The Banditti of the Plains
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The Banditti of the Plains, Or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 (The Crowning Infamy of the Ages) is a book written by Asa Shinn Mercer. It is an account of the Johnson County War in the American state of Wyoming.
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[edit] Title
The title was taken from a now-forgotten Western titled The Banditti of the Range.
[edit] Mercer's unique view
It is written from the unique perspective of Mercer, who had come to Wyoming to edit the North West Live Stock Journal, the official publication of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA), which represented the monied interests intent on controlling the cattle industry. As the events of the range wars unfolded, Mercer came to sympathize with the homesteaders and turned against the WSGA. The book reflects his pro-settler view, and is an important document of the events.
[edit] A banned book
The book was suppressed from the time of its 1894 publication, and very few first editions remain; they are valued in the thousands of dollars. The second edition simply disappeared somewhere between Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming; while rumors persist, there are no known copies of the second edition.
[edit] How Mercer paid
Mercer saw his printing press in Cheyenne burned down; he was harassed, arrested, jailed and had the plates of his book destroyed. His writings were seized in the mails as obscenity; his business was ruined.
[edit] Vindication
Mercer made mistakes later history rectified. But his main views of the Johnson County War were ultimately proved true, and never again did the cattle barons attempt to invade Wyoming.
[edit] Modern history
Thanks to republication in 1954 by the University of Oklahoma Press, with a foreword by William H. Kittrell, the first edition text is now readily available; it appeared in paperback in 1976.
