This is the latest in this series of books "Cowboy Poetry, Classic Rhymes." The other books "Cowboy Poetry Classic Rhymes by Bruce Kiskaddon" and "Cowboy Poetry Classic Rhymes by S. Omar Barker" were published in 1998. Bruce Kiskaddon was a cowboy. The common thread throughout his poetry was the cowboy life and his dedication to it. S. Omar Barker was a cowboy, a rancher, a scholar and a gentlemen. His skills as a Western author came naturally from his talent and background. Henry Herbert Knibbs was a scholar who aspired to be a Western writer and poet. There is no doubt that he put more research and thought into his writing than either Kiskaddon or Barker. He was not born into ranch life, but became a western writer through his great efforts. As a result he left a legacy of profound cowboy poetry for our pleasure. As Cowboy Miner Productions our purpose in republishing these writings is to preserve (where we can) those works that were accepted as the best of their times. They provide inspiration for our present day artists and set standards for our contemporary works.
Henry Herbert Knibbs 1874 - 1945 was born in Clifton, Ontario, Canada to affluent American parents. He was encouraged to read the works of Longfellow, Lord Byron, Whittier, Tennyson, Edgar Allen Poe while developing a love for the fiddle and its music. His introduction to horses and livestock on his grandparents' farm in Pennsylvania stuck with him throughout his life.
He never graduated from college but attended Woodstock College at age 14, then Bishop Ridley College for three years and studied English at Harvard. He moved to California in 1901 where he wrote his first Novel, Lost Farm Camp.
Knibbs' poetry books include, First Poems, 1908, Songs of the Outlands,: Ballads of the Hoboes and Other Verse, 1914, Riders of the Stars: A Book of Western Verse, 1916, Songs of the Trail, 1920, Saddle Songs and Other Verse, 1922 and Songs of the Lost Frontier 1930. He also authored thirteen western novels and a series of articles printed in the Saturday Evening Post, Red Cross Magazine, Current Opinion, West, Western Stories and Adventure.
Knibbs spent his last few years as owner/operator of a violin shop in Banning, California His self- biography, A Boy I Knew remains unpublished.
