Pecos Bill, The Greatest Cowboy of All Time by James Cloyd Bowman. Illustrated by Laura Bannon. Fourth Printing, (stated). Chicago: Albert Whitman & Company (1938, 1945). Volume has a previous owner name stamp on front free end page (see pic), otherwise the volume is in Very Good Plus condition. Volume appears to be unread. The Dust Wrapper shows light wear and veery small chips at top and bottom edges, there is also a 1/4 inch chip to top of spine and small a scuff at middle of spine, otherwise the DJ is in near very good condition. The price has been clipped from the front DJ flap. The hinges and binding are very tight. The pages are very clean and crisp. A nice collectible copy.
“Pecos Bill had the strangest and most exciting experience any boy ever had. He became a member of a pack of wild Coyotes, and until he was a grown man, believed that his name was Cropear, and that he was a full-blooded Coyote. Later he discovered that he was a human being and very shortly thereafter became the greatest cowboy of all time. This is how it all came about.”
A Newbery Honor book in 1938, James Bowman’s PECOS BILL is the perfect introduction to a great American comic hero and to the delights of the American tall tale. Jolted off the back of his westward-bound pioneer family’s covered wagon, four-year-old Bill is left in the dust by his eighteen wawling and brawling siblings and never-suspecting mom and dad. Raised by coyotes as one of their own, Bill retains a natural innocence while developing a host of supernatural powers. When he finds out that he is a man, not a coyote, and returns to confront the often-inhuman human world, those powers will come in handy. Bill never uses them maliciously, always for good, or simply to amaze and amuse.
James Bowman was a fine folklorist and an outstanding storyteller, and he relates Pecos Bill’s wild deeds in a plainspoken voice that highlights their wonderful swagger and charm. With lively color and black-and-white illustrations by Laura Bannon, Bowman’s PECOS BILL remakes bedrock American myth into a novel full of high adventure, outrageous fantasy, laughter, and sheer fun.
James Cloyd Bowman (January 18, 1880 – September 27, 1961) was an American teacher and writer primarily of children's books, college textbooks and journals. Born in Leipsic, Ohio, he grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio Northern University (B.S. 1905) with graduate studies at Harvard University (A.M. 1910). He taught English at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University of Science and Technology), and then at Northern State Teachers College (now Northern Michigan University) at Marquette, Michigan, where he was chair of the English department from 1921 to 1939.
Bowman received a Newbery Honor in 1938 for Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time about the "legend" of Pecos Bill. In 1958, Pecos Bill won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
I will also be listing a very nice copy of Bowman's rare "Mystery Mountain" set in Marquette, Michigan, in nice dust wrapper. The auction will begin Thursday evening.
Media Mail shipping included in the purchase price. Shipping outside the USA at cost. If you have any questions about this book, please ask. Thanks, David White.