2004-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2004
OWEN WISTER (1860-1938). Two original penned letters, entirely in his hand and with full autograph signature to George Albee May 11 and May 16, 1900 (two years before "The Virginian" was published). Thanks him for sending photographs of Albee with Gen'l Henry Lawton (letters written shortly after Lawton's death in combat in the Philippines) "…How full of ghosts and echos of the names Brazos and Pecos ! …Although I never played any part in all that Frontier business and only came later to hear about it from others, the knowledge that it is all forever gone, that those plains will never again hear the laughter and the shots and the whole life is vanished in all its aspects makes me blue whenever I think of it, which is pretty often ! I paid two long delightful visits to Fort Bowie in 1893 and 1894, afterward it was abandoned and in talking [it over] with the officers I met there I remember feeling that another link with the old frontier was broken. When the officers were stationed at Bowie they complained of its isolation, but when it was obliterated they all spoke of their days there with affection. Therefore I can…imagine with what feelings and retrospects Lawton's death much have filled you…" Thanks Albee for the newspaper clippings he sent. Both letters exc. Accompanied with photostat of lengthy bio sketch from important reference on famous Americans. Wister had a long and successful career, first as an attorney, but spending most of his life as an author noted for stories of the American West and biographies of American presidents Washington, Grant and Theo Roosevelt. Accompanied with both original envelopes.
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