LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30757

Very Rare Signed Copy of Geronimo's Life Story

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:13,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Very Rare Signed Copy of Geronimo's Life Story
<B>Chief Geronimo: A Very Rare Signed Copy of Geronimo's Autobiography <I>Geronimo's Story of His Life</B></I></B></I><B> Taken Down and Edited by S.M. Barrett, Superintendent of Education, Lawton, Oklahoma.</B></I> (New York: Duffield & Company, 1906). First edition. Boldly signed by the Apache Chief on the front fly-leaf, together with signatures by Christian Naiche, the nominal chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, and Asa Dahklugie, Geronimo's personal interpreter (all three Apache signers are featured in photographs in the book). Octavo (7.5” x 5”). Xxvii, 216 pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Geronimo, and with other portraits of Geronimo and photos of prominent Apache leaders and their family members. Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in blind and lettered in off-white on the front cover and spine. Lettering on spine somewhat rubbed off, light wear and rubbing to binding edges, rear hinge just starting but sound, front hinge repaired and slightly over-opened after the front free endpaper. Endpapers lightly browned from previous materials having been laid in. Sheets are clean and bright. Altogether, an excellent copy in very good condition. A genuine rarity, there are very few known examples of this autobiography signed by Geronimo. Housed in a custom quarter morocco clamshell case, book-back with four raised bands and lettered and ruled in gilt. Laid into a pocket on the inside of the clamshell is a letter of provenance from noted Custer historian David H. Miller on his letterhead: “January 3, 1991, This is to certify that this book, Geronimo's Story of his Life, edited by S.M. Barrett and published in 1906 by Duffield & Company in New York City, was obtained, according to family history, by my late uncle Wilbur Ray Humphreys, who passed it along to me several decades ago. Well aware of my life-long interest in American Indians, he told me that while en route to the University of Oklahoma at Norman, where he served as assistant professor of English, he met a group of Apaches aboard the train. Among them was old Geronimo, Christian Naiche, nominal chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, and Asa Dahklugie, interpreter. Geronimo was selling books of his life story. My uncle bought a copy and had all three Indians sign it. My uncle went on to become a full professor of English at the University of Michigan and subsequently Dean of the College of Science, Literature and the Arts at the University of Michigan. signed: David Humphreys Miller.” Miller's book <I>Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story</B></I> has gone through more printings than any other book about Custer. Miller interviewd seventy-one Indians who participated in the Battle of Little Big Horn and painted their portraits from life. Also laid in is an old newspaper clipping about the release of Apache prisoners-of-war from Fort Still in Oklahoma.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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