The Horse of the Desert.

BROWN, William Robinson. Introduction by Major General G. Harbord and Henry Fairfield Osborn.

$650.00

Item Number: 138919

New York: The Derrydale Press, 1929.

First edition of William Robinson Brown’s authoritative work on the Arabian horse. Quarto, original publisher’s cloth decorated in gilt, patterned endpapers, tissue-guarded full color frontispiece from a painting by Harrington Bird, illustrated throughout. One of 750 copies. In fine condition. A beautiful example.

William Robinson Brown was an American corporate officer at the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire as well as an authority on Arabian horses and Arabian horse breeding. Brown purchased his first Arabian horses in 1910 and founded the Maynesboro Stud in Berlin, New Hampshire which became the largest Arabian stud farm in the United States. He obtained the foundation bloodstock from his older brother who had purchased the stallion, named Abu Zeyd from the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England. Brown believed the Arabian to be a separate subspecies of horse, and Abu Zeyd to be an ideal representation of the breed. Upon the horse's death Brown donated its skeleton to the American Museum of Natural History. Brown also amassed one of the largest literary collections on horsemanship and Arab culture in the United States and authored two books: The Horse of the Desert and Our Forest Heritage: A History of Forestry and Recreation in New Hampshire.