WHEN WEST WAS WEST. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928. Octavo, title page printed in blue and black, original decorated blue cloth stamped in gold and blind. First edition. Wister, along with Zane Grey and Clarence Mulford, basically invented the modern western novel. His VIRGINIAN (1902) is generally regarded as the first cowboy novel. This is a later work, a collection of nine western stories, in which there is a sense of the failed potential of the optimistic west of his early works. In “At the Sign of the Last Chance,” the inhabitants of a depopulated town come to realize that the town and their saloon have died, causing them to bury the saloon’s sign. Owner's bookplate affixed to front paste-down. A bright, clean, very good copy. (#129221).
Price: $75.00
"PUBLISHED May, 1928" on copyright page.