First Edition Songs of the Cowboys
N. Howard Thorp
1908
Estancia News Shop, Estancia, NM
Height 6.5” Width 4”
Provenance: Private collection, Las Vegas, NM
First edition. Original red cloth with title, author's name, and drawing stamped in gilt on front cover, 50 pp., preface. The first book of cowboy songs gathered from the cow camps of different states and territories. For nineteen years rancher Jack Thorp sought out cowboy songs, ballads, and poems from Texas to Utah. In 1908 Thorp was able to convince P.A. Speckmann, a printer at The Estancia News Shop, to print 2,000 copies of Thorp's book for six cents each. The finished booklet contained 23 songs. It was the first time a book devoted exclusively to cowboy songs had ever been published, and the credit goes to Thorp for being the first person to take a serious interest in collecting, preserving, and creating the genre. Songs include Little Joe, the Wrangler; Windy Bill; The Tenderfoot; Top Hand; Little Adobe Casa; Grand Round-up; Texas Cowboy; Mustang Gray; Sam Bass; Bucking Bronco; Educated Feller; Cowboy's Lament; Chopo; Buffalo Range; Cowboys' Christmas Ball; Chase of the ALC Steer; The Pecos Stream; Old Time Cowboy; The Pecos River Queen; Whose Old Cow?; Cowboys New Years Dance; "Mark Chisholm;" and Speckles.