Hard Knocks. A Life Story of the Vanishing West.

Wells & Co., 1915. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/No Jacket. Full cloth binding, red cloth, a fine copy. Inscribed and signed by author. First edition, first state, variant binding. Guns 2466: "Although published the same year in Chicago by Laird and Lee with the same number of pages and bound in cloth, but with 7 fewer plates, the Portland edition is said to be the first printing. It is printed on much better paper than the Chicago edition. The author claims to have known Wild Bill Hickok personally, but he continues the Nichols legend about the McCanles 'fight.' He says that the stage company sent Hickok to Rock Creek Station from St. Louis to take care of the desperate situation. That statement is incorrect. The author has Hickok killing eight men at one time when he first arrived at Abilene. He also claims that he was the bartender at Saloon 66, where, he says, Wild Bill was killed. All the old-timers and eyewitnesses say that the bartender was Anson Tipple, and we know that the killing took place in Saloon No. 10. He has Calamity Jane at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, in 1860, the daughter of a soldier named Dalton. Twenty-six years later, Dr. McGillycuddy repeats much of Young's information word for word." Graff 4789. The Graff copy is in wrappers. Howes Y27: "aa" scarcity rating. This book is rare and more so with the author's inscription and signature