Geronimo's Story of His Life [Paperback]

Geronimo (Author), Stephen Melvil Barrett (Editor), S. M. Barrett (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

This Halcyon Classics ebook is the autobiography of the Chiricahua Apache medicine man and leader Geronimo (Goyaałé). Geronimo (1829-1909) was a war leader who waged numerous campaigns against both Mexico and the United States in Arizona and Northern Mexico. Geronimo had a particular dislike of Mexicans which stemmed in part from an 1858 raid on his camp which killed many of his followers, including his wife, children, and mother.

After decades of fighting, Geronimo was one of the last American Indian leaders to surrender to the United States (1886). He was a prisoner of war, but late in life he became a celebrity, visiting the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and riding in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905. Geronimo died of pneumonia in 1909, an exile from the lands of his birth.

This ebook is DRM free and contains an active table of contents.

This unexpurgated edition contains the complete text, with minor errors and omissions corrected.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Alexander Books (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570900817
• ISBN-13: 978-1570900815
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,093,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Firsthand Account of Apache Life, April 24, 2000

By 

D. McGraw II "amergin" (San Diego, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Geronimo's Story of His Life (Paperback)

No greater story can be told about Geromino than one told by the man himself. Not only do we gain insight to this famous figure in history, but we also get an in-depth account of Apache life and philosophy. There are many books that describe the Apache lifestyle, but it is rare to come across a first person account. Learn about Geronimo's ancestry, how he got his name, and the many wars he waged on the Mexicans. Read about life on the reservation and if the U.S. government upheld their end of the bargain. I definitely recommend this book to any lover of Native American history

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Apache tears from this redoubtable warrior!, October 20, 2002

By 

Mendicant Pigeon "Mendicant Pigeon" (pdx, or United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Geronimo's Story of His Life (Paperback)

I really, really enjoyed reading this book. Although I am not particularly fascinated by our aborginal American brethren, I do feel sorry for their plight at the hands of my ancestors and find myself in awe of those such as Geronimo who attempted to fight back against the inexorable tide of foreign inmigration to Indian lands. As the American Indian did not have a written language (excepting the Cherokee, late in their history) it is nigh on impossible to observe the situation between the White man and the Indian from the Indian's perspective. Thus it is almost like manna from heaven that one prescient being, in the form of S.M. Barrett, prevailed upon Geronimo to recount anything at all about his life story. This book is disappointingly short because Barrett approached Geronimo toward the end of his life, and because the Indian chief deigned to tell his story on his own terms, in his own way, and only once each time that he began to speak. Still, what little information Geronimo was willing to impart is vital and spell-binding and utterly fascinating. Interspersed amongst Geronimo's bits and snippets of incidents in his life and descriptions of Apache cosmography and social structure is background information from the author and editor which help to place the story in the context of the White man's historical account of the Apache wars. Obviously, such a short and unstructured narrative is wholly inadequate to illuminate a great man's life, but it still allows one to begin to form an opinion about a man who has by now become a legendary chapter in the story of the conquest of the American West. An especially nice aspect of this book is the dozen or so photographs of Geronimo and members of his extended family.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cheap (uncopyrighted) Knockoff, February 6, 2011

By 

Stillman (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Geronimo's Story of His Life (Kindle Edition)

I own the Kindle edition of this book, and haven't investigated any other version. There is no copyright information in the book. It contains some nearly useless front matter, and then the Geronimo narrative, lifted (apparently) verbatim from his actual autobiography entitled Geronimo: His Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior, available in several editions (including Kindle) from Amazon. That book contains over 40 more pages, including some excellent introductory material and a brief history of the era about which Geronimo speaks. I highly recommend that you consider purchasing that book, even though it is quite a bit more expensive.

In addition, the Kindle edition of this book is so poorly scanned that it contains page numbers and other garbage embedded throughout the text, including (apparently) captions for pictures that have been deleted. Obviously, little or no editing was done on the manuscript when it was converted to e-book format.

I returned this book and bought the much better title mentioned above. I have never had a bad experience buying from Amazon.