Just finished

Reading Story of Wild West EP DLE. Have sudden urge to chew tobacco, just kidding. Seriously, love the book, but this book seems to be exaggerated, to put it softly. The way this story is, I’m sure some of it was based on history but I think that artistic license was definitely taken. Has anyone here read this book? And, what is your opinion about this book and it’s historical accuracy?

Buffalo Bill said it himself in his preface:

"...several biographers of Boone, Crockett, and Carson have generally made quite as much use of fiction as of actual, verified incidents in making up their history of these three prominent characters. The idle stories thus incorporated in their work being left so long uncontradicted have become an almost inseparable part of frontier history, since few records are accessible, or were ever made, from which a truthful account of the valorous deeds and eventful lives of these heroes may be obtained."

While we will never know the whole truth about some of these stories, they can be very illuminating about the way in which legends evolve.

>2 jroger1: yeah I read that too but also wondering about this book as a whole. Truth vs lies and exaggerations. Probably, only Wild West historians can say for sure by comparing it with other available materials, about the history of Wild West. That said, I enjoyed it immensely

One of my favorite characters from the Wild West period was Wyatt Earp, who is not covered in this book. There are biographies written shortly after his death all the way up to the present time, each with the author’s own perspective. He was either a hero or a villain, an honest lawman or a murderer, a fine gentleman or a backstabber, and quite possibly all of those things. Many records exist in Tombstone and Dodge City, including the transcript of the trial in which he was exonerated of a murder charge, but they have not settled the controversies. There are as many accounts of the gunfight at the OK corral as there were witnesses. Even autobiographies are suspect as history, because they are always (and necessarily) written from the perspective of the author.

History can be very elusive even under the best of circumstances, and this fact makes us wonder all the more about the much more ancient legends about Robin Hood and King Arthur.

>4 jroger1: very interesting

I have the EP "Life of Davy Crockett". Similar to the Wild West book, the Davy Crockett bio is filled with tall tales -- some of them not even his own! "Davy Crockett" was reputedly written by Crockett himself, right up until the moment he was under siege in the Alamo. After much research, I've concluded that this volume is comprised of three allegedly autobiographical works, seamlessly stitched together by posthumous editors as an omnibus "Life." Chapters 1 through 17 were originally "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee, Written by Himself" published in January 1834. "Narrative" was, in truth, a collaboration between Crockett and Kentucky Congressman Thomas Chilton (the latter being uncredited), but it is regarded as a genuine memoir. It was a huge bestseller in its time, when Crockett was a potential Presidential candidate. Chapters 18 through 22 were originally "An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Four," published in 1835. This volume was ghost-written for Crockett but approved by him. Chapters 23-36 were originally "Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas," published in 1836, and allegedly written by Crockett -- but "Exploits" is now considered a total fabrication, one that was not written by him nor even ghost-written with his knowledge or approval. William Bedford Clark noted in 1982 that "no single document offers us more insight... into the mythologizing of Crockett ...than "Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas" (1836), avowedly based on the hero's own diary, but in reality a clumsy fabrication assembled immediately after the fall of the Alamo out of less than the noblest of motives -- pecuniary profit and political gain." Clark adds that for decades afterward, the authenticity of "Exploits" was accepted at face value, despite abundant internal and external evidence to the contrary.

But we have in the first two installments of this omnibus at least, a glimpse of the actual voice of Crockett, even if his prose was cleaned up by ghost writers. And in the last installment, we have the myth of Crockett. The man's entire life was a hodgepodge of myth, tall tales, and truth -- so I'm okay with that.

>6 Betelgeuse: I was considering this book and it was between this book and story of Wild West. I chose story but will read Crockett in regular edition Sacrifices I make

EP has produced several DLEs to keep us Old West buffs amused. There is an 1891 bio of Jesse James, an 1891 bio of Sitting Bull (including his war with Custer), and a bio of Billy the Kid written by the sheriff who killed him. There is even an autobiography of P. T. Barnum, the circus entrepreneur, written in 1869.

Not all of them are reproduced well, but all have interesting illustrations and texts.

>8 jroger1: I have sitting bull ep dle and loved it. Beautiful little book with a lot of illustrations that I really liked. Finished it in one week. As a kid I was all about cowboys and Indians. Planning to reread story of Wild West and sitting bull. Just started begging my parents for Billy the Kid dle since it’s so affordable, well when compared to other ep dle’s

So....would McCullough's Mornings on Horseback count as an Old West or Wild West book?

>9 fancythings:
“The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, the Noted Desperado of the Southwest, by Pat F.Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln County, at Whose Hands He Was Killed” is only 137 pages long, but the title alone is worth the price of the book.

>10 treereader:
It would be a stretch to consider either T. Roosevelt or P. T. Barnum as players in the Old/Wild West, although they later took their political/circus shows across the country.

“Mornings on Horseback” was written by a marvelous historian rather than by Roosevelt himself or a contemporary, though.

>9 fancythings:
I, too, have the Sitting Bull EP dle and thought it was great. The production value was also great -- a beautiful book.