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Five Star First Edition Westerns - Tombstone Travesty: Allie Earp Remembers

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Jane Coleman's portraits of the Earps abd the Earp women are little short of amazing as are her portrayals of Western women in her other books. In TOMBSTONE TRAVESTY, Allie Earp, brother Virgil Earp's wife finally has 'her' say, and it's about time. This is historical fiction, but it is close to autobiography.

Using Allie's 'bonafide' memoir, given to Earp family friend Glenn Boyer by LaVonne Griffin, Allie's grand niece to whom she dictated it, Coleman and Allie tell it like it was, not as Frank Waters fabricated it for his own dark purposes in THE EARP BROTHERS OF TOMBSTONE. When Waters read Allie his proposed manuscript for that book, and one wonders why he did, she threatened to kill him if he ever published. He didn't let a smidgeon of it out until she was at death's door. He knew that even in her nineties, Allie was capable of loading him with buckshot.

Coleman brings Allie to life here as she has so many frontier women, such as Doc Holliday's mistress, Big Nose Kate, in DOC HOLLIDAY'S WOMAN, and the unique stagcoach holdup woman, Pearl Hart, in I, PEARL HART, and Augusta Tabor, wife of silver king H.A.W. Tabor, in MATCHLESS.

A remarkable journey into the past, brought to you with such realism you are there.

So much has been written about the Earps and especially their Tombstone years, that it is hard to imagine that much more can be said, but this book does indeed give us a different perspective about the people and the time that have come down to us from legend and from Hollywood.

Aunt Allie was a real survivor and a tough little woman. Even though she was tiny in stature, she was large in her uniqueness. Her character and especially her love and loyalty to her husband Virgil Earp, are in themselves the central theme of the story. Jane Coleman has given us yet another narrative that not only makes for enjoyable reading but is also sprinkled with nuggets of gold of information that has previously not been published elsewhere. Every Earp buff and student of the period should have this gem in his or her library.

Once again, the record has been set straight by the story of this remarkable woman and by the talent and skill of the author in giving us a historical novel to enjoy.

Jane Candia Coleman has managed to carve a literary niche for herself that seems to be hers alone: the retelling and recasting of southwestern history as seen through the eyes of the women who lived it, not the men. In this case, she breathes new life into the story of the feud in Tombstone, AZ involving the Earps and the Clantons in the 1880's. She focuses on the life of Allie Earp, wife of Virgil Earp, Wyatt's brother. With so much written and filmed about this feud from the male point of view, it's damn well time we experienced this genuinely dramatic story from the woman's perspective. Coleman informs us in an afterword that she had access to Allie Earp's memoirs, which are brought to life with the sharp eye and command of craft of a supremely skilled novelist. Coleman evokes these people and their world with a crisp, vivid style that kept me engaged throughout. But don't get the idea that this is a traditional shoot 'em up western. The author is up to far more than that. This is no less than a vivid depiction of a woman's life on the western frontier from her youth to her later years. It's a breath of fresh air that took my breath away! Highly recommended.

Jane Candia Coleman, in her heavily researched Tombstone Travesty: The Memoirs of Allie Earp, has finally set the record straight about this side of the Earp family. Like her stunning Doc Holliday's Woman, Coleman had access to numerous records direct from family sources. For many years the media had canonized the Earp family, particularly Wyatt Earp. Then along came a writer who, having access to the still living Allie Earp, set out to debunk the family, making himself the "revisionist historian" who could "tell it all." Worthy of note is that he did not publish it until after her death, when no family member could come to her defense. Now, Coleman has risen to that defense in this highly readable and enjoyable work. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the Earp family, the western experience and its tough and resourceful frontier women.

Jane Candia Coleman has once again put forth an amazing work of literature! As with all of her previous novels (Desperate Acts, Doc Holliday's Woman, Doc Holliday's Gone, etc...) she paints as powerful a picture as any author around. Her story based on Allie Earp's REAL memoirs is without a doubt a breath of fresh air that has been needed for a long time. Now everyone should be able to completely forget the real "Tombstone Travesty" which was Frank Waters' original work supposedly on this same topic!

Congratulations, Jane!

It was so nice to read about the events from someone who was really there. I have a whole new take on several of the people involved. What a feisty lady Allie must have been. I love her.

Jane Candia Coleman, in her heavily researched Tombstone Travesty: The Memoirs of Allie Earp, has finally set the record straight about this side of the Earp family. Like her stunning Doc Holliday's Woman, Coleman had access to numerous records direct from family sources. For many years the media had canonized the Earp family, particularly Wyatt Earp. Then along came a writer who, having access to the still living Allie Earp, set out to debunk the family, making himself the "revisionist historian" who could "tell it all." Worthy of note is that he did not publish it until after her death, when no family member could come to her defense. Now, Coleman has risen to that defense in this highly readable and enjoyable work. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the Earp family, the western experience and its tough and resourceful frontier women.

This is a truly enjoyable book. Filled with colorful characters and backed by authentic western history, it tells the story of Allie Earp, her new-found "sisters," and her husband, Virgil, as seen through her eyes and as heard in the privacy of her own home. But it does much more than that. It also tells much of the story of Allie's illustrious in-laws: Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren Earp and, along the way, something about Doc Holliday and his relationship to Wyatt; "Big Nose" Kate, Holliday's long time lover and perhaps common-law wife; Wyatt's some time lover and long time companion, Mattie Earp; and a little bit about Bat Masterson. And, in the end, it sheds some new and much needed light on the events leading up to and following the "Gunfight at the OK Corral."

The remarkable thing is that Jane Coleman, clearly a gifted writer, has taken some otherwise dry and dusty historical information and woven it into a true-life drama in such a way that her readers can actually sense and feel what it was like to be a woman living in those hard times, living with and loving their men as they struggled to make their way in the world and ofttimes help in taming the wild west. For the reader, it's almost like being the proverbial fly on the wall who sees and hears everything as the story winds its tenuous way to its dramatic conclusion - heartwarming, humorous, disheartening, and tragic - it's all there..

So: If you've ever wondered what went on behind the scenes in the old west, you'll really like this one. Among other things, you'll discover what Wyatt Earp was really like; how Virgil Earp became Deputy Marshall of Tombstone, rather than Wyatt; why Wyatt always seemed to be on the periphery of law enforcement, but at the same time was the most feared and formidable adversary and respected lawman; why Wyatt left his some time lover and long time companion, Mattie Earp, after so many years together; what events really led up to the Earps' travails in Tombstone which culminated in the gunfight near the OK Corral; what the true relationship was between the Earps and Wells Fargo; how the Earp brothers and their families clung together following the gunfight, Virgil's assassination attempt, and Morgan's murder; what really happened at the railway station in Tucson when Virgil and Allie were accompanying the murdered Morgan's body back to California; and what became of all the cast of characters later in life.

After reading this book, I have concluded that the only thing that might be better than reading it would have been to actually read Allie Earp's memoir itself, the memoir which provided the source material upon which the book is based. Hopefully, some day that memoir will be published verbatim in its entirety. As a fan of Western lore, I'd love to see it. But, still, I'm sure that Allie Earp would be proud to claim this book as her own.

Jane Candia Coleman is one of our most gifted contemporary writers as demonstrated by her latest novel, "Tombstone Travesty." She has an unusual talent which makes you feel the emotions of her characters and envision the environment in which the story takes place.

She also has the uncanny ability to combine her novel writing talents with historical accuracy in such a way that anyone interested in the Old West will enjoy the story immensely while picking up some additional historical points about the Earp families not mentioned by others.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to experience the talents of this outstanding author. I assure you that it will be difficult to put this book down until you have finished reading it.

This was a great book. Great story. Well written. New information and insite of Allie's life. We should have more books like this rather than a rehash of the same ole information about the sale ole subject.