Twenty Years in the Backwoods of California...
first edition
1923 · Boston
by Shay, John C.
Boston: The Roxburgh Publishing Co., Inc., 1923 First edition. Small 8vo. 142pp. Original navy blue cloth stamped in gilt on spine and front cover. Spine slightly dulled, light wear to spine ends, light damp stain to extreme bottom of text block. A very good copy. The author covers his experiences in California as a prospector, gold miner, homesteader, stock raiser and roadside "smithy."" After an unsuccessful stint as a placer miner, the author practiced blacksmithing near the Madera County town of Ahwahnee and prospered by servicing the wagons carrying tourists to and from Yosemite. His narrative is plain and unvarnished but includes plenty of stage robberies, pyromaniacs, shootings, and random violence. One chapter describes the first auto-stage holdup. "Rare" (Six-Guns). [Adams, Herd: 2045; Adams, Six-Guns: 1987; Cowan: p.581; Rocq: 4933].. (Inventory #: 7471)