Parmelee Library Company Edition of Life in the Wilds of America and Wonders of the West in and Beyond the Bounds of Civilization
Grand Rapids and Des Moines: The Central Publishing Co. and H. Parmelee Library Company, 1880, 1887.
Two volumes, 5.25 x 7 inches, in flexible black cloth boards with library name stamped in blind, patterned endpapers; bound with metal rivets. The original 1880 title page and text have been specially bound with an additional title page from the Parmelee Library Company (dated 1887) and advertisements (for corsets, dress stays, and a variety of patent medicines and medical devices) not present in the orignal edition. Boards worn, cloth frayed or soiled in spots, spine labels lacking, but internally quite sound; a good set.
Founded in 1882, the H. Parmalee Library Company of Des Moines, Iowa aimed to provide "a thoroughly equipped and permanent library in every town and hamlet in America." Paid subscriptions entitled the residents of a town or members of a club to the use of a rotating selection of 1000 volumes. These were divided into sections of 50 volumes each that were distributed to 20 different towns and exchanged at the end of three months. The extra title page on Volume II of this particular set has been filled out to indicate its use by an association in Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska. Regarding the text, Adams (Six-Guns 98) says it "contains some minor material on road agents and the vigilantes of Montana," while Graff (121) says "the author's accounts of his own adventures are almost wholly imaginary."
Item #20042
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