[EARLY TRANSPORTATION] POWELL. Willis J.

Tachyhippodamia, Or, Art of Quieting Wild Horses in a Few Hours, As Discovered by The Author, In the Year 1814

New Orleans: At The Observer Office, 1838. First American Edition. Octavo. 21cm. Bound in contemporary tree calf, professionally respined at some distant point, with a red leather title label. 142pp. Handsome, two repairs to corners, and some traces of scorching to the fore-edge of the binding which has cracked and bubbled the finish of the leather along the edge, hinges strong; internally clean although the paper stock is variable in quality, plain endpapers, text in English, Spanish and French. A very good solid copy of a very rare title.

Described as one of the rarest books in the field of horsemanship, with only a very meagre auction history, 8 copies on OCLC, and very little trace in trade, clearly issued in a relatively small printing in a rather ephemeral wrappered format. The title, essentially a guide to horse whispering and the swift taming of wild horses, wasn't rediscovered and reprinted until 1872, with a subsequent edition in 1877. Powell's introduction to the work, complete with encomiums from foreign dignitaries and nobility, actually reads rather like the introduction to a work of mesmerism or fortune telling, as Willis attempts to share enough knowledge to be useful, without giving the entire method away. He writes of months of research on his Attakapas plantation with various horses until he discovered and refined the method of rendering them gentle and obedient. A lot of the methodology is couched in mysterious language, which is essentially something of a tradition in the field of horse whispering, the very famous Irish whisperer, Daniel Sullivan, would only ever tame horses at a discreet distance from watching humans, and stood so close to the horse that it was assumed he was whispering magic words to it. The secrecy and the mystery were excellent showmanship, and quite beyond the usefulness of taming wild or recalcitrant horses during a time when they were the pre-eminent form of transport and labor, horse whisperers were a source of awestruck entertainment. The three most prominent whisperers of the 19th century would be Sullivan in England and Ireland, J. Willis Powell, and then later John Solomon Rarey who worked and collaborated with Powell on several occasions (after they had overcome their suspicion of each other), and whose work "The Complete Horse Tamer" [1862] is frequently found bound after Powell's work in reprints of Tachyhippodamia. Rarey was the more internationally famous of the two, and in the 1850's was invited to Blamoral by Queen Victoria on the promise of 100 pounds if he could whisper one of her less obedient horses. Rarey succeeded, the Queen was ecstatic, and he became the toast of the town, a happenstance that led to more lucrative and engaging contracts to whisper.

Powell himself seems to have been a fascinating (if slightly expedient) man, and one of those tireless entrepreneurs that is always searching for a new thing to master. A polyglot and world traveller who spoke five languages, the text of his work frequently veers in and out of French and Spanish. His introduction is something of a litany of woes; describing his being robbed in New Orleans of thousands of dollars, the loss of a further fortune aboard the steamboat Têche (which exploded and sank in 1825, one of a surprising number of exploding steamboats in Louisiana history), the dangers he had experienced trying to get a drive of tamed wild horses back across war-torn Texas, and the constant guard he must keep upon his secrets, which he considered a passport to enormous wealth. A fascinating oddity (both man and book), and a significant rarity.

Price: $4,500.00

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