Of all firsthand accounts of lawlessness in the old Southwest, none is more fascinating than Pat F. Garrett's "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid." First published in 1882, a year after Sheriff Garrett killed the Kid, "the bravest and most feared' gunman of the Lincoln County, New Mexico, cattle war, it is at once the most authoritative biography of William H. Bonney and the foundation of the Billy the Kid legend.

Additional Editor Is D. Harper Simms. Chapters By Many Noted Western Authors Including John C. Ewers, O. Clark Fisher, Noel M. Loomis, Lawrence Frost, Ray H. Mattison, F. G. Renner, J. C. Dykes, And Robert M. Utley Among Others. Illustrations By Charles M. Russell, Paul Rockwood, Charles Schreyvogel And Many More.

Thomas Edgar Crawford - variously known as ""The Texas Kid,"" ""The Montana Kid,"" ""Buckskin,"" ""Kid,"" and ""Ed"" - teamed up early with such notorious characters as Black Jack Ketchum and Henry Starr. Later Crawford took up ranching in Montana and lived to tell about the war between the cattlemen and sheepmen. He tried gold mining in California, but was soon forced to sell his holdings in order to avoid financial catastrophe. Here, published for the first time, are Crawford's recollections of life in the West from 1881 to 1910, dictated when he was past seventy years old, not long before his death in 1941. His story constitutes an amazing record of the activities of outlaw gangs of his time and provides new material about the Jackson Hole and Hole in the Wall outlaws - although Crawford was reluctant to reveal the role he played in their affairs. Crawford could understand a train or bank robber, but more than once he took the trail after a horse thief. He liked horses and intensely disliked sheep, but even so, he often opened his home as a refuge to sheepherders to save them from freezing to death in a blizzard. He loved to hunt, and some of his best tales concern adventures in search of game. The West of the Texas Kid is one man's account of the West as he knew it. Here, Thomas Edgar Crawford has helped preserve the lore and legends of the Old West.

Yet another dynamic personality emerges from the history of the American West in Cow Dust and Saddle Leather, the life story of Ben E. Kemp, cowman and lawman, as told by his son Benny. Kemp's deep commitment to family and neighbors put no limitations on his diversified talents and interests, and his days were filled with escapades and achievements to be envied by the most foolhardy and irresponsible adventurer. At twenty-one, he was considered the best broncobuster in his part of Texas. In the 1880s, he was a Texas Ranger and took part in the last fight between the Rangers and the Indians. His personal acquaintances included outlaws and grizzly bears, and ""the hurricane deck of a Western mustang was his throne. He rode high and wide until drought and barbed wire closed in and open range was no more."" In addition to newfound heroes, readers will meet many old friends here: Captain George W. Baylor, the Apache Kid, and Black Jack Ketchum are a few of the figures who appear under new guises in their associations with Ben E. Kemp. The primary source information about the life of the Texas Rangers and the Texas and New Mexico frontier makes this book a real find for everyone who reads western history - and anyone who likes a rattling good tale.