SAM BASS

Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936., 1936. First edition. First edition. Cloth, 262 pp., illustrated, map on endpapers. "The most complete and reliable work on Sam Bass to date."---Ramon F. Adams (1969). Sam Bass came to Texas, in 1870 at the age of 19. He settled in the Denton County area where he worked as a cowboy and teamster. Sam went "up the trail" in 1876 to Nebraska, got paid and headed for Deadwood where he lost all his money. He robbed stages around Deadwood, then joined with 5 others, led by Joel Collins, and robbed a Union Pacific train at Big Springs, Nebraska in September, 1877 of $60,000 in gold and several thousand dollars from the passengers. Although several of the gang were killed within the next several days, Sam made it back to Texas, with his share of the gold, and promptly formed a new gang and began robbing trains and stagecoaches throughout north Texas. Sam Bass was finally betrayed to, and killed by the Texas Rangers in Round Rock, Texas, where Bass was preparing to rob a bank. A great story of this famous Texas outlaw. A fine, bright copy. Very good dust jacket with light general edgewear, a couple of 1" closed-tears to edges, and internally reinforced spine ends with some light touch-up to edges of spine ends.