# Is "A Texas Cow Boy" by Charles A. Siringo a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Texas Cow Boy by Charles A. Siringo (M. Umbdenstock & Co., 1885) is identified by: Umbdenstock & Co., 1885, collating 316 pages, with a frontispiece portrait of the young Siringo and two color plates.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Chicago: M. Umbdenstock & Co., 1885, collating 316 pages, with a frontispiece portrait of the young Siringo and two color plates
- First-edition copies are bound in brown cloth over boards, gilt-lettered with a portrait of the author on the front board and blind-stamped decoration; the book was issued simultaneously in pictorial paper wrappers
- Described by Howes as "the first -- and best -- cowboy autobiography" and quoted in Dykes's "Western High Spots" as "scarcer than hen's teeth" (J. Frank Dobie's phrase), it is Siringo's own account of his fifteen years on the Texas cattle ranges, written before he went to work as a Pinkerton detective
- Publisher imprint reads M. Umbdenstock & Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles A. Siringo |
| Publisher | M. Umbdenstock & Co. |
| Year | 1885 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Chicago: M. Umbdenstock & Co., 1885, collating 316 pages, with a frontispiece portrait of the young Siringo and two color plates |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Chicago: M. Umbdenstock & Co., 1885, collating 316 pages, with a frontispiece portrait of the young Siringo and two color plates. First-edition copies are bound in brown cloth over boards, gilt-lettered with a portrait of the author on the front board and blind-stamped decoration; the book was issued simultaneously in pictorial paper wrappers. Described by Howes as "the first -- and best -- cowboy autobiography" and quoted in Dykes's "Western High Spots" as "scarcer than hen's teeth" (J. Frank Dobie's phrase), it is Siringo's own account of his fifteen years on the Texas cattle ranges, written before he went to work as a Pinkerton detective.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A second edition, issued in Chicago under the Siringo & Dobson imprint in 1886 with an added "Addenda" section, and a further Rand, McNally & Co. printing the same year, both followed the true M. Umbdenstock & Co. first by about a year; copies bearing either of those later imprints are not the 1885 first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Texas Cow Boy* by Charles A. Siringo a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-texas-cow-boy
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.