Mining Camp Melodies

Butte, Montana: Oates and Roberts Press, n.d. [1924]. First Edition. Octavo. 19.5cm. Publisher's original burgundy cloth titled in gilt to front board. 120pp. Lacking front blank. Rubbing and scuffing to extremities, minor bumping to spine ends, a little shaken in its binding with a couple of secure but slightly loose gatherings, internally clean. A very good strong copy, handsome but with some wear and use.

Holliday's collection of mining songs, humorous poems, and working ditties produced in and effetively for, the mining camp of Butte, Montana. Butte became miners mecca in the 1860's, briefly being known as "The Richest Hill on Earth" and (truncated) attracting the intrepid, the entrepreneurial and the downright criminal to make the trek out to the literal middle of nowhere and burrow for riches like a gang of financially embarassed ants. As with all exploits where the work is hard, the risk high and the pay potentially non-existent, community morale becomes a critical issue, and collections like this provided remote and precarious communities with a sense of identity, solidarity, and much needed entertainment to relieve the grind and tedium. (Inventory #: 82970)