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| J. Frank Dobie 1888-1964 |
Inscribed,
“Dear Fred Rosenstock, This is the first edition. It was given away by the Univ. of Texas
Press. The trade printing was made from
identical plates by Southern Methodist Univ. Press. Frank Dobie, Oct. 12, 1952, In Denver.” Checkmarks and annotations throughout.
Dobie was a regular customer of
Fred Rosenstock (1895-1986) one of the top Western Americana dealers in the
country who had his store in Denver.
Donald Bower writes in Fred Rosenstock: A Legend in Books & Art,
“In 1952 Fred arranged a lecture tour for Dobie that included the University of
Colorado, the University of Denver, Colorado State University and Colorado
State College at Greeley. ‘About five hundred people attended his talk at the
University of Denver,’ Fred recalls, ‘and his subject was on the psychology of
Western animals—mostly the coyote. The
lecture lasted one hour, but he was so fascinating it could have gone on all
night. The audience was mesmerized. I remember that he had a big pocket watch,
like the railroad men used to use, and he would pull that out and look at it
from time to time. He stopped on the dot
of one hour and no amount of applause could make him go on.’”
“After Dobie returned to Texas
he wrote an article for the San Antonio
Light, in which he referred to Fred Rosenstock’s Bargain Book Store: ‘It is
crammed with old books, some very rare . . . A person can learn an enormous
amount by looking through books that he does not actually read. I incline to judge the civilization of a city
by its bookstores—or by their absence. A
genuine bookstore is far more than a house of merchandise. As an asset of civilization, it is in the
same category as public libraries.’”
“J. Frank Dobie, while not a
collector in the technical sense, put together says J. E. Reynolds, a noted
bookseller [see next copy below], ‘with loving care the greatest collection of
books on the range livestock industry ever assembled by a private individual in
this country.’ Dobie bought books from
the Rosenstocks for many years, usually writing a letter and attaching a list
of the titles he was looking for” (p. 139).
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Dobie. [another
edition]. GUIDE TO LIFE AND LITERATURE
OF THE SOUTHWEST. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1952. viii 222 p. Illus. 8vo. Medium brown cloth
stamped in dark brown, dust jacket.
Notes: 2nd edition,
“revised and enlarged in both knowledge and wisdom.” First published in 1943.
Inscribed,
“Jack Reynolds -- I like to be quoted -- Frank Dobie, a su casa, 2/25/56.” Bookplate of Dobie.
Bookseller Jack Reynolds knew
Dobie well. Laid in is a newspaper
clipping describing a pamphlet issued by Reynolds, “For Christmas greetings to
their friends [in 1958], Mr. and Mrs. Jack Reynolds of Van Nuys, Calif.,
printed and mailed an appreciation of J. Frank Dobie written by Lawrence Clark
Powell. Reynolds is a rare book dealer; Powell
is head of the UCLA library and a writer and editor. They are friends and literary admirers of
Dobie, whom Powell calls the ‘best Southwesterner of them all, and. . . the
givingest man I know,’ both in his books and in person.”
Reynolds is quoted in Donald
Bower’s biography, Fred Rosenstock: A
Legend in Books & Art, “’J. Frank Dobie, while not a collector in the
technical sense, put together says J. E. Reynolds, a noted bookseller, ‘with
loving care the greatest collection of books on the range livestock industry
ever assembled by a private individual in this country.’”
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| Dobie's Paisano bookplate in Reynolds' copy |
