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Title: Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends by Allen Barra ISBN: 0-7867-0685-6 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (43 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: one can jump in anyplace in this book and enjoy it.
Comment: I read Stuart Lake's Frontier Marshal while spending a summer on relatives farm. The farmyard made a perfect Tombstone. It is one of my favorite memories of growing up and Wyatt Earp became the first real hero I had. Later, in college, writing a biographical paper, I ran into the debunker books of Frank Waters and others. It was discouraging so books such as Allen Barra's that take a more fair-minded approach to Wyatt Earp have been welcomed on my bookshelf. This is an excellent and fun read. There is no doubt that Barra is under the same Earp spell as I am, so I don't regard this book as definitive. It is as close as we will ever see and I have no complaint that it leans toward the heroic Wyatt Earp. As others have mentioned the editing of this book is atrocious. Oh, one more thing, Mr. Barra mentions several works of fiction based on the Earps, but left out one of the best I've read. I highly recommend "The Bloody Season", by Loren D. Estleman.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wyatt Earp; Fable of a Lawman
Comment: Allen Barra's book is a welcome extension to Casey Tefertiller's biography of Wyatt Earp. To fully understand why Earp has gripped both American movie makers and the public for the past 70 years, both books must be read.
The major strength of the book is the new perspective on the growth of Earp's legend; why writers, directors and producers chose to alter the truth of Earp's life for the various limp story lines developed during the 1940s and 50s, which most people began to accept as fact for the next thirty years.
Readers with a passing interest in Earp will enjoy Barra's detailed chapters about the impact of the Earp legend on American culture and the background information about the two new movies about Earp; "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp", which still show up regularly on television and video stores.
Another important part of the book is the investigation of Glenn Boyer and Frank Waters; two writers, who have written many books condemning Earp as the villan in the clash between the Earps and the Cowboys in Tombstone.
Several simple facts support the contention that the Earp Brothers were on the right side. When the Earps met the Clantons in the famous gunbattle; they confronted the Cowboys face to face in the light of day.
They did not plan a night ambush as the Cowboys did when they wounded Virgil Earp and killed Morgan Earp or when Stillwell met the train to California at night hoping to murder Wyatt without being seen.
Wyatt Earp lived the rest of his life refusing to discuss his Dodge or Tombstone accomplishments. Also, he did not continue to ring up felony warrants and end up shot to death by a detective; Ike Clanton did.
Boyer and Waters criticize Earp for the vendetta against the Cowboys after Tucson(the train attack) but the vendetta ride clearly shows the character of Wyatt Earp.
Until Morgan was killed, Wyatt Earp had refained from an all out attack on his enemies who were constantly planning to kill him. He realized several things: the legal system was not going to avenge his brother's death; the right thing to do was to bring the full weight of justice upon the gang; He had the deadly ability to track down the cowboys and kill them.
This is why Wyatt Earp appeals to the American public; both yesterday and today. He did what need ed to be done. He compares with other American icons: George Patton, Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson to name a few. All of whom did the right thing and were severely criticized by the more passive persons of their time.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent journalism -- poor copyediting
Comment: I would bet this book's copyeditor goofed and submitted an early draft for publishing instead of the final version. The dozens of grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, and omitted words make for choppy reading. Even so, Barra's extensive coverage and analysis of previous Earpiana provides an excellent insight into the twists and turns the legend has taken over the years. Granted, Barra favors Wyatt's side in most controversies, but this bias seems to provide a fair counterbalance to the torrent of anti-Earp revisionist journalism (some of which can be seen in other reader reviews herein).
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Title: Wyatt Earp : The Life Behind the Legend by Casey Tefertiller ISBN: 0471283622 Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: 25 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp by Glenn G. Boyer ISBN: 0816505837 Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr Pub. Date: 01 June, 1976 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title:Wyatt Earp (Two-Disc Special Edition) ASIN: B0001US8EO Publisher: Warner Home Video Pub. Date: 18 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $20.24 |
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Title: Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait by Karen Holliday Tanner, Robert K. Dearment ISBN: 0806133201 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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