Freeman, Dan A.

Four Years with the Utes, The Letters of Dan A. Freeman [1 of 3 copies with a Manuscript Letter by Freeman]

Waco, TX: W.M. Morrison, 1962.

First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Printed and bound for the publisher at the Waco Village Press. Title page illustrated with an original drawing by the author. One of 125 numbered copies printed, of which 100 were offered for sale. This is copy 109, and, as described in an accompanying handwritten note from Sam Lanham, owner of the Waco Village Press, is "one of three copies bound in Sundour book cloth and cased with one of the original letters from Freeman that formed the basis for the text of the book." The book, bound in red cloth rather than the grey of regular copies, is accompanied by a matching cloth portfolio containing a five-page handwritten letter from Freeman. Book and portfolio are housed in a matching slipcase with paper label. The note from Lanham is addressed to Bob Davis, a Texana collector and co-founder of the Texian Press. Book and portfolio are in fine condition, slipcase is lightly scuffed. In the 1950s, Freemen, then an octogenarian (born 1876), wrote a series of letters to the Morrison in which he described having adopted by the Utes when he was 12 years old, and remaining with them for four years. The letters were published in edited form in this book (with no fact-checking). According to the Introduction, "in addition to his Ute experiences, he tells of selling resurrection plants to Dad Judge Bean at Langtry, Texas, mining in the Red River area of New Mexico, digging in Aztec ruins in Arizona and gives a short sketch of frontier days in Rawlins, Wyoming." The manuscript letter included here contains the content about Judge Bean and Rawlins. It also stated "When I was boy I lived four years with the Ute indians at on the Fort Duchesne Reservation shortly after the Utes were removed from white River Colorado by the US government. I was adopted by an indian woman watermelon Jane."

Item #22521

Price: $275.00