Charlie Siringo's West: An Interpretive Biography

During his lifetime, Charles Siringo wrote six or seven books about his life experiences. The beauty of Howard R. Lamar's book is the way he encapsulates Siringo's books, and manages to put these stories in chronological order and in historical perspective. I have read most of Siringo's original writings, and found that Siringo presents his stories in a somewhat scattered way. I do have a better understanding of his life after reading this book. Lamar also did a great deal of research on the Matagorda Bay area of Texas, where Charles spent his formative years. This study is of great interest to Siringo affection ado's like myself. There is also a chapter full of great insight at the end of the book, which deals masterfully with Siringo's societal success during the later years of his life in Hollywood, CA. The author has a habit of repeating his own material word for word, sometimes 8 or 10 pages later, which I did not find appealing, along with misspellings sprinkled throughout the book. And in the chapter about Siringo's four year pursuit of Kid Curry and the Wild Bunch, I found it troubling that the author used so few sources in his research. In this important chapter, there were very few sources other than Siringo's own words, and the research of Richard Patterson. Yes, Patterson's book is very scholarly, but what about the findings of Charles Kelley, Jim Dullenty, and Dan Buck, to name a few? The notes to these pages seem to be a long list of Patterson, then Ibid, Ibid, Ibid... Lamar also attaches too much significance to the 1969 movie, and to actors Paul Newman and Robert Redford for my taste. Lamar's overall knowledge of the Wild West is suspect in other ways; Wild Bill Hickok was never the town marshal of Dodge City. Overall, however, the book puts Charles Siringo's life in proper perspective, and helps to clarify his lifetime of achievements during America's fascinating cowboy era. It shows us that Charles Siringo was more than just a capable trail riding cowboy, but an ambitious overachiever with a keen memory who instinctively knew that his key to immortality was his ability to put his experiences in writing, and convince people to buy his books.

"Charlie Siringo's West: An Interpretive Biography" by Howard R. Lamar weaves an intriguing tale of how one small boy from Matagorda grew up to become the epitome of the American cowboy. It is Lamar's hope "that the results [of this book] will contribute to a fuller understanding of both Charles Siringo and the American West of his day that stretched from south Texas in 1855 to Hollywood in the 1920s." Charles Angelo Siringo was born February 7, 1855 on Matagorda Peninsula at Dutch Settlement. His was an extraordinary life-cowboy, detective, author and Western consultant to Hollywood. It is Charlie who has been credited with writing the first cowboy autobiography. He detailed his adventurous life in several books; most notably "A Texas Cowboy, or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony." In his writings he tells of growing up on the Peninsula; his life as a cowboy; his brushes with infamous outlaws, such as Billy the Kid; and his years as a Pinkerton detective. In "Charlie Siringo's West," Lamar delves deeply into Charlie Siringo's childhood on Matagorda Peninsula. The first two chapters give a wonderful description of what life was like on the Peninsula in the late 1850s and throughout the Civil War and tells of Charlie's brushes with the dreaded Yankees. It mentions many Matagorda County notables-Wiley Martin Kuykendall, Samuel Maverick, Dr. E. A. Peareson, Abel Head "Shanghai" Pierce, William Selkirk, Elias R. Wightman, John Aaron Williams, Horace Yeamans, and John Zipprian-just to name a few. Always the cowboy, it describes how his first "horse" was a stick pony and his favorite pastime was chasing and lassoing beach crabs with fishing line. Lamar does an excellent job of bringing Charlie Siringo to life. From his birth and childhood on the peninsula to his cowboy days to his Pinkerton years to his Hollywood years as a consultant, Lamar catches the essence of this quintessential Texas cowboy.