They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok

Having seen enough movies and tv shows featuring Hickok as character, I wanted to know the story behind the legend. This book does it. The author is an authority on Hickok and has written extensively about him. The book is clearly well-researched and heavily annotated. All that to the side, it is an entertaining read. Hickok would have done as well today as he did back then. There was truth to his reputation. He was tough, brave, charming, funny and a peerless gunman. At the same time, he knew how to exploit his reputation and did so. That's what makes him so interesting today. Here is a person who knew the value of self-promotion and celebrity a century and a half ago before they became the science they are today.

Make no mistake, this is the most meticulously researched and likely the definitive biograhy of that great American archetype, William Butler Hickok, known to history as "Wild Bill." Mr. Rosa spent decades researching this book and his thoroughness and dedication show on every page. The real "Wild Bill's" life is full of holes, obscured by myth and legend, and to Mr. Rosa's eternal credit, he has done as much as anyone could to sift through that to close the gaps and bring to life a sharp picture of the real man. Also brought to life by Mr. Rosa is a cast of original characters, friendsand enemies alike, who crossed Wild Bill's path. Yet there is a cost to the reader: You too will sift through numerous lengthy documents, reminiscences, newspaper reports, and letters printed in type difficult to distinguish from the author's own text (editor's fault). These verbatim transcripts often seem interminable and are difficult to wade through at times. Much of that stuff could've been slipped into appendices or end notes. This is not a book for casual or easy reading but an absolute must for anyone interested in the real history of the American West.

Joseph Rosa is THE authority on James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok. The first edition of this biography appeared in 1964, and here it's been updated with much new material, including never-before-published photographs. Rosa, an Englishman, published a new biography of Hickok in 1996, which I haven't seen, but THEY CALLED HIM WILD BILL is certainly a thorough, and perhaps definitive, biography of this larger-than-life gunfighter. Hickok came to Kansas from Illinois as an 18 year old and got a job driving wagons on the Santa Fe Trail. Mauled by a bear, he was assigned to the Rock Creek Stage Station where the Hickok legend began: he got into a fight with David McCanles (possibly over a woman), shooting him and two other men. When the Ned Buntlines began writing about him, this incident took on legendary proportions, with Hickok shooting dozens of men in some cases. His prowess with a gun was excellent (he was ambidextrous and could shoot a pistol accurately with both hands, though he was dead-on precise with his right hand), and certainly better than his card playing. He fought in the Civil War in Missouri as a scout and had a showdown on a street in Springfield that added to his gunslinger reputation. His fame spreading, he joined a circus for awhile in Texas in which he showed off his marksmanship. In 1871 he became marshal at Abilene, and although he was there for less than a year, he received widespread praise in the newspapers for the way he performed his duties. Always the rover, he spent the next few years in Colorado, Kansas City, and New York, the last as a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which he didn't care for. Back west again, he visited Cheyenne and Denver, and then went to Deadwood in the Black Hills, where he was shot to death in a saloon, August 2, 1876. Although Calamity Jane figures largely in the Hickok legend, despite her own claims, it is doubtful the two were ever married. Rosa's book is especially important because of the inclusion of lengthy accounts about Hickcok that appeared in newspapers of the day and early sensationalized biographies. Almost 100 different newspapers are cited by Rosa and virtually every page in the book contains long passages from one or another of them as he reconstructs Hickok's life. Separating fact from legend is Rosa's primary concern, and this he does well. Where doubt remains, he says so. And Rosa writes with style and authority. This is an excellent biography of Wild Bill, and one of the best biographies of any Western legend in the literature.

This book is very well researched. It paints Wild Bill as the common man. It separates the truth from the fiction. I would highly recommend it.

The first edition of this book changed my life. Back in the sixties I was a teenage Wild West nerd, reading all I could about Western gunfighters. But I was frutstrated. No serious historian was writing about them so I had to settle for highly fictionalized versions. Then Joseph Rosa came along with this wonderful book and established the standard for what a well researched bio of a western gunfighter should be. It taught me the value of looking for the truth even if it's not as pleasent as I would like it to be. There's been few gunfighter bios since that can come close to this one for quaility characterization. The Hickock he creates is flesh and blood and very sympathetic as well as truly flawed. The second edition is even better. This book is a treasure. Thank you, Mr. Rosa.