One of the Great Modern Texas Books

The King Ranch [Saddle Blanket Edition]

Lea, Tom

Publication: Kingsville, TX: Printed for the King Ranch, 1957. First Edition.

Notes: The exhaustive history of the huge King Ranch in Texas, published in two volumes designed by Carl Herzog. A classic of Western history and Texas book design. This is one of 3,000 copies bound in cloth with a saddle-blanket design and privately printed by Carl Herzog for the King Ranch.

The King Ranch commissioned the book from Tom Lea on the basis of his book illustrations and his novel, The Brave Bulls. The book was planned in an edition of 600 copies for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ranch in 1953, but Lea's history grew to Texas-sized dimensions, a 1,400-page single-spaced typescript. The edition size grew as well, along with the production costs, which went from $17,000 to $65,000. After Lea and his researcher were paid, the total cost of the books exceeded $100,000, or nearly $35 per copy.

But it was worth it. Little, Brown agreed to publish a trade edition in two volumes priced at $17.50. The first edition sold out on the first day and over 30 years it went through eight printings. The book won awards and sealed Herzog's reputation as the best book designer in the West.

A centennial history of the largest ranch in Texas and "perhaps the most exhaustive ranch history ever written" (Reese, Six Score: The 120 Best Books on the Cattle Range Industry, no. 69).

Illustrated with maps and drawings by the author. Research by Holland McCombs; annotations by Francis L. Fugate.

Edition + Condition: First edition (as with all copies of the Saddle Blanket issue, this copy has the error on page 507, which begins "Alice", instead of "For Alice"). A fine set, entirely unread in a very good slipcase. As with most copies, the leather label has dried and is beginning to flake, even though the book is essentially brand new.

For decades, the book was quite scarce. You couldn't buy a copy of the Saddle Blanket edition; the King Ranch gave them as gifts and you basically had to wait for the recipient to die to have a chance at a copy. In 1992, the King Ranch offered 250 copies for sale to members of the Book Club of Texas. This is one of those copies.

Accompanying this copy from the Tom Garner estate is the BCT prospectus and the pamphlet, The Book of All Christendom, a book about the book published to coincide with the sale of copies to the Book Club of Texas (these 250 copies sold for $400 each, recouping the entire production cost, if thirty-five years later). The pamphlet is inscribed by Al Lowman, one of the authors, to Tom Garner.

Item No: #365249

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