Card Covers
(ca.1980) · (n.p.)
by Herlihy, Herbert
(n.p.): Privately Printed. Very Good. (ca.1980). Unstated edition. Card Covers. NOISBN . (photocopied typescript, velobound, with plastic strips) [moderately worn, with the plastic strip holding the rear cover in place beginning to pull loose at the top; this binding can easily be re-done at any copy shop]. (B&W photographs; see notes) Privately-printed memoir of ranch life in New Mexico, circa 1910-1921. The author's "forward" explains: "This is the story of a widow, born and raised in New York City, and four of her five sons, one of whom was myself, who gave up the comforts of a Brownstone house on West Seventieth Street and the advantages of the big city, to migrate to the Territory of New Mexico to engage in the cattle business." The ranch in question was near the site of the once-thriving but now-abandoned town of Taiban, New Mexico, in De Baca County. In addition to time spent on the ranch, with which this volume is primarily concerned, the author also served in World War I, and returned intermittently to New York, where among other activities he spent three years as a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The text is 80 pages long, printed on one side only, with the illustrations (mostly photographs, but including one map) on interleaved un-numbered pages. Although the approximately 30 photographs are essentially just photocopies of original prints, the quality is somewhat better than that would suggested. (The photograph of the author in the rear of the book shows him "in his Law Offices at Los Angeles," but I've been unable to track down any biographical information on him. I have also seen a 60-page hardcover version of this work listed for sale, but cannot say how it may differ from this copy.) . (Inventory #: 16049)