The Old West; The Gunfighters

I have the entire set at this point and simply love the written and pictorial history!

The two previous reviewers have done such an outstanding job of outlining and critiquing this gallery of gunfighters that there really isn't much to add. Suffice it to say that this is a great book which should be of interest to anyone having even the slightest interest in America's early Western frontier and its oft-times violence prone inhabitants. The book, first published in 1974 as part of the Time-Life Series on the Old West, is well researched and well written. It hits most of the high spots and covers virtually all the better known gunfighters and gunfights. The stories are told in depth and with clarity sufficient for the reader, whether knowledgeable or not, to fully appreciate, not only the motives of the various gunmen, but also the times and environments in which they lived and, in many instances, died. And these stories are enhanced by some truly exceptional illustrations and photographs. So, whether you are a veteran Western history aficionado or new to the field, I think you'll find this one to be of interest. It's a great read. Go for it.

This is another in the Time-Life series, "The Old West." The focus of this volume? Gunfighters. One nice thing about the book? It does not romanticize some of the thugs portrayed herein. This is handsomely packaged in leather and features numerous diagrams and photos and drawings. An attractive work. Nice side features--a showing of various firearms, handguns, derringers, and rifles, used by gunfighters (pages 40-51). The book begins, fittingly, with the shootout at the O.K. Corral. The story told here is ambiguous. It is not a portrayal of the good Earps versus the bad Clantons and McLaurys. The ambiguity is fitting, given that there were few saints shooting it out that day. The next chapter focuses on the James Gang. Once more, refreshingly, Jesse James is not depicted as Robin Hood. Other characters appearing in this chapter--Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Then, we see a discussion of lawmen (some of whom were little better than desperate gunfighters). Among those discussed--Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson. And judges, such as Robert Williamson, "Hanging Judge" Isaac Charles Parker, and Roy Bean. Of course, we have to have a chapter featuring the toughest and nastiest of the nasty: Bill Langley, Clay Allison (who called himself a "shootist"), Billy the Kid, and John Wesley Hardin (who once shot a man to death for waking him from his sleep by snoring). And so on. . . . A nice book. Not a lot of detail on any of the characters, but the tradeoff is broader exposure to the cast of characters here. And I buy into that sacrifice of depth for breadth. The book is also hard eyed as it looks at the gunfighters, rather than romanticizing them.

If one has any love for the old west this is a real treasure. To begin with the outside looks like finest hand tooled leather. The inside cover pages look like old parchment. It contains such things as photo copies of reward posters, old badges, wonderful oil painting copies, actual historical pictures of the outlaws and lawmen, diagrams of gun battles, and beautiful detailed pictures of their guns. The most important part of course is the way it was written. It is obviously written by people who have a love of documented facts, a love for the old west, and know how to tell the tale. This book was published to be a collector's item. It is a beautifully bound, well documented accountof everything you might want to know about the gunfighters of the old west.