Customer Reviews

Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend

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Calamity Jane is a major figure in Western history so it's not surprising numerous titles have been written about her previously: what is surprising is that Calamity Jane: The Woman And The Legend has so much new material to reveal. Here's the definitive biography of one Martha Canary, written by one of the best modern authorities and packed with meticulous research. McLaird had to study conflicting accounts of her life and adventures to arrive at the truth: Calamity Jane comes packed with depth and detail on known facts and you won't find a better coverage elsewhere.

This well researched and documented biography of Mary Canary a.k.a. Calamity Jane (1856-1903) lifts the veil behind a Western myth. The real Calamity Jane really did have a calamitous life. She spent most of her life in the roughest spots - as a military camp follower, in rough and tumble mining towns, and in the ever raucous and short lived railroad junction towns springing up as the tracks were laid across the country. She made her living as a dance hall girl, prostitute, laundress, cook, Madame, and similar pursuits. She was a life long alcoholic and was clearly dissipated at an early age. Later in life, some ways, she lived off the kindness of others or cashed in on her unearned fame as a frontier hero.

McLaird does a good job of uncovering the real Calamity Jane and explaining how her myth was built up through Western dime novels and newspaper reporters, thirsty for good stories. For example, stories about Calamity the camp follower turned into her being a scout for the army. As her legend grew, the stories became even more farcical. Later in life Calamity cashed in on these stories to garner sympathy and support from others. But ultimately she died young, most likely simply from alcoholism.

The downfall to this biography is twofold. First, the author could have cited other writers that discuss the process of Western myth building and incorporated that into his thesis. Secondly, the prose is very matter of fact and rather bland. I found the topic fascinating but the writing style a bit boring, so at times the biography gets a little tedious and academic.

Nevertheless, it does offer another solid academic work on Western myth building, with Calamity Jane maybe the biggest farce of them all.

Review by Dorman Nelson May 15, 2005

CALAMITY JANE by James D. McLaird

Calamity Jane far outstrips her contemporaries with 213,000 Internet hits; comparing Wild Bill Hickok at 23,400, Liver-Eating Johnson at 4,980 and Colorado Charlie Utter at 29,600. Just so, you will say, after reading James D. McLaird's CALAMITY JANE published by University of Oklahoma Press [...].

James D. McLaird is Professor Emeritus of History, Dakota Wesleyan University, and Mitchell, South Dakota. The award-winning author of numerous historical articles has brought forth the real gal of the west. He notes alcohol, general living and mundane survival to be her mainstay and "she arrested no outlaws, robbed no banks, and killed no Indians", yet, her legend and fame grows with time. He has identified that truths are unpopular and exaggeration of those truths are what folks truly needed. Thus making an expanding icon for generations.

Meticulously researched over 20 years, leads followed, individuals identified and Jane's surroundings, facts and fictions, discussed; this 355 page work with maps will keep you wanting more information--and it's there in the source notes! The photographs speak, no, shout, of the wear of the years on Calamity as they are presented throughout the book.

You'll find Martha Canary (1856-1903) was everything a woman was and is and more. Continually moving, working, drinking and carousing--the trail dust she stirred up from town to town, individual to individual--varied with mother nature, disease, killings, gold rushes, Indian scares, and the building of the railroads. Legends sprang up from those who knew her or of her. Newspapers, dime novels and stories watered the tales that became a forest of Calamity events. Bullwhacker, driver, nurse, companion, buddy, laundress, prostitute, scout, bartender, cook or what ever you want to call her, her life was wrought with excitement, adventure and danger. Good or bad, in the best of times and the worst of times, truly a Calamity Jane.


Addendum: This is a great historical read with excellent notes, maps, photographs and research leads. I am going to say all roads lead to Calamity.....this reader certainly enjoyed the travel in time.
[...]

At the perfect juncture of time and place, Calamity Jane--a prostitute, a raging alcoholic, a mother and self-promoter--became one of the most famous women in America. What propelled her into history? For all history and media buffs, this book provides definitive answers on Martha Canary, aka Calamity Jane. A meticulous, objective researcher, James Mclaird not only has given the reader in depth historical evidence on every aspect of Calamity Jane's short life, but also has laid out the astonishing effects of media building a persona. Calamity Jane is a reasoned, fascinating study of both personality and a legend that continues to build.

Though it's not mentioned in this biography, it's worth noting that cowboy artist C.M. Russell, who was more or less Calamity's contemporary, and who shared at least one mutual friend, cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, never painted nor even mentioned Calamity in any of his artwork, stories, or recollections. It was Russell who wrote, "The worst old timer I every knew, looks dam good to me." James McLaird's painstaking new book suggests that perhaps Russell didn't find Calamity scandalous but dull.

Martha Jane Canary / Calamity Jane was, in her childhood and adolescent years, an example of resourcefulness and grit. She survived a broken home, neglect, and abandonment. That she survived at all, much less as a camp follower who chanced to visit some famous camps, would be enough to earn her a footnote in history books. Had she never returned to Deadwood after her first visit, she'd probably have some polite mention in the town's history. When she came back a second time, she was an item of nostalgia; but when she returned a third time, she was a nuisance and embarrassment.

James McLaird has done nothing less than a phenomenal job, and possibly a thankless one. He sifted and sorted through every book, article, memoir, and dime novel that might make mention of Calamity in order to establish just who she was and how much of her legend had any basis in fact. And the truth is neither flattering nor thrilling. If Calamity has anything to be memorialized for, apart from occasional nursing duties, it would be her travels. When not following the U.S. Cavalry into the Black Hills, she followed the railroad as it pushed its way across the West. She hobnobbed with Wild Bill Hickock, but probably never shared a bed with him. She was nowhere near General Custer and the 7th Cavalry when they encountered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. She tended bars, drove wagons, whored, drank, and fought till she was asked to leave town, and might have continued to do so comfortably if she hadn't become a celebrity. Behind her dime novelesque façade, she was a bitter alcoholic, aging prematurely and sinking toward an early death in her late 40s.

McLaird paints as sympathetic a portrait as he can. Calamity fell victim both to herself and the legend she engendered. Some years after her death, she was exploited again by Jean McCormick, a con artist who fabricated an elaborate and clumsy hoax to "prove" she was the daughter of Calamity and Wild Bill Hickock. McLaird commendably restrains his sarcasm and lets irony speak for itself. The McCormick ruse not only found believers in the 1940s, but continues to have adherents in these days of "Deadwood."

In the past 20 years I've read a lot of information on Calamity Jane, and James Mclaird's book is the most reliable, well-researched book on the subject of this woman. Most of the information floating around about her is false, and Mclaird painstakingly dissects myth from fact, including how each myth or rumor was started in the first place. Since reading Calamity Jane:The Woman And The Legend, I feel like a pseudo-expert on her myself, and can easily spot misinformation and poor research whenever I see it in other publications. I highly recommend this read for Old West enthusiasts, students who are looking for a topic, and anyone interested in what a genuinely thorough biography is supposed to be. If you're considering another source on her life other than this one, don't bother because it's probably a jumble of misinformation. This book is the only way to go.

I did not pick up this book because I was particularly interested in Calamity Jane. No, I was going to attend a presentation the author, James D. Mclaird, was giving to the National Outlaw-Lawmen Association meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota. I wanted to know what he would talk about. (His presentation was excellent, by the way.)
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially the discussion of Calamity Jane's legend. And, not long afterward, I spotted an autobiographical pamphlet of Jane's on a table at a bookseller's. I grabbed it immediately. Fifteen bucks ... and autographed in the BACK, not the front. Ha ha! I'd like to have met Jane. I was pleased to meet James D. Mclaird, and I'm glad to have read this book! Highly recommended.

I think it is well written. The author challenges popular myths and stories. He uses evidence to support his claims and when there is no evidence he states so. I would recommended this book. I have already recommended that my mother read it.

McLaird gets high points from me for such thorough and painstaking research - he really gets down to separating fact from legend and it's enlightening. However, I would have liked to have seen more of what she actually did and less of what she didn't. All in all, a worthwhile read for fans of Martha Canary/Calamity Jane and those with an interest in old west history.

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