Stories from the Wild West is a hard cover Limited First Edition of 1,500 copies , 8” x 10”, 392 page book containing numerous historical photographic illustrations, color graphics, an introduction, acknowledgments, notes and a color map insert.

This book that includes three stories - In the Land of the Aztecs or Adventure in Mexico, The Messiah is Coming or The Last Uprising of the Indians and The Fatefull Pegleg as well as the original German stories published in 1898 entitled Erzählungen aus dem Wilden Westen is now available for purchase.  Books are priced at $54.50, plus the cost of packaging and shipping.

Orders will be received in writing at the foundation office at 5835 Cromo Drive, Suite 1, E1 Paso, Texas 79912-5501 (P. O. Box 220599, E1 Paso, Texas 79913-2599) or by Phone (915) 581-4025; Fax (915) 833-3714 and E-mail.  Books will also be available at Barnes & Noble in El Paso, Texas or by special order.

McKee Foundation creates a beautiful book with an unusual perspective.

By Leon C. Metz - Special to the Times

    I've met very few people more enamored of the American Wild West than Germans, and author Bernhard Frederic Hennig von Bosse was born in Braunschweig, Germany, in 1866.

    When he was 15, he moved to an uncle's farm in Missouri.  From there, he herded cattle throughout the Southwest, in the process traveling into Mexico's Sierra Madre as well as north onto the American Great Plains and into Indian Country.  Years later, working as a German-language newspaperman in New Jersey, he decided to write down his experiences, his autobiography about life among the Indians, among Mexican revolutionaries, among the U.S. Army and the Indians, and among the cowboys,

    His grandson discovered the autobiography during the late 1940s, and the McKee Foundation published it originally as "Henning's Story" in 1993.

    Now, we have an excellent English-language translation in "Stories from the Wild West," (Robert E. & Evelyn McKee Foundation, limited edition of 1,500, $54.50.)

    He opens his story with visits to El Paso and Juarez after providing a descriptive tour of Hueco Tanks.  The Juarez visit in particular has a good ring to it, Von Bosse describing the old mission plus the nearby colorful, inviting and beckoning senoritas.  He details out door and indoor gambling scenes, all of which made deep impressions on him, and he devotes considerable space to the bullfights, which both enthralled and appalled him.

    Once through Juarez, however, he and his German friends take a train to Chihuahua, describe the city, and then disappear into the Sierra Madre, evidently convinced they would find gold.  Instead, they encounter a group of revolutionaries described as important.  The freedom fighters evidently are not sufficiently upset to shoot the Anglos.  In stead, both groups meet and talk, then go their various ways, the Germans fighting off Indian attacks before entering Hermosillo, Sonora.

    The scene shifts next to the Black Hills, in particular the Pine Ride Indian agency.  There are numerous discussions with Cheyenne, Sioux, Crow and Kiowa Indians, all the important leaders such as Sitting Bull and, of course, such individuals as Buffalo Bill.

    This is not a first-person account, but evidently author Henning's attempt to provide different viewpoints and interpretations involving the Indian wars.

    The Germans shift next to their quest for the Peg Leg Mine in the mountains of California, the searchers on one occasion attacked by wolves with "glittering eyes and bloody tongues."  Once that danger is past, the English language terminates on page 218 with "A Cowboy's Tribute to Will Rogers."  From page 221 to book's end on page 376, the text is in German.

    This is an interesting book, a worthwhile book, and certainly different from the run-of-the-mill books.  The section narratives slip back and forth from first person (with lots of melodrama) to third person (with lots of third-person evaluation) - all parts, of course, having value primarily because of their German perspective.

    The numerous photos are excellent, many of them rare pictures never before seen, at least by this reviewer.

    Furthermore, this is a book on which no expense has been spared in terms of publishing quality.  The editing is excellent, the notes are well done, the binding superior.  The paper is top of the line, acid-free, heavy and shiny, the finest stock one can purchase.

    "Stories of the Wild West" could very well survive on the shelves for 1,000 years.

 

Leon C. Metz is an El Paso author who has written many historical accounts about

personalities and events that shaped the American Southwest.

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