Category: Westerns

Written by Tom Clavin

SUMMARY:

Released in 2019 by St. Martin’s Griffin, this 333-page softcover is a biography of “Wild” Bill Hickok.  The prologue recounts Hickok’s July 1865 duel with Davis Tutt in Springfield, Missouri.  The author then explores Hickok’s lineage dating back centuries before moving on to his youth and pre-Civil War adulthood.  Including his friendships with “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Hickok’s life as an Union Army scout/spy receives extensive attention, as does his growing (and self-promoted) fame as a frontier lawman/gambler. 

After a tragic incident effectively ends Hickok’s career in law enforcement, readers learn more of his aborted run as a stage actor.  With his health and future options dwindling, the end of Hickok’s mercurial life is explored.  In addition to his alcoholism, the author examines Hickok’s only confirmed marriage and a less-than-romantic reality disproving his alleged fling with Calamity Jane.  The epilogue reveals the fates of significant individuals in Hickok’s life who outlived him.    

REVIEW:

To author Tom Clavin’s credit, he is rightfully skeptical re: many (but not all) of Hickok’s superhuman exploits that enthralled gullible admirers in his own lifetime.  Relying upon a solid bibliography, Clavin delivers a mostly plausible account of Hickok’s controversial life.  Clavin occasionally sidetracks re: peripheral participants, but he manages to resume his entertaining narrative without much strain. 

The sole oddity is that some documented incidents from Hickok’s life (i.e. a saloon brawl/shoot-out vs. two members of the Seventh Cavalry) are omitted while others (i.e. various other frontier shooting and scouting incidents) are inserted.  Of particular interest are glimpses of Hickok’s poorly-spelled correspondence with his family and later his wife, which reveal the frontier legend’s intriguingly sentimental side. 

Yet, Clavin’s best segment discusses Hickok’s premonition of his own imminent death in August 1876.  Evidently sensing days and likely weeks before that some unknown threat would finally gun him down, an aging Hickok’s decision-making (as if waiting for the inevitable) makes for an engrossing read.  While Clavin’s effort might not be the best-ever Hickok biography, Wild Bill will likely be the definitive one for this generation.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

There’s a sixteen-page black-and-white photo section, plus some additional black-and-white portraits interspersed of Hickok.  Included is an author’s note, acknowledgments, bibliography, and index.  A 11-page chapter entitled “The Fight’s Commenced” previews Clavin’s next book: Tombstone, which is set for release in April 2020.  The last page is a head shot of Clavin and his paragraph-length bio.   

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                            8 Stars

Written by Tom Clavin

SUMMARY:

Published in April 2020 by St. Martin’s Press, this 386-page hardcover is Tom Clavin’s account of the events and immortal characters precipitating the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  What follows is Wyatt Earp’s vengeance ride to avenge his brothers to finally end a three-year feud.  A prologue set in March 1882 has Wyatt sense that his undersized posse may be soon facing a climatic encounter with rival Sheriff John Behan’s own forces.  After the first chapter summarizes Wyatt’s stint with Bat Masterson in 1879 Dodge City, Clavin then analyzes the backstory of how Tombstone was first founded. 

Subsequent chapters explain the how’s and why’s of the various players converging in opulent Tombstone, as rustling, robberies, and murder in the Arizona desert take their toll.  Wyatt Earp’s covert effort to recruit cowardly rustler Ike Clanton to apprehend three fugitive stage robbers is only one of several twists leading up to the historic O.K. Corral showdown.  With the Earp Brothers and ‘Doc’ Holliday exonerated for the deaths of three cowboys/rustlers, a shadowy conspiracy bent on retaliation decimates Wyatt’s immediate family. 

Leading a federal posse out of Tombstone, Wyatt pursues the elusive culprits who permanently maimed one brother and brutally murdered another.  Clavin concludes his project with an epilogue revealing the fates of the various survivors.  

REVIEW:

As far as bolstering the Wyatt Earp biographical genre, Tom Clavin’s Tombstone doesn’t unearth new revelations.  Still, no matter how familiar his material is, Clavin still cranks out a high-caliber rehash.  His conversational style and occasional tidbits of wit are terrific storytelling assets — i.e. how a perpetually hung-over Ike Clanton was evidently an amateur track star, whenever it came to fleeing from/evading bullets. 

By commending Earp-friendly titles (i.e. Casey Tefertiller’s Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend), the fact that Clavin eagerly adopts the traditional viewpoint of the crusading Earps and Holliday vs. a horde of frontier mobsters isn’t a shocker.  As a result, most Old West enthusiasts won’t be disappointed.    

Giving Wyatt and, to a degree, Holliday a wide pass re: their own controversial activities, Clavin mostly aligns his detailed account with the 1993 Tombstone film.  Impressively, he avoids playing up Hollywood melodrama, as Wyatt’s mythical Buntline Special is nowhere to be found in Clavin’s book.  In a further nod to credibility, he acknowledges the socially-aspiring Earps’ various conflicts-of-interest, including a married Wyatt’s discreet affair with Behan’s enigmatic wife/ex-wife, Josephine Marcus.  Best of all, Clavin makes a convincing case re: why the ambivalent Earps felt little alternative in facing down an increasingly brazen threat from renegade cowboys – no matter the mixed perception by Tombstone’s citizenry.    

Ultimately, the author’s faith in Wyatt’s personal integrity and sense of family honor makes his Tombstone a compelling read for anyone — whether they’re armchair historians or not.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

Clavin provides an author’s note and concluding acknowledgments.  There’s also a selected bibliography and an index.  

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                             8 Stars

Written by Dale T. Schoenberger & Illustrated by Ernest Lisle Reedstrom

SUMMARY:

Published in 1971, historian-teacher-journalist Dale T. Schoenberger notes he spent sixteen years researching this 207-page hardcover’s biographical profiles of: Clay Allison; Wyatt Earp; ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok; ‘Doc’ Holliday; Bat Masterson; Luke Short; and Ben Thompson. 

Packed with photos, illustrations, and a few diagrams, Schoenberger’s stated premise is veering as far from legend and outright fiction as possible to document these seven gunmen’s lives through verifiable sources.  Specifically, he often relies upon local journalism and government reports written at the time specific events occurred, and even the reminiscences of surviving old-timers. 

Though some larger-than-life incidents and/or floating rumors are alluded to, the author opts for chronological reporting (with frequent citations) on each profile.  When appropriate, Schoenberger expresses bits of plausible speculation to fill in gaps (i.e. his theory for Allison’s raging temper would be undiagnosed manic depression exacerbated by chronic alcoholism).

With help from illustrator Ernest Lisle Reedstrom, Schoenberger strives to make his Gunfighters an impartial contribution to American Old West historical research.       

Note: There are some insensitive racial expressions in the text.

REVIEW:

It’s stunning that Schoenberger’s easy-to-read text dates back more than a half-century, and yet these seven profiles remain virtually indisputable.  Some present-day writers (i.e. Tom Clavin, re: both Hickok and Earp) have reported additional incidents that Schoenberger either missed or omitted, but, unlike many works in this genre, The Gunfighters doesn’t take sides. 

Case in point: the author acknowledges that some of Earp’s contemporary local detractors suspected his covert involvement in Tombstone stage robberies, along with other reported examples of Earp’s alleged criminal dishonesty.  Yet, Schoenberger also spells out Earp’s consistently respectable (though hardly spectacular) track record as a Kansas policeman.  While Earp’s enigmatic life and likely embellished exploits justifiably require the longest profile, the author tries not to overlap too much examining Wyatt’s favorite cronies: Holliday, Masterson, and Short.

Perhaps most intriguing are the Allison and Thompson profiles, as neither quick-tempered rogue has attracted nearly the same caliber of media attention as the other five have.  For instance, Schoenberger’s deductions re: Thompson’s autopsy report provides possible insight as to why his hidden assassins weren’t ever prosecuted, let alone conclusively identified.  Or, for that matter, the author indicates that eye-popping tales of Allison’s psychotic wrath possess some degree of truth, though likely dates and locales have shifted over time. 

Lastly, tidbits about how/when some of these lives intersected (i.e. Allison’s purported Dodge City encounter with Earp & Masterson) make the mythic American Old West seem far more down-to-earth.  If anything, Schoenberger’s obscure gem of a textbook merits re-discovery, as it should prove invaluable to the 21^st Century’s armchair historians.  As this reviewer can further attest, it’s a dynamite reference for middle school and high school research projects.            

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

There’s separate tables of contents for the chapters and black-and-white illustrations (including photos).  Schoenberger also includes: acknowledgements, impressively detailed footnotes for each chapter, an extensive bibliography, and an index.  Perhaps most insightful is a two-page introduction explaining his rationale re: these particular gunmen were selected and why certain other gunmen (i.e. John Wesley Hardin, Bill Longley, and Johnny Ringo) were left out.  Though he doesn’t specifically mention them, Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett were evidently excluded, in part, because they didn’t meet Schoenberger’s criteria re: a lifetime of geographical diversity.  

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                        8½ Stars