The Buffalo Book : The Full Saga of the American Animal

Hardcover with dust jacket, 374 pages, 6x9 in - 15.5x23 cm, B&W illustrations and photographs.

Jacket’s lightly scuffed Brodart wrapping taped to boards at flaps by previous owner. Jacket sunned. Ffep and p.5 stamped by previous owner.

American journalist and author David Dary’s interest in the American West resulted in historical studies of cowboys, newspapermen, and Oregon Trail travelers. In “The Buffalo Book,” Dary chronicles the disappearance of buffalo in the American West, examining the animal’s role in Indigenous and settler cultures as a commodity, curiosity, and symbol. Dary contrasts the buffalo’s popularity as a source of sport or aggravation for settlers against a lack of early studies of its physiology or role in the prairie ecosystem, resulting in conservation attempts that began too late to prevent the buffalo’s near extinction on the plains. In addition to connecting the buffalo’s centrality in frontier life to its gradual disappearance, Dary discusses the animal’s biology, its place in myths and legends, and growing conservation efforts. Includes endnotes, bibliography, and index.

0804006539