Signed biographies of Wild West legend Buffalo Bill go up for auction

Signed biographies of Wild West legend Buffalo Bill are expected to fetch thousands of dollars when they go up for auction later this month.

Both biographies were signed by famous American Civil War soldier and buffalo hunter William Frederick Cody – better known as Buffalo Bill – and given to a bareback rider who performed in Bill’s Wild West shows.

The books of the heroine of the American Wild West are now being sold by her grandson and are expected to sell for no less than $2,566.

Cody was an American soldier who earned his nickname while hunting bison to feed workers on the Kansas Pacific Railroad after the American Civil War.

He fought against the Confederates in the Civil War between 1863 and 1865 and later founded Buffalo Bill’s Wild West circus shows which toured the United States and Europe.

The two signed biographies – written by Bill’s sister, Helen Cody Wetmore – are dedicated to Mrs Lilian White, a performer in his Wild West show, and her son, Master White Jnr.

Lilian and her sister Flory formed an equestrian group in the late 1800s known as the Humel Sisters, who performed with Barnum and Bailey’s circus.

While touring the United Kingdom in 1898, the sisters crossed paths with Buffalo Bill, who asked them to join his show.

Duncan White, Lilian’s grandson and the book seller, explained that his grandmother and Buffalo Bill were close friends.

“She and Bill traveled all over the world together,” he said. “She always said he was very kind and a good friend.

“He gave him the first book in Cardiff in July 1903, and the second, which is in French, is dedicated to my father, dated September 29, 1905.”

Both books are inscribed “Compliments of the subject” and signed “W. F Cody “Buffalo Bill””.

They join another book, The Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth 1897-1898, which details every location the circus visited that year.

The three-book lot is expected to fetch between $1,283 and $2,566 at Hanson Ross’s Hertfordshire auction house later this month.

Amanda Butler, operations director at Hanson Ross, said the sale of the historic books was “very exciting”.

“It has great provenance, it comes directly from the White family,” she said.

“We hope it will generate interest here and across the Atlantic.”

Lilian White toured the world with Buffalo Bill and had three children while on the road with him.

When she and her husband finally returned to the UK, they settled in Runnymeade, Surrey, where they ran a business supplying horse feed until the advent of the motor car bankrupted them.

Lilian died in 1964 at the age of 88.

“Living so close to the Thames almost meant the end of those books,” added his grandson Duncan.

“Their bungalow suffered a terrible flood in the late 1940s and that’s when she gave them to me.

“I was the only grandson and she wanted them to keep the White family name.”

Mr White added that he hoped to pass the books on to his son, but had little interest in circus history.

“I’m not sorry to see them go,” he admitted.

“I’m 87 years old. It’s time they were given to someone who will appreciate them.”

The books will be auctioned off at the Hanson Ross Jewelry and Art Auction on July 12. Signed biographies of the Buffalo Wild West legend

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