A Tale of the Old West

Title: A Tale of the Old West

Author: Ferguson, H.N.

Publication: Skokie, Illinois: Black Cat Press, 1980.

Description: Miniature book containing the story of Old West stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, 1812-1879. Parkhurst was assigned female at birth and lived as a man after running away from an orphanage at age 12. One of 249 copies, designed and produced by Norman W. Forgue of the Black Cat Press. Title page printed in brown and black, with vignette. Bound by Bela Blau in full brown leatherette over boards, with gilt lettering on the spine, a gilt stagecoach design on the front cover, and marbled endpapers. 1.75 x 1.5 inches; 52 unnumbered pages (first leaf blank). Indentations around the spine, but a clean and crisp interior. Near Fine.

In addition to being one of the greatest stagecoach drivers in gold-rush era California, Parkhurst may have been the first female assigned at birth to vote in a presidential election in California. After Parkhurst's death in 1879, those preparing his body for burial determined that the body appeared to be female and that he had previously given birth.

"With a little-known footnote to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution"--Half-title page.