[Wyoming]. Gebow, Joseph A. A Vocabulary of the Snake, or Sho-Sho- Nay Dialect. Wyoming Territory, 1868

[WYOMING]

JOSEPH A. GEBOW. A VOCABULARY OF THE SNAKE, OR, SHO-SHO-NAY DIALECT … REVISED AND IMPROVED, JANUARY 1ST, 1864, GREEN RIVER CITY, WYOMING TERRITORY: FREEMAN & BRO., 1868

8vo (7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in.; 200 x 130 mm). Original printed grey wrappers; hole in upper cover repaired (not affecting text), spine reinforced. Red buckram clamshell case, morocco gilt spine label.

The second book printed in Wyoming and the only known book printed by the Press on Wheels, the newspaper press of the Frontier Index, which moved westward in wagon or railway car, keeping up with the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. Although the title-page calls this the second edition, it is actually the third. The first was printed at Salt Lake City in 1859 (only one copy known); the second at Camp Douglas, Utah, in 1864 (only 2 copies known).

Gebow learned the Shoshone language during his twenty-year residence in the Rockies and wrote this for Indian trappers and traders.

Rare. Only 7 copies located by Stopka.

LITERATURE:

Ayer, Indian Linguistics Dakota 85; Coe, pp. 87–88; Graff 2037; McMurtrie pp. 11–12; Stopka 1868; Streeter 2232; Wyoming Imprints 2

PROVENANCE:

Frank T. Siebert (acquired Eberstadt, 1953; sold in his sale, Sotheby's New York, 28 October 1999, lot 1059)