Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations

by J. Frank Dobie

BRISBIN, GENERAL JAMES S. The Beef Bonanza; or, How to Get Rich on the Plains, Philadelphia, 1881. One of several books of its decade designed to appeal to eastern and European interest in ranching as an investment. Figureless and with more human interest is Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, by Major W. Shepherd (of England), London? 1884.

BRONSON, EDGAR BEECHER. Cowboy Life on the Western Plains, Chicago, 1910. The Red Blooded, Chicago, 1910. Freewheeling nonfiction.

BROOKS, BRYANT B. Memoirs, Gardendale, California, 1939. The book never was published; it was merely printed to satisfy the senescent vanity of a property-worshiping, cliche-parroting reactionary who made money ranching before he became governor of Wyoming. He tells a few good anecdotes of range days. Numerous better books pertaining to the range are NOT listed here; this mediocrity represents a particular type.

BROTHERS, MARY HUDSON. A Pecos Pioneer, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1943. Superior to numerous better-known books. See comment under "Women Pioneers."

BROWN, DEE, and SCHMITT, MARTIN F. Trail Driving Days, Scribner's, New York, 1952. Primarily a pictorial record, more on the side of action than of realism, except for post-trailing period. Excellent bibliography.

BURTON, HARLEY TRUE. A History of the J A Ranch, Austin, 1928. Facts about one of the greatest ranches of Texas and its founder, Charles Goodnight. OP.

CALL, HUGHIE. Golden Fleece, Boston, 1942. Hughie married a sheepman, and after mothering the range as well as children with him for a quarter of a century, concluded that Montana is still rather masculine. Especially good on domestic life and on sheepherders. OP.

CANTON, FRANK M. Frontier Trails, edited by E. E. Dale, Boston, 1930. OP. Good on tough hombres.

CLAY, JOHN. My Life on the Range, privately printed, Chicago, 1924. OP. John Clay, an educated Scot, came to Canada in 1879 and in time managed some of the largest British-owned ranches of North America. His book is the best of all sources on British-owned ranches. It is just as good on cowboys and sheepherders. Clay was a fine gentleman in addition to being a canny businessman in the realm of cattle and land. He appreciated the beautiful and had a sense of style.

CLELAND, ROBERT GLASS. The Cattle on a Thousand Hills, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1941 (revised, 1951). Scholarly work on Spanish-Mexican ranching in California.