Manney copy.

REFERENCE:

Adams, Six Guns (1969), 1478; Graff 2750; Howes M-522; Streeter sale 4:2385

PROVENANCE:

Charles Wunnicke (ownership inscription to front free endpaper: "Property of Chas H. Wunnicke, Cheyenne, WY"); Richard Manney (booklabel to front pastedown; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 228)