Wild Life on the Rockies (association copy)
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. First edition. Hardcover. No date on title page, so a presumed second or later printing. An association copy, inscribed elegantly on the decorative front free endpaper: "To Walter A. Dyer, from Enos A. Mills." With Dyer's bookplate on the verso of the FFEP.
Dyer was a journalist and writer who lived in Massachusetts. He edited the magazine Country Life in America and was ultimately the author of more than a dozen books, writing especially about dogs and, yes, country life. His papers are held at Amherst College. His best known book may be Pierrot, Dog of Belgium, about a farm dog before and during World War I; it was published in 1915.
Enos Mills was a prominent early naturalist instrumental to the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park. Wild Life on the Rockies was his second book, and "wild life" is of course meant in two senses: the good, unconstrained life and encounters with animals. Its chapters preview some of his later subjects: the thousand year pine, Scotch (his collie), bears, and so on. A fascinating preliminary work from that perspective, early sketches of what was to come. The book is dedicated to John Muir.
Brown cloth with color illustration on cover. Longs Peaks depicted opposite the title page. Very good with softening to a few corners and light rubbing to corner tips. Darkening to upper text block face. Otherwise clean and sturdy, lacking the dust jacket. An interesting association between "country" writers both known for their dog stories--that seems quite likely part of their connection. The Story of Scotch was published in 1916. Very good. Item #1106
Price: $475.00 save 5% $451.25