MERCER, ASA SHINN | The Banditti of the Plains or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892: The Crowning Infamy of the Ages. [Cheyenne, Wyoming: for the Author, 1894]

Property from the Sporting and Travel Library of Arnold "Jake" Johnson

MERCER, ASA SHINN

The Banditti of the Plains or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892: The Crowning Infamy of the Ages. [Cheyenne, Wyoming: for the Author, 1894]

8vo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 210 x 140 mm). Advertisement leaf, 12 wood-engraved text illustrations (6 full-page). Original pebbled black cloth; hinges cracked. Endorsed check from author laid in.

First edition of "one of the rarities of western Americana" (Adams). Mercer was the editor and publisher of a stock journal whose livelihood depended on paid advertisements from the cattlemen. While his sympathies did not lie with cattle rustlers, his publication exposed the criminal activities of the Wyoming cattlemen during the Johnson County War. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association brought a libel suit against Mercer, during the course of which much of the edition was impounded and ordered destroyed. Mercer's printing office was burned, and he was forced to flee Wyoming.

REFERENCE:

Adams, Six Guns (1969), 1478; Graff 2750; Howes M-522; Streeter sale 4:2385