Songs of the Cowboys by N. Howard “Jack” Thorp (review)

Reviews 315 Siringo had to rely on what had been told him by Frank Stewart, Pat Garrett, and others with whom he was associated in the pursuit and cap­ ture; none of these could be considered unbiased, and much of their infor­ mation was obviously hearsay. Too, Siringo seems to have relied largely on the accounts of imaginative old Ash Upson whose book, Pat. F. Garrett’s Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, had been published three years before A Texas Cowboy appeared. Thus some of Siringo’s understandings regarding Billy the Kid are open to question in the light of other evidence, much of it documentable. In the main, however, what he has to say bears the stamp of accuracy; and his eye witness story of the final pursuit and eventual cap­ ture of Billy the Kid is generally accepted as perhaps the most accurate account of these happenings. The late J. Frank Dobie’s commentary on Charlie Siringo and his writ­ ings, which appeared as a note at the end of the last previous re-print of A Texas Cowboy (1951) is quite properly used as an introduction in the University of Nebraska Press edition. This is an “introduction” in the true sense of the word, for without it the reader might easily fail to recognize the significance of the story Siringo has to tell. But Frank Dobie’s com­ ments go far beyond an analysis of Siringo and A Texas Cowboy. They are an introduction to the whole field in this area of frontier writing. This illu­ minating evaluation can not be perused without leaving the reader with a clearer and fuller understanding of what has been written about early days in the range country. Frank Dobie’s introduction adds a bonus commensurate to the book itself. R o b e r t N. M ullin, South Laguna, California Songs of the Cowboys. By N. Howard “Jack” Thorp. Edited by Austin E. and Alta S. Fife. Naunie Gardner, music editor. (New York: Clarkston N. Potter, Inc., 1966. 346 pages, $7.95.) Jack Thorp was an Easterner who came to the western cattle country when cowhood was in flower and took to the life of the cowboy. With the perspective and appreciation of an outsider he saw the romance, beauty, and cultural significance in the lyrical outpourings of these lonely, sentimental, dust-caked, leathery men of the saddle. Owen Wister saw the social meaning of their fight with a raw and hostile environment, Gene Rhodes saw their essential humanity fitting or not fitting into an intricately structured way of life, Andy Adams heard the language which articulated this special cosmos, and Jack Thorp heard the songs of the cowboys. In the late 1880’s and early 1890’s he collected these songs for his own scholarly satisfaction and for posterity. Some, which he felt needed to be written but weren’t, he 316 Western American Literature wrote himself. And in 1908 he published his first little volume of fifty pages and twenty-three songs. Later, professionals like Lomax and Sandburg (and even Thorp himself in 1921) drew from this first well spring, found other tributaries, and started the stream that has grown to the proportions of a full river, with all the debris, contamination, and commercial traffic that characterize our present era. Now the Austin Fifes of Utah State University have gone back to the source. They have reissued in facsimile Thorp’s original 1908 volume, to which they have applied the appropriate scholarly apparatus. They have provided for each song a commentary and music, traced sources whenever possible, noted variations in texts, listed bibliographies, and referred to field recording and manuscripts. Their purpose has been to present these earliest published cowboy songs in cultural and historical perspective and to throw light on significant aspects of cowboy life as revealed by them. They have done more than this; they have also collated the current scholarship on each song. The result is a kind of variorum of Thorp. It is high time this job was done, and the Fifes, with the collaboration of Naunie Gardner as music editor, have done it well. Too much already has been lost. Their...