The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok

This book is a great read! Richard Matheson, the author, is an acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer (one of the three main writers for the TV series "The Twilight Zone" as well as author of well reputed sci-fi publications and TV and movie scripts [Remember the episode with the gremlin trying to destroy the wing of an airplane?] Do you know that he was the one who wrote the TV thriller "Duel"?). This is a reimagining of the life of Wild Bill Hickok. It is by turn hilarious (Hickok is depicted as a klutz, as someone who gets stomach aches and throws up before and after armed combat, as, in essence a coward) and lugubrious (there is a somberness to the work). Hickok, apparently, is a fellow Illinoisian like me. The book imagines his father as abusive. The story is configured as "Wild Bill's" memoirs. Note: His given name was James Butler Hickok. It was only later when a woman, caught up in excitement, referred to him as "Wild Bill" that he picked up his nom de guerre. The "memoir" traces his career from teenager (with his father, early on, teaching him to shoot without much discernible success) to stage and wagon driver to Civil War soldier (imagined as a sharp shooter, taking shots at people as--essentially--a sniper), back to hardscrabble work, then to lawman. As a lawman, he comes to the attention of journalists who create a fabricated picture of him. As "Wild Bill," he becomes a hero of the Old West. In reality, he is nothing of the sort. His life is fairly miserable. He is drunk much of the time because he fears facing down "bad guys." He hates the phony record of his life. He cannot find the long-term romance that he rather wants. His stomach churns under pressure (there is a lot of throwing up in this book!). Especially poignant is his meeting with another "famous" gun fighter, where they obviously share a great deal in common. He does find love later in life but does not deal with it well. Then, Deadwood. . . . A bracing novel, couched as a memoir. In turn hilarious and lugubrious. . . . Matheson scores with this novel.