WHO SHOULD GO WEST?; (Privately Printed Edition, limited to 73 copies)
New York: Privately Printed, 1927. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. [4], 9, [1], Light brown patterned paper covered boards (8 1/4 in. x 5 1/4 in.) Some chipping of paper over spine. Last sold at auction ten years ago (2013). Good Plus. Item #86926
"When Theodore Roosevelt wrote the article which is reprinted here for the first time, he had spent the better part of three years as a ranchman in the then territory of Dakota...He was considered the principal spokesman and historian of the cowboy, the chief interpreter of nature and the wild life of the west.
"So it was only natural that he should have been asked to write this brief article as a guide to the hundreds of young men who were attracted by the picturesque life of the cowboy but who knew nothing of its hardships and dangers. He had seen too many examples of how unfit the average eastern young man was for such a life and so his advice contained a warning and much of the 'horse sense' which he considered so valuable for the would-be ranchman. It is an excellent example of Roosevelt's honest, straightforward manner of thinking and writing and, how that the life he pictures is gone forever, save as it has been recorded in his own and Owen Wister's writings and in the drawings of Frederic Remington, it is well worth preserving in its present form. Who Should Go West was contributed to a weekly periodical in the 80's, and, curiously enough, has been lost sight of unti8l now. It does not appear in any of its author's books or in any of the collected editions of his writings...it is, therefore, a first edition in its present form..." (R.W.G. Vail (Librarian, Roosevelt Library and Museum, New York, December 1927).
Price: $750.00