East of the Border (Leisure Western) [Mass Market Paperback]

Johnny D. Boggs (Author)

Book Description

Series: Leisure Western | Publication Date: July 2006

Their names had become legendary: Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, Texas Jack Omohundro. None of them had any stage experience, but that didn't stop Cody from forming the Buffalo Bill Combination. All three would be appearing live on stage in a Wild West stage melodrama. Each of these three has his own story to tell of that exciting time, as they toured various cities in the East, and each tells his story in his own very distinctive narrative voice. Reviewers and audiences loved the performances, as is amply evident from reviews of the period, but Boggs takes you behind the scenes, privy to the hilarity but also occasionally the pathos of these legendary plainsmen as revealed in their own words.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'East of the Border' is a fun, lighthearted look at the thespian deep within every cowboy. -- Jennifer Oldridge, True West Magazine, May 2005

Boggs takes the historical facts ... and gives us a fascinating tale of West meets East. -- George Glenn, The Shootist, January-February 2005

East of the Border is a Western story of the finest order. -- Candy Moulton, American Cowboy Magazine

This book is a fantastic read and entertaining for western fans and non-western fans alike. -- Kansas City Jack, Cowboy Chronicle, August 2005

This is an amusing glimpse at a decidedly different side of some of the Old West's most famous names. -- Sybil Downing, The Denver Post, March 13, 2005

About the Author

Johnny D. Boggs is a two-time winner of the Spur Award from Western Writers of America, most recently in 2006 for his novel CAMP FORD, and has also won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (for his novel SPARK ON THE PRAIRIE). He lives in New Mexico and is considered one of the top writers of frontier historical fiction today.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 259 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (July 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843957298
• ISBN-13: 978-0843957297
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,063,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine picaresque historical novel, March 12, 2008

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: East of the Border (Leisure Western) (Mass Market Paperback)

I quarrel slightly with the tag "Western"that has been applied to this book .Not only does it limit its potential readership but is only partly accurate .Yes ,it does feature legendary names from the Old West focusing as it does on Buffalo Bill ,Wild Bill Hickok and the lesser luminary Texas Jack Omahundro but it looks at them away from their natural habitat of the West and instead places them in the East on a stage tour in which they play themselves in the rankest of melodramas and a deal of pleasure is afforded by quotations from the reviews of the performances taken from newspapaers of the time .
They take it in turns to narrate the events of the tour .Texas Jack -the only one to be even modestly competent as an actor-is a calm ,level headed narrator ,a family man happily wed to Guiseppina ,a performer in the plays .Wild Bill is volatile and prone to drunken excess and unpredictable behaviour ,imbued with a sense of self disgust and fear that his way of life may be under threat ,shortly to vanish for good. Bill Cody is in no doubt that while a Westerner his future lies in the East and indeed outside the USA as a performer destined to earn his income recreating the past
The recital of performances and logistical nightmares (finding extras to be slaughtered nightly etc) and the battles with theatre managers does tend towards a slightly repetitious feel but this a minor caveat.The book is warm hearted and funny as well as making serious points about the way the Eest is being transformed into myth just as it passes from memory as an actual entity.

This is an enjoyable book and deserves a wide readership