Small Archive of Original Poetry, Correspondence and One Unrecorded Printed Booklet by James Barton Adams
Small Archive of Original Poetry, Correspondence and One Unrecorded Printed Booklet by James Barton Adams
Manuscript collection of signed original material. Includes two typed poems signed, four autographed poems signed (one is original duplicate), one typed letter signed, one linen postcard and one printed string-tied booklet with prose by Adams with artwork by L. Clarence Ball.
Typed and manuscript material all in good to very good condition. Minor chipping and edge wear. Some show previous folding. Postcard in fine condition and postally unused. Printed booklet (A Tribute) has slight separation at spine. String-tied with 22pp. No wrapper; unknown if issued with one or not. Good condition.
James Barton Adams was born in Jefferson County Ohio, April 17, 1843. He enlisted to serve in the Civil War "under the first call...and served until its close." At the close of the war, he ventured west and has "been identified with the then "wild west" ever since, spending the greater part of the time in the Rocky Mountain region.
He cowboyed for a short time in New Mexico and became an early writer of what would become known as 'Cowboy Poetry'. He also wrote in Black dialect.
Adams gained fame as a staff writer at the Denver Post, the Denver Times, and The Rocky Mountain News. He authored a Denver-based column called "Denver Postscripts". His poetry was featured in National magazines such as Puck, Life and Judge.
This small archive includes a TLS signed and dated June 14, 1916. The letter includes some biographical information and answers a query about the authorship of a poem titled "At a Cowboy Dance". Adams was living in Vancouver, Washington at the time.
Typed poems include: "A Cowboy Alone with His Conscience", and "The Ruin of Bobtail Bend." Handwritten poems are: "Da Los Black Sheep", "Bill's in Trouble", and two copies of "What Yo' Gwine to Tell da Lawd?" As best as we can determine, only "The Ruin of Bobtail Bend" has been published, it in an anthology of Colorado poetry.
The booklet "A Tribute" is unrecorded in OCLC as of December 2025. Contains prose by Adams with artwork by L. Clarence Ball along with photographic reproductions. No copyright. Printed in Buffalo, New York.
We find no record of James Barton Adams' papers in an institution, nor do we find manuscript material in auction records.
A rare collection of manuscript material from a very early poet of cowboy-based prose but also his lesser-known Black dialect material. Plus, the unrecorded booklet. Item #2384
Price: $750.00