Cowboys North and South [signed by Will James]

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924. First edition. Hardcover. SIGNED. 217pp. Quarto [24 cm] Gray cloth over boards, with the title stamped in black on the backstrip and front board, and a brown ink stamped cowboy and horse vignette on the front board. Insignificant warping to the front board; spine moderately toned; spine ends and corners of the covers lightly rubbed; previous owner's name on the front free endpaper. Else, very good or better. A collection of cowboy stories illustrated by the author. A signed first edition of the author's first book.

Newberry Medal award-winning author "Will James" was born Joseph-Ernest-Nepthali Dufault in Quebec Province, Canada. His entry in "Artists of the American West" by Doris Ostrander Dawdy states, " In San Francisco, James had the good fortune to interest Harold Von Schmidt and Maynard Dixon in his cowboy drawings. They gave him financial assistance and helped him get a job with Sunset magazine. From there he went to New York where he wrote and illustrated for Scribner's. In 1924 his first book was published. It was followed by 19 others and many short stories, bringing him lasting fame as a cowboy artist and writer."

This copy is signed by Will James, with the year "'30," on the title page.