From the brick-paved streets of Boston and New England, to the deserts of Arizona, to the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, beloved author and columnist Stewart Holbrook takes his readers down uncharted paths in a series of delightful pieces. Little Annie Oakley and Other Rugged People is pure Americana that delves into the myths of unhackneyed and motley people, and the places they made famous. Interspersed among character bits are rich historical views of places, the author’s own experiences in logging camps, and enthusiastic sketches of the near-extinct Yankee.
Little Annie Oakley and Other Rugged People is pure Americana that delves into the myths of unhackneyed and motley people, and the places they made famous.
Davis D. Joyce presents fourteen essays that interpret Oklahoma's unique populist past and address current political and social issues ranging from gender, race, and religion to popular music, the energy industry, and economics.
A biography of America's greatest female sharpshooter delves beneath her popular image to reveal a conservative but competitive woman who wanted to succeed.
This exhaustive bibliographical reference will be the first stop for anyone looking for Calamity Jane in print, film, or photograph—and wanting to know how reliable those sources may be. Richard W. Etulain, renowned western-U.S. historian and the author of a recent biography of this charismatic figure, enumerates and assesses the most valuable sources on Calamity Jane’s life and legend in newspapers, magazines, journals, books, and movies, as well as historical and government archives. Etulain begins with a brief biography of Martha Canary, aka Calamity Jane (1856–1903), then analyzes the origins and growth of her legends. The sources, Etulain shows, reveal three versions of Calamity Jane. In the most popular one, she was a Wild Woman of the Old West who helped push a roaring frontier through its final stages. This is the Calamity Jane who fought Indians, marched with the military, and took on the bad guys. Early in her life she also hoped to embody the pioneer woman, seeking marriage and a stable family and home. A third, later version made of Calamity an angel of mercy who reached out to the poor and nursed smallpox victims no one else would help. The hyperbolic journalism of the Old West, as well as dime novels and the stretchers Calamity herself told in her interviews and autobiography, shaped her legends through much of the twentieth century. Many of the sensational early accounts of Calamity’s life, Etulain notes, were based on rumor and hearsay. In illuminating the role of the Deadwood Dick dime novel series and other pulp fiction in shaping what we know—or think we know—of the American West, Etulain underscores one of his fascinating themes: the power of popular culture. The product of twenty years’ labor sifting fact from falsehood or distortion, this bibliography and reader’s guide includes brief discussions of nearly every item’s contents, along with a terse, entertaining evaluation of its reliability.
“A fascinating examination of the genesis of the Western novel and its influence on the modern American novel . . . full of rip-roaring yarns.” —James Reasoner, New York Times-bestselling author The Wild West came alive under the pen of Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who wrote many of Americas best-loved ”dime novels” under the pseudonym Ned Buntline. From Buffalo Bill (whom Judson knew first-hand) to Wild Bill Hickok, these vivid tales feature some of the most colorful characters on the American landscape. This anthology gathers a selection of his best-loved work, including four full-length unabridged novels, each with an introduction by author and critic Clay Reynolds. Stories include: Buffalo Bill, the King of Border Men; or, The Wildest and Truest Tale I’ve Ever Told Hazel-Eye, the Girl Trapper. A Tale of Strange Young Life The Miner Detective; or, The Ghost of the Gulch Wild Bill’s Last Trail And more “A valuable work for teachers and scholars of American popular culture. The Hero of a Hundred Fights provides a well-chosen and well-edited selection from the work of an important nineteenth-century popular writer.” —Richard Slotkin, National Book Award finalist for Gunfighter Nation “A welcome addition to both western literature and western history—this volume will be welcomed by any serious student of the American West.” —R. David Edmunds, author of The Shawnee Prophet “Ned Buntline was a legend in his own time. This collection of his iconic western fiction brings the legend to life in our time.” —J. Randolph Cox, editor, Dime Novel Round-Up
A study of America's changing attitude toward wilderness, discussing efforts to protect the Alaskan wilderness, trends in wilderness management, and the international perspective.
"This immense book, by a noted bibliographer of the West, is beyond question the fairest, most complete and most learned evaluation of printed references to western outlaws to appear until now....It will stand for many years, solid as a rock amid the flooding maelstrom of western myth and legend, pointing up the truth about those men of the past who lived by their wits and their guns. It will be impossible for anyone studying that era and such men to do so without reference to this volume."—Los Angeles Times "Adams turns again to the books and histories of the western gunmen and outlaws and critically examines 425 titles, most of which rate as ’burs’ under his saddle. Ramon Adams’ plea is that the writers must stop compounding each other’s errors into legend. In this book, with great skill and without malice, he has pointed out past mistakes. His book should be in the essential baggage of every writer on western outlaws and on every library shelf."—American West "The value of this book to writers and historians of the badman tradition cannot be overestimated, for Adams has replaced rumors, myths, and falsehoods with documented historical facts. It is a book for all conscientious students of and writers on the American West; henceforth, any writer of ’authentic Western history’ who refuses to check with Adams should be, as the judge said to Billy the Kid in one legend, 'hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead.'"—Southwest Review
