Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Wilson, Elijah Nicholas. Among the Shoshones. Skelton Publishing Company, Salt Lake City, 1910.
Price: US$2250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: True 1st edition (most were suppressed) 222 pages, frontis, illustrations, original green cloth with Indian on the front cover, light stain on rear cover, a couple corners bumped, some pages has some wrinkling at the top of the page. Overall a very good copy of a rare item. Eberstadt Modern Overland 532, Graff 4702, Howes W520, "Blunt, unrestrained narrative of a trapper, Indian fighter, etc., of the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming and Montana to Idaho and Utah. The 247 page reprint omits account of how he lost his Mormon fiancée given on pages 194 to 200 of original edition."
Seller: Old West Books (ABAA), St. Robert, MO, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo. 222 pages, [2]. Green illustrated cloth hardcover with title on the front cover and spine. Frontispiece photograph of E. N. Wilson "Uncle Nick". Illustrated. A few faint rubs to the cloth and extremities. Hinges in very good condition and contents are very clean. "Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 1910 by Elijah Nicholas Wilson" printed on the copyright page. Scarce. Howes W 520; Graff 4702 - "A good narrative of Rocky Mounting Trapping. Most of the edition was suppressed according to Howes.-EDG" From wikipedia: Elijah Nicholas Wilson (April 8, 1842 - December 26, 1915) was known as "Yagaiki" when among the Shoshones, and in his later years as "Uncle Nick" when entertaining young children with his adventurous exploits. He was a Mormon American pioneer, childhood runaway, "adopted" brother of Shoshone Chief Washakie, Pony Express rider for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, stagecoach driver for Ben Holloday's Overland Stage, blacksmith, prison guard, farmer, Mormon bishop, prison inmate (unlawful cohabitation), carpenter/cabinet maker, fiddler, trader, trapper, and "frontier doctor" (diphtheria and smallpox). Wilson is remembered today due to the publication of derivative works based upon, and later-day republications of, his 1910 autobiography entitled Among the Shoshones,[1] such as The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones[2] (a volume of the World Book Company's In Pioneer Life Series), The White Indian Boy, and its sequel The Return of the White Indian.[3] He founded Wilson, Wyoming. His life was highlighted in the 2000 movie Wind River.[4][5].
Seller: Americana Books, ABAA, Stone Mt, GA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. First issue. 8vo. Original dark green cloth, hand-written titles on orange labels affixed to front cover and spine, 222 pp., frontis. [photograph of E. N. Wilson], preface, illustrated, portraits, plates. A variant binding when compared in a side-by-side comparison with the actual trade edition. This copy is 23cm in height compared to 21cm for the trade edition. The major difference between the two is the 2cm in height of this edition, which was probably bound from leftover sheets as some of the illustrations that are bound-in are ony 21cm while others are 23cm. The existence of this edition is even more curious when reviewing Wilson's comments in Bauer Sale (1958), lot 515, "When the book was in sheets, ready for binding, objection was made to the passage beginning on page 194. Under pressure I rewrote that part and added 25 pages to the original but had 20 copies bound as originally written." Bound in at the end following a typewritten leaf is a set of the altered sheets, pp. 185-247 of the second issue (222 pp. plus 25 additional pp.), "excluding some objectionable sentences," the material was found to be objectionable by the Mormons for its anti-polygamy viewpoint. Graff 4702: "A good narrative of Rocky Mountain trapping. Uncle Nick crossed the plains by ox-team in 1850, and thenceforth was trapper, Indian fighter, pony express rider, ox-team freighter, overland stage driver, companion of Kit Carson, and adventurer in Utah and through all the Rocky Mountain country. The first issue was rigidly suppressed." Howes W520: "Blunt, unrestrained narrative of a trapper, Indian fighter, etc., of the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming and Montana to Idaho and Utah. The 247 page reprint omits the account of how he lost his Mormon fiancee [given on pp. 194 to 200 of original edition]." Flake 9909: "This first edition was suppressed as critical of polygamy." Bauer Sale 515: "When the book was in sheets, [quoting Elijah N. Wilson], ready for binding, objection was made to the passage beginning on page 194. Under pressure I rewrote that part and added 25 pages to the original but had 20 copies bound as originally written. These I kept for the members of my family." Wilson was also critical of the church's handling of the Mountain Meadows massacre, and in general their handling of Indian affairs as he was sympathetic to the Indian point of view. Wilson, Wyoming was named in honor of Elijah N. Wilson. Light wear to spine ends and corners, some pages carelessly opened, a few pages repaired or lightly soiled, binding lightly shaken, else very good copy of a rare book with the rare unexpurgated tale.
Seller: BUCKINGHAM BOOKS, ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, GREENCASTLE, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 222pp. Octavo [21 cm] Green cloth with the title in black on the front board and backstrip. Chief in headdress on the front board in black and yellow. Moderate wear to the boards with minor bumping and rubbing at the corners. Rear endsheet cracked along the hinge. Gentle wear throughout. Suppressed first edition of the beloved story of the life of 'Uncle Nick' and his time in Northern Utah, Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming. A captivating story of a rugged pioneer and the settlement of the Interior West, this version recounts the story of Wilson's beloved girl, being married off as a polygamous wife of a local LDS leader, while Wilson was sent off on a ruse. According to Flake/Draper: When original edition was in sheets objections were made to the passage from p. 194-222. "When the book was in sheets, ready for binding, objection was made to the passage beginning on page 194. Under pressure I rewrote that part and added 25 pages to the original but had 20 copies bound [actual number may vary but is close to 20] as originally written. These I kept for the members of my family." - Elijah Nicholas Wilson (Journal of Mormon History 33:3 p. 221) "In about two weeks I received a letter from my mother in which she said that I was about to lose my girl, for she was going in second wife to an old man that stood high in the church. I lost no time in writing the young lady, and the next mail brought my letter back to me. I wrote again and sent them both to her, but they came back. I wrote again, and then the letter came back. I then wrote to the mother and enclosed a letter to the girl, and asked mother to give it to the girl herself. Mother gave it to her, but in a few days it came back. Then Mother told me not to write to the girl anymore, for this man was working very hard to injure me in her sight, and it would do no good for me to write to her anymore." -p. 197. Howes W520. Flake/Draper 9909.
Seller: Ken Sanders Rare Books, ABAA, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 222pp. Octavo [21 cm] in red cloth with decorations on spine and front cover embossed in yellow and black (variant colors of binding cloth are known to exist; no priority known). Very faint rubbing to extremities, front board corners just barely exposed, a few light stains to rear board (only visible from an oblique angle); rear endsheet cracked along the hinge, text is crisp and unmarked. Autobiographical story of Elijah Nicholas Wilson, a Mormon boy on the wild western frontier. Wilson pursued many different occupations in his life, including Pony Express rider, stagecoach driver, trapper, rancher, and Indian agent. He spent time living with the Shoshone tribe, and was the âadopted brother' of Chief Washakie. He was friendly towards the Native people, championed their causes, and spoke out against atrocities committed against them. This work has enjoyed consistent popularity for more than a century, and the edited, sanitized version is still in print today. This is a rare copy of the first edition, presumably suppressed by the Mormon Church. It contains an embittered account of how Wilson's fiancée was prevailed upon to become the second wife of an elderly polygamist (pp. 194-200). Allegedly only twenty copies of the unrevised first edition were issued; the remainder were destroyed prior to distribution. The text was purged of the offending section and the revised, sanitized book was issued in an otherwise almost identical format in the same year (1910). Wilson was also critical of LDS Church leaders' handling of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and of their handling of Indian affairs. Wilson, Wyoming was named in honor of him. Later revised by Howard R. Driggs and reissued as "The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones." Flake 9909. Graff 4702. Howes W518.
Seller: Ken Sanders Rare Books, ABAA, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.