Ramon Adams and "the work of an idiot printer"

Ramon F. Adams was a prolific author, bibliographer and lexicographer on the subject of cowboys, range life, and the American West. The "idiot printer" is Bill Wittliff (he wrote it, not me! see below), whose Encino Press published this piece shown below in 1967. Mr. Wittliff's inscribed bit of self-deprecating humor graces the backside of a piece of printed ephemera from my recent acquisition of Wittliff/Encino Press material.




Why Wittliff refers to himself this way, I'm not sure. An inside joke peraps, or just his sense of humor. Whatever, I'm glad he added this personal touch. It made me smile. I know it's his writing because all the other pieces in the batch of his epehemera I obtained have his handwriting in either initials or signed inscriptions.

This appears to be a mock-up or announcement of some sort for the forthcoming book by Ramon F. Adams: A Cowman & His Philosophy.

The Ramon Adams Collection at the Texas/Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library offers a biography and detailed listing of its contents. Although, this collection contains a lot of material around the time this book would have been published, including correspondence with the Encino Press, I could find only one reference to this particular book: "a book of the cowman's philosophical sayings."

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