The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, the Noted Desparado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood Made His Name a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico (Classics of the Old West series)

138pp with black and white frontispiece and occasional further black and white illustrations. A facsimile reprint of the original 1882 publication. Bound in full brown leather with blind embossed decorations and gilt lettering front and spine. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Yellow satin ribbon marker bound in. 8vo. Boards very slightly rounded on corners. Original leaflet from the publisher, giving details of Billy the Kid, Pat E Garrett and his career loosely laid in, together with two original, unused 'classics of the old west' ex libris bookplates. Pat E Garrett was a crackerjack cowboy, elected sheriff of New Mexico; he ranched and raced horses, was a Texas Ranger Captain and became a US Customs officer, thanks to his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt. Yet for all his achievements he is mostly only remembered for shooting and killing Billy the Kid in 1881. Despite the rush with which the his book was published - just nine months after the event - the publishers failed to market it properly and few copies were sold; surviving copies of the original edition are extremely rare. A beautiful book