In 1903 the famed ""Cowboy Artist,"" Charles M. Russell, presented
his nephew Austin with a copy of the boy's adventure book Frank on
the Prairie with some extraordinary enhancements. Actually, the
volume already belonged to Austin, and his Uncle Charlie had
borrowed it to add to its pages a series of original illustrations.
This new facsimile edition of that copy, among the rarest of rare
books, features little-known works of art by the artist. The
prolific author of the novel Frank on the Prairie, Charles Austin
Fosdick (1842-1915), who went by the pen name Harry Castlemon, was
one of Russell's favorite storytellers. Castlemon's book, which
first appeared in 1868 as part of the Gunboat Series of Books for
Boys, recounts the adventures of young Frank and his friend Archie
as they travel across the Old West. Clearly inspired by the story
line, Russell produced eleven watercolors for his nephew's 1893
copy. They are beautifully reproduced here in full color, along
with a single pencil sketch of mounted horsemen departing a fort.
As Montana art collector Thomas Minckler explains in his essay, the
extra-illustrated Frank on the Prairie displays the full range of
Russell's signature subjects and themes: the regal American Indian,
a pitched Indian battle of counting coup, the fur trader, an iconic
buffalo hunt, the outlaw, a nighttime camp scene, a tomahawk peace
pipe, and a herd of wild horses. All of these images, meticulously
drawn and painted, are replicated in this facsimile version exactly
as they first appeared in Austin's personal copy of the book. Frank
on the Prairie was only one of a handful of books to which Russell
added illustrations during his career. It is one of even fewer to
contain watercolors. Showcasing Russell's artistry and his
perspective on the American West, the volume is, in Minckler's
words, ""one of Russell's most personalized works of art.
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