My People of the Plains

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1906. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/No Jacket. 0x0x0. First edition. Ink name on front endpaper. 1906 Hard Cover. x, 264 pp. Green boards with gilt titles, top edge gilt. Illustrated with black-and-white plates. Ethelbert Talbot (October 9, 1848 - February 27, 1928) was the fifteenth presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. He is credited with inspiring Pierre de Coubertin to coin the phrase, "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not so much the winning but taking part, for the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well." Talbot was born in Fayette, Missouri on October 9, 1848. He was the son of John Alnut Talbot, a physician, and Alice Daly Talbot. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1870 and went directly to the General Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1873. He was ordained to the diaconate on June 29 and the priesthood on November 4 of that year. The next day he married Dora Frances Havery of Roanoke, Missouri. They later had one child, Anne. He immediately became rector of St. James Church in Macon, Missouri. He built several missions in nearby towns, and founded a school which became St. James Military Academy. It began as a boys' school, but a parallel girls' school was founded later. In 1886, General Convention elected him the first Missionary Bishop of Wyoming and Idaho. He was consecrated in Christ Church, St. Louis on May 27, 1887. That year, the University of Missouri made him an honorary Doctor of Law and General Theological Seminary, a Doctor of Sacred Theology. In 1888 Dartmouth followed with a Doctor of Divinity. In 1891 he was elected Bishop of Georgia, but declined. On November 11, 1897, he was elected 3rd Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and installed on February 2, 1898. He set about planning for the division of the large diocese, and in 1904 the new Diocese of Harrisburg was established. Talbot remained Bishop of Central Pennsylvania and continued ministering in the area as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem following the renaming of the diocese in 1909. He held the see concurrently with his position as Bishop of Wyoming until 1908. Talbot remained Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem until 1927, obtaining the assistance of Frank W. Starrett, who was elected Bishop Coadjutor in 1923. On February 18, 1924, upon the death of Alexander C. Garrett, Talbot became the last Presiding Bishop to hold the post as a result of his seniority as a bishop. On January 1, 1926, John G. Murray became the first elected Presiding Bishop, succeeding Talbot. Talbot resigned his post as Bishop of Bethlehem in favor of Frank W. Sterrett on September 15, 1927, and died on February 27, 1928, in Tuckahoe, New York.