L. W. Currey, Inc.

JUDSON, KATHARINE BERRY. Myths and legends of California and the old Southwest[.] Compiled and edited by Katharine Berry Judson ... Illustrated[.] Second edition. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1916. 21.5x15.2 cm, pp. [i-iv] v-xvi [17-18] 19-193 [194-196: blank], 51 illustrations from photographs on inserted plates, original green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in light green and black, pictorial paper onlay affixed to front panel. Second printing. The third book in Judson's series of retellings of western Native American myths and legends, first published in 1912. "The myths of California, in general, are the same type as those given in a preceding volume on the myths of the Pacific Northwest. Indeed many of the myths of Northern Californian tribes are so obviously the same as those of the Modocs and Klamath Indians that they have not been repeated ... In the compilation of this volume, the same idea has governed as in the two preceding volumes -- simply the preparation of a volume of the quainter, purer myths, suitable for general reading, authentic, and with illustrations of the country portrayed, but with no pretensions to being a purely scientific piece of work ... Changes have been made only in abridgments of long conversations and ceremonial details which detracted from the myth as a myth, even though of great ethnological importance" (preface, pp. viii-ix). According to Jay Miller, Judson's retelling of these stories represent "a distillation of tribal memory and a personification of environmental wisdom," some being almost literal translations, recorded by government ethnologists. There are a few Sierra Nevada and Yosemite myths, including the lovely Kern River Paiute "Song of the Ghost Dance." All the photographs of Yosemite Valley are credited to the underrated Los Angeles commercial photographers Putnam and Valentine. Katharine Berry Judson (1866-1929), was a librarian and the author of a number of popular historical works on the Pacific Northwest. Some light foxing to cloth, light green lettering on the spine panel quite dull, a very good copy. (#166703).