“The Chuck Wagon Cookbook: Recipes from the Ranch and Range for Today’s Kitchen,” by B. Byron Price (University of Oklahoma, 304 pages, $39.95 hardback, $19.95 paperback)
“The table was bare, the plates and cups were of tin, and the coffee was in a pot so black that night seemed day beside it. The meat was in a stewpan, and the milk was in a tin pail. The tomatoes were fresh from a can, and the biscuits were fresh from the oven. Delmonico never served a meat that was better relished,” claimed an 1885 Cheyenne newspaper.
We might not agree, but for a cowboy 120 years ago, those were good eats. An early cattleman carried a three-day supply of biscuits and salted side meat whose fat discolored its leather container, giving cowboys the name “greasy sack outfits.” Later came chuck wagons, created in 1866 by Charles Goodnight and inspired perhaps by portable writing desks. The meals produced in them were a vast improvement, although one cook mixed bread in the feed box used by mules and another took all morning to bake pies because he had just one Dutch oven.
The first half of “The Chuck Wagon Cookbook” is a wonderful history of early cowboy cookery. Part two is made up of recipes, many for dishes early cowpokes couldn’t have imagined.
“A More Abundant Life: New Deal Artists and Public Art in New Mexico,” by Jacqueline Hoefer (Sunstone Press, 195 pages, $45)
During the Great Depression, thanks to the New Deal, artists across the country put bread on their tables and splendid art in public buildings. “We thought it was heaven on earth to be paid to paint,” said William Lumpkins, an artist in New Mexico, one of the states that benefited most from the art program.
The private art market virtually dried up during the 1930s, so most of New Mexico’s artists signed up for the New Deal program, being paid up to $27.50 a week, not a bad salary since New Mexico was a cheap place to live. One artist, Gerald Cassidy, literally gave his life for the program, since he died from working in an enclosed room, where paint fumes and a fire proved a deadly mix.
A program designed to give work to artists resulted in a treasure trove of public art worth millions today.
“The Western Pursuit of the American Dream: Selections from the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell” (University of Oklahoma, 372 pages, $39.95)
Kenneth W. Rendell views the West through art and artifacts, and this lavishly illustrated book is filled with examples from his vast collection of western Americana. There are the maps, artwork, photographs and Indian artifacts you’d expect to see in such a book, of course. More unusual are Frank James’ playing cards, the first issue of the Klondike Gazoot, clipper ship advertising cards, a Fort Laramie trading token and a medal that may have been taken on the Lewis and Clark expedition and traded to the Indians.
The book begins with a document signed by Ferdinand and Isabella just days after Columbus set sail for the new world, and it ends with a couple of cowboy movie posters.
“Art of the Ancestors: Antique North American Indian Art,” by George Everett Shaw with Steven C. Brown, Benson L. Lanford and Bill Mercer (Aspen Art Museum, 179 pages, $65)
At one time or another, Aspen art dealer George Everett Shaw has owned most of the magnificent pieces shown in “Art of the Ancestors.” They are not just Indian artifacts but art, as this oversize book with its full-page color illustrations shows. The relics, divided by region into Plains, Northwest and Southwest were made over a period of nearly 2,000 years, until the early 20th century, and range from carved figures and masks to garments to pots and blankets.
There is brief text, including diary excerpts by Shaw that show why the hunt for Indian artifacts is so exciting for a dealer, but it’s the illustrations that show why antique Indian art objects are so prized today.
“The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo,” by Francis H. Harlow, Duane Anderson and Dwight P. Lanmon (Museum of New Mexico, 185 pages, $45)
Shown here are beautiful examples of the rich rust- and black-on-white pottery produced in the small village of Santa Ana, N.M. This is a technical work, however, explaining how the pottery style and its design evolved and how they relate to the nearby pueblos.
Sandra Dallas is a Denver novelist who writes a monthly column on new regional nonfiction releases.
