1903 Scarce First Signed Edition - Algonquin Indian Tales Collected by ER Young

Author: Egerton R. Young. Illustrated by J. E. Laughlin and others.
Title: Algonquin Indian Tales.
Publisher: New York: Eaton & Mains. Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye, 1903. First US Edition.
Language: Text in English, with the author's inscription including Algonquin syllabics.
Size: 8 x 5.5 inches.
Pages: 258 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good, publisher’s original light brown pictorial cloth binding with bold white titles and a striking color-block profile portrait of an Indigenous man framed by geometric border motifs (hinges fine, light overall soiling and a touch of rubbing, corners mildly bumped, spine gently faded — as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A solid and visually appealing example of this early 20th-century ethnographic classic.
Content: Very good content (clean, tight, and bright, with only light foxing or toning in a few margins — as shown). Front endpaper with author’s full-page inscription, written partly in Algonquin syllabics, giving the author’s Indian name “The Praying Marten,” dated Oct. 25, 1906. Previous owner’s neat signature on the upper part of the same page. 
Illustrations: Illustrated with full-page plates and in-text drawings, including the frontispiece (“The rabbit tells Nanahboozhoo of his troubles”) and other scenes depicting Ojibwe and Algonquin storytelling, landscapes, and cultural practices. Complete.

Estimate: (USD 200– 250).

The book: A desirable author-signed 1903 edition of Algonquin Indian Tales, Egerton R. Young’s celebrated collection of stories gathered during his years among the Cree and Ojibwe peoples of northern Canada. Blending folklore, natural lore, humor, and mythic tradition, the volume preserves oral tales that had long been shared around wigwams, lakeshores, and campfires.

Of particular note is the rare and culturally significant inscription, written partly in Algonquin syllabics and giving Young’s Indigenous name, “The Praying Marten.”

The author: Egerton Ryerson Young (1840–1909) was a Canadian missionary, teacher, and author who spent many years working among Indigenous communities in northern Manitoba and Ontario. His writings, which include By Canoe and Dog-Train and Three Boys in the Wild North Land, document his close contact with Cree and Ojibwe families and his efforts to record their stories, languages, and customs. Young’s work is valued today for its ethnographic detail and for preserving stories that might otherwise have been lost to time.