First published in 1926, this entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. Saga focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanised into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilisation was rapidly displacing1881.Burns, his destroyer was Pat Garrett, the courageous sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett's shooting of Billy in 1881 hastened the closing of the American frontier. Walter Noble Burns's 'Saga of Billy the Kid' kindled a fascination in Billy the Kid that survives to this day. Richard W. Etulain's foreword discusses the singular importance of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

First published in 1927, ""Tombstone"" defined the legend of lawman-gunfighter Wyatt Earp. A mixture of fact and fiction, Walter Noble Burns's portrayal of Earp has profoundly influenced subsequent generations of historians, novelists, and screen writers. Born in 1849, Earp grew up on the Missouri-Kansas frontier and first came to notice as a no-nonsense town marshal in rip-roaring Dodge City, Kansas. Moving to wide-open Tombstone, Arizona in 1879, he became a businessman and deputy United States marshal where he was soon joined by his four brothers. In Burns's narrative, the Earp clan represents law and order in the lawless, chaotic Old West. The collision between civilisation and frontier explodes in the bloody and legendary shootout at the OK Corral between the Earps and the Clanton-McLowery gang. The Earps prevailed, but the subsequent shootings of two Earp brothers drove the calm, courageous, and somewhat emotionless Wyatt to take the law into his own hands. In a personal rage, he hunted and killed the treacherous ""assassins."" Wyatt Earp's most recent biographer, Casey Tefertiller, discusses the influence of Tombstone on the history and legend of Wyatt Earp and the Old West.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!