Wilbarger, J[ohn] W[esley]. Indian Depredations in Texas: Reliable Accounts of Battles, Wars, Adventures, Forays, Murders, Massacres, Etc., Etc., Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of the Most Noted Indian Fighters and Frontiersmen of Texas.

Austin: Hutchings Printing House, 1889. First Edition. Octavo. 662 pp. 37 plates (38 called for with 37 listed, one missing in this volume) attributed to William Sydney Porter, also known as O. Henry. Sold by subscription only in 1889. Rebacked in three-quarter leather over cloth with gilt lettering and tooled illustration. Covers are darkened and scuffed, with rubbing and bumping along edges and at corners. Tugging to head and tail of spine with chipping to top of title strip. Previous owner's name lightly on flyleaf. A few dog-eared pages throughout. Binding is sound and pages are unmarked. Missing plate "Johnson's little boy following the cows" at p. 440, but all other plates present.

One of the most thorough volumes covering Indian warfare in Texas in the 19th century. The book is also notable for its illustrations. Though signed by T.J. Owen, they were actually done by William Sydney Porter, who is better known as O. Henry. According to J. Frank Dobie, quoted in Basic Texas Books (entry #218), "When the book was coming out [Porter/O. Henry] was a young man in Austin given to drawing as well as to writing, and from one or two men who were helping to enterprise the book affidavits have been secured proving conclusively that O. Henry was paid to illustrate it. Certainly the illustrations...have remarkable character even though they are at times absurd. They have a freshness, a sense of humor, and an originality that mark them as having come from no common hand."

$850
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