Garrett, Pat

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Garrett, Pat
An Authentic Ljfe of Billy the Kid, the noted Desperado of the Southwest.... Sante Fe: The New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882.
ink, paper

8vo (8 1/2 x 5 3/4 ins.; 211 x 141 mm). Six plates; some scattered staining and damp staining. Original illustrated wrapper; back cover detached but present and chipped at edges, rubbed, spine worn at ends.

Provenance

Jim Howard, Denver Colorado (1908 ownership inscription)

Literature

Adams, Six-Guns 807; Graff 1515; Howes G73; Rader 1541; Streeter 4287

Catalogue Note

first edition of the "first genuine biography of America's most spectacular example of juvenile delinquency,..." (Howes). While purportedly written by the sheriff that dispensed justice to young Billy, it was actually ghost-written by Ash Upson with the details of the subject's life highly embellished.

Adams calls it "exceedingly rare" and recounts a tale of the remainder being wheel-barrowed away from the publisher, never to be seen again. This is only the second copy we can find at auction in the last three decades.