For Love and Bears: A Description of a Recent Hunting Trip with a Romantic Finale, a True Story. Profusely illustrated by pencil sketches; also a cabinet photograph of Grace Horton
Chicago, (IL): Frank S. Gray, Publisher, 1886. First edition, duplicated typewriting. 4to. 139, (6, ads) pp. [rectos only]. Illustrated with an original albumen photograph, numerous facsimiles, maps, illustrations in text. Howes D-41. Phillips, p. 93: "A loquacious description, partly humorous, of a hunting trip in Idaho in the Pend d'Orielle region. Bears and deer." Not in Heller. Eberstadt 115, 517: "Daly and his companions had an interesting and adventurous time of it in the northern Idaho wilderness. Interspersed throughout the narrative are stories told at the camp fire by the party's guides, 'Idaho' Bob and 'Peace River' Bill. These recount adventures and experiences on the plains, among Indians and game from the 70s onward." Decidedly uncommon in trade, with but a single copy sold at auction during the past 35 years, that one, rebound, in 1992 (ABPC, 1976-2012). Some closed tears in title (no loss), some soiling, a very good copy of a fragile book. Original tan printed wrappers (detached, spine defective), stapled. Housed in a custom dark green cloth folding box, with chemise. (#6921). Item #59477
The work is presented on the front cover as "The Original MSS" as rejected by Messrs Harper Century Scribner, reprinting a letter (on publisher stationery) declining to publish a work "so representative of the 'rowdy west'." Mark Twain is universally regarded as a pioneer in being the first author to have a manuscript typed on a typewriter ("Life on the Mississippi," 1882), but there were others using the new machine as well. In addition to its place in Western Americana and sporting history, "For Love and Bears" is of interest in demonstrating how quickly the notion of a typewritten "original manuscript" took hold, and in being an early example of a published work with the appearance of a typescript. The author, Frank S. Gray, as "James Daly," is noted in Wright (III) as the author of "The Little Blind God on Rails: A Romaunt of the Gold Northwest" (Chicago, 1888), but the present work is not there.
Price: $1,750.00