For your consideration is this 1902 First Edition of “John Ermine of the Yellowstone”, written and illustrated by Frederic Remington, published by The Macmillan Company of New York in 1902. The novel provides an overview of the exploits of the "adopted" Crow Indian, John Ermine; an epic Western in the classic sense and a complex tale that captures the conflict between European Americans and Native Americans in the Wild West. John Ermine is the tragic character caught between two cultures, unable to assimilate fully into either. Famed artist Frederic Remington uses his pen to convey the irreparable stalemate between two groups of people in an untamed West while making a moving argument for the preservation of a truly wild western front. Not many collectors know that Frederic Remington was a novelist. Because he earned his living as an artist, he had the luxury of portraying the West more truthfully in prose than his contemporaries who tended to romanticize it. The work that best epitomizes this is his novel John Ermine of the Yellowstone, which is a parody of other frontier tales, such as James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans and Bret Harte’s short story “The Luck of Roaring Camp.” A painting of Remington’s lead character sold as the top Western art lot at the Jackson Hole Art Auction in Wyoming on September 15, 2012.
This brown cloth stamped silver gilt covered book is in good overall condition, gold gilt top edges, deckled edges. The cover and spine have stamped imagery of the main character and a pistol and axe respectively. Cover and spine exhibit slight scuffing, intact pages exhibit age tanning, foxing not noted. Measures 5.5"W x 7.75"L x 1"D