Because I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, my supply of heroes was liberally doled out by the 130+ Western series that dominated nighttime televisions. My parents allowed me one program per week. It was a Western. I was soon interested in history, to know what really happened in the American West, and so I came to understand the great discrepancies between fact and TV. The truth, for me, is much more interesting than the myth. But that truth carries some heavy weight, which informs us of our national foibles, crimes, and embarrassments. As a Western historian, I've done my share of historical research, but I still gravitate toward historical fiction as a writer.
Nolan, an Englishman who researched from his home country, has long been considered the world authority on Billy the Kid.
It can still be said that all research on Billy begins with Nolan, who died in 2022. His book undertakes the massive quest to explain the Lincoln County War in detail and to reveal the endless cast of characters interwoven throughout the struggle.
Nolan’s supple mind has delivered unto us provocative motives for Billy’s actions and thereby expanded our understanding of the Kid’s mind. Without Nolan, historians would be left with mere nuggets of information and not necessarily hold the larger story in perspective.
In The West of Billy the Kid, renowned authority Frederick Nolan has assembled a comprehensive photo gallery of the life and times of Billy the Kid. In text and in more than 250 images-many of them published here for the first time-Nolan recreates the life Billy lived and the places and people he knew. This unique assemblage is complemented by maps and a full biography that incorporates Nolan's original research, adding fresh depth and detail to the Kid's story and to the lives and backgrounds of those who witnessed the events of his life and death.Here are the faces of…
Utley, a respected historian of (mostly) Indian-related research, offers the cold, hard facts of Billy’s life and remains true to objectivity, leaving the reader with the job of analyzing the right and the wrong of decisions, reactions, and events.
What tantalizes me about his book is that a researcher of such stature would choose to write about a teenaged outlaw and killer, when so many other topics of greater significance await their turn in his pen.
Whatever his name or alias at the moment-Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, Billy Bonney-people always called him the Kid. Not until his final month did anyone call him Billy the Kid. Newspapers pictured him as a king of outlaws; and his highly publicized capture, trial, escape, and end fixed his image in the public mind for all time. He was only twenty-one years old when a bullet from Sheriff Pat Garett's six-shooter killed him on July 14, 1881. Within a year Billy the Kid became the subject of five dime-novel "biographies" as well as Garett's ghost-written account, and that…
As it is often said, “history is written by the winners.”
The Hispanic population had very little voice in the outcome of the Lincoln County War, but it is they who had the deepest insight into who Billy was, for they were his friends and he their champion. Mills has mined that forgotten voice to publish a more thorough understanding of who the Kid was.
The result is a greater appreciation for Billy as a human being. This is a long overdue perspective that better defines Billy Bonney’s admirable traits.
In the annals of American western history, few people have left behind such lasting and far-reaching fame as Billy the Kid. Some have suggested that his legend began with his death at the end of Pat Garrett's revolver on the night of July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner. Others believe that the legend began with his unforgettable jailbreak in Lincoln, New Mexico, several months prior on April 28, 1881. Others still insist his legend began with the publication in 1926 of Walter Noble Burns's book, The Saga of Billy the Kid.
This book does a fine job of laying out the complex plots and cross-plots of a most complicated New Mexico Territory of the 1870s.
The full spectrum of politics, murders, and factions can be overwhelming to a first-time student. There are clearly too many players in the story for a reader to grasp the overarching drama. Mr. Wallis found a way to guide the reader across this challenging terrain without shortcuts.
Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the Industrial Revolution reshaping the American landscape, "the Kid," who was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the New Mexico Territory at the age of twenty-one, became a new breed of celebrity outlaw. He arose amid the mystery and myth of the swiftly vanishing frontier and, sensationalized beyond recognition by the tabloids…
Most people with even a casual familiarity with Billy the Kid know at least three things about the young outlaw:
1) Billy was captured and found guilty of murder.
2) Before he could be hanged, he affected a spectacular escape.
3) He was hunted down and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Because of the high drama of that last point (a shooting in a dark room at midnight near the bedroom of Billy’s paramour) and because of the machinations of the sheriff’s ghostwriter and publicist, Garrett has received all the glory for the Kid being brought to justice.
But there was another lawman who deserves just as much credit—Frank Stewart, lead detective for a Texas cattleman’s association. Stewart played an equal role in Billy’s capture, but his name was suppressed by those who did not want to divvy up fame. This new information is the subject of this book.
New, hardcover copy of the latest book on the life of Billy the Kid, concentrating on the fall and winter 1880 chase-and-capture of Billy and the boys at Stinking Spring. 424 pp., pages 8 1/2 x 11, over 120 illustrations and documents, many never before published. Much new material. Also available: SIGNED copies; and limited edition in slipcase.
Beneath the story of what at first glance might appear to be a nineteenth-century hoodlum and cold-blooded killer lies an irrepressible youth named “Billy.” Though orphaned at fourteen and thrown into survival mode during one the bloodiest civilian wars in American history, he maintained an undeniable charm and courtesy that won him many friends and allies. It is the old theme of law versus order during the most violent and corrupt administration of New Mexico Territory, when a cabal of greedy Irishmen ruled the economics of frontier life. Though newspapers of the time presented Billy as a heartless killer, he was, in fact, fighting for a cause that he deemed just and righteous.
I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.
First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…
