Customer Reviews

Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and the Legends

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Many books have been written about Belle Starr, and Glenn Shirley's is the only one that reveals the known facts and leaves the rest to folklore. Living in Fort Smith, part of Belle's old stomping grounds, I've met many people who to this day still proclaim to know who Pearl Starr's father was, and at last who killed Belle Starr. Unless the bodies of Cole and Belle and Pearl and Jim Reed are dug up for DNA testing, the "truth" will never be known. And as for Belle's death, it will always remain one of the great mysteries of the Old West. Glenn Shirley does the best of any author in comparing fact and hearsay about this great legendary figure, and if anyone wants to read the best book on Belle Starr, this one is it. Steven Law, ReadWest.com.

I have read two books by Glenn Shirley and found them to be as accurate as can possibly be determined by known public and private records. I verified some of the material that he used in this book on a recent research trip to the Ft. Smith Historical Park research library. It was all very accurate. Since one of my ancestors is described in this book, a deputy marshal and posse (Tyner Hughes and Charley Barnhill) who brought her in, I have family stories to back up the representation he made on this arrest. These stories were given to my family by two nephews of Charley Barnhill, and agree with Shirley's account. Other deputies who rode with them have substantiated the information in the Indian Pioneer Papers also. A great read.

As dull as a freshman thesis. The coincidence of the author's name being the same as Belle's maiden name (Shirley) might tend to establish him as an authority. However, no actual familial connection is established. The book seems to proclaim itself the final authority on Belle's life and claims to separate fact from fiction though there seems to be little proof that the book is any more factual than any other. The book's boring narrative turns one of America's most colorful female characters into nothing more than a one-dimensional criminal with no regard for the other aspects of her personality. By belittling other more interesting texts, it ignores the conflicts that were bound to have existed in a well educated Confederate woman who can only defend her family from the Union soldiers who have killed her brothers and destroyed her home in the only way a woman can fight -- with her feminine wiles. She probably fought in the only way the disorganized Confederates in Missouri could fight, by robbing and pilaging Union strongholds. Belle must surely have been confused by the depravity of war and its must surely have conflicted with her refined upbringing. She attended a fine finishing school and was an accomplished musician and singer as well as an expert equestrian. She used her education to defend the downtrodden American Indian in court and defended the Confederacy to the end of her life. She married men only to see them die in violent conflict. She provided for her children and according to the descendants of those who knew her in Southeastern Oklahoma, to the end she was a lady. By depicting her as nothing more than a one dimensional depraved specimen of criminality suitable only for academic study, the author has done exactly what the he criticizes other biographers of doing. He has mingled his own interpretations (fiction) with fact and used the facts to benefit only himself. Perhaps that's the tragedy of her life -- No one will ever know the facts and everyone will change them to their own advantage.