Banditti of the Prairies or the Murderer's Doom! A Tale of the Mississippi Valley

Chicago: D. B. Cooke & Co.. Poor. 1856. Third Edition. Hardcover. Modern green hardback binding with gilt on spine. Missing back wrapper. Front wrapper trimmed and included as a pastedown on modern endpaper. Textblock is lightly foxed; edges are soiled. Front leaves have moderate corner wear with several fore edges of leaves showing short perpendicular closed tears. 4 leaves noted with previous archival repairs to fore edge. 18 pages of text are missing! We are including a modern re-print to complete missing text. Includes 13 block prints portraying murder and mayhem. Howes (B-606) calls this a "sensational account of the tracking down of these confederated criminals--mostly Mormons--who murdered Colonel Davenport at Rock Island and terrorized the upper Mississippi valley from 1843 to 1848. Flake (590) says, "Includes the Mormon's unlawful activities in Nauvoo." Today we would call this a historical novel. Nonetheless, a rare book last seen in this edition at auction in 1957 and rarely seen in commerce. First published in 1850, followed by an 1853 edition with this, the 1856 edition reportedly printed in "25th thousand" which Howes feels is publisher's hyperbole. Condition is poor but a chance to own a rare title of Americana. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 196 pp . (Inventory #: 013780)