Luke Short: A Biography of one of the Old West's Most Colorful Gamblers and Gunfighters [Paperback]

Wayne Short (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

A biography of one of the old West's most colorful gamblers and gunfighters. He counted Bat Masterson and lawman Wyatt Earp as friends, and worked as a top cowby, professional buffalo hide hunter, dispatch rider and civilian army scout, before he began his gambling career.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In 1883, well-connected business interests in Dodge City used political muscle to kick a professional gambler named Luke Short out of town. Suddenly, several of the West's most notorious gunfighters let it be known they were on their way to Dodge-for purely personal reasons, of course. Incidentally, they hoped to see their old friend Luke Short along the way. . .

Short's adversaries had a quick change of heart, and speedily came up with a compromise which put him back in action. A man with friends like these is no saint but is probably pretty colorful-a point which comes across in this book.

Wayne Short, an established author who happens to be Luke's great-nephew, tells the story in a straight forward, uncluttered and occasionally humorous style. He employs anecdotes passed down through his family, often backed up with official records or corroborating accounts when available.

M Luke Short's lethal career began in 1867 at age 13 with the knifing of a schoolyard bully; it ended with his death from natural causes in 1893. Along the way, he worked as a cow hand, bootlegger, hunter, army scout and businessman (his business was gambling).

A nattily dressed figure in his later years, he developed a taste for fancy clothes and great literature, and enjoyed the friendship of a score of professional killers. He also packed a snub-nosed (and apparently frequently used) Colt .45 in a leather-lined trouser pocket.

M Wayne Short himself seems like an interesting character. Now retired, he skippered a commercial fishing boat in Alaska and wrote books in his off-seasons. He packs this one with details about the Great Sioux War of 1876, gambling games and techniques and his ancestor's better-known contemporaries like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson.

While he clearly admires Luke's unregimented attitude, he also doesn't seem to spare him much in the telling of the story. Short's career was a violent one, and the motivation for profit was a centra facet in his life. Even though the author notes that 'To be a Texan between the 1830's and the early 1870's was to be an Indian-hater,' that didn't stop his great-uncle from setting up a still in order to sell firewater to the already turbulent reservations.

The modern Short is also not afraid to challenge historical accounts, or to state that some sources (like court records from an 1881 murder trial) are incomplete. Though not written to be great literature, Luke Short: A Biography is still an unpretentious look at that rarest of Old West figures-one who died in bed." -- Joseph Gibbus CAN. Staff writer 1997

"The name Luke Short is a familiar one to fans of Western fiction of 1930's and '40's. It belonged to a writer named Frederick D. Glidden. His New York literary agent dreamed it up from somewhere and by the tine Glidden became a best seller, it was too late to change. There was, however, a real Luke Short, a successful post-Civil War Fort Worth gambler. That Luke Short is the great-uncle of Wayne Short, a retired Alaskan commercial fisherman and writer, who has written a book about his great-uncle.

Luke Short: A Biography is an immensely readable account, not just of the adventure-packed life of its subject-one that was brief even for its times; he was 39 when he died in 1893-but of the period in which he lived. A friend of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, and a veteran of the Dodge City Saloon War, Luke Short roamed the West working a variety of jobs. He killed a man in Tombstone in 1881. -- Excerpted from Luke Short: A Biography by Wayne Short. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

"Wayne Short is Luke's great-nephew, and here he presents an interesting, well-written account of his great-uncle's life. Family members writing biographies of family members don't always manage to get this done with such precision. Luke Short left his home town at a young age when he cut the school bully open with a borrowed knife, and then stayed gone for the next fifteen years. He got a job on a trail drive, and from the cowboys and trail-end towns learned the gambling trade. He also made money hunting buffalo for pelts and selling liquor to Indians. He was, if Wayne Short's account is accurate, and it seems to be, a most resourceful man, a talented gunfighter, and decent, honest person (taking hides and selling liquor to the Indians probably seemed harmless enough in that day). Wayne Short did come to Luke's defense a time or two, which wasn't really necessary; Luke's reasons for doing what he did can't really be known, only guessed at. Regardless of that, this is a fine book. It reads extremely well, and it keeps interest high throughout." -- Ron Hooper, Books of the Southwest. Critical Quarterly Reviews of Current Southwestern Americana Fall 1997

Wayne Short has worked with family records and recollections as well as published documents to chronicle his colorful relative. In an earlier biography for which Wayne Short supplied data, the author wrote, 'Luke Short's personal tragedy was that in less than 40 years he outlived his times.'" -- J. C. Martin, The Arizona Daily Star 1997

From the Publisher

After years of research and compiling Short family tales, Wayne Short, the great-nephew of Luke Short, tells of the adventurous, and all too brief life, of this western gambler and gunfighter, including some material from his earlier years which was previously unknown.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Devils Thumb Pr (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964498073
• ISBN-13: 978-0964498075
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,460,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luke Short: a biography, September 9, 2001

By 

"wildbill65" (Ballston Spa, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luke Short: A Biography of one of the Old West's Most Colorful Gamblers and Gunfighters (Paperback)

This book is a great read for anyone interested in the life and times of one of the more colorful characters in the western expansion era. I enjoyed and learned of Luke Short and how his life interacted and effected some of the other well known characters of the time. I wish this author knew others of the same era as well, that he might write of them as well. Hated to see this book come to an end.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luke Short: A Biography, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Luke Short: A Biography of one of the Old West's Most Colorful Gamblers and Gunfighters (Paperback)

I loved this book! The author totally draws you in and fills this book with such anecdotes, facts, speculations, and often subtle humor that you cannot put it down. I was eager to read this book and learn more about a less-known famous figure from the Old West, and have also read Short's other books. I heartily reccomend all of them to anyone who enjoys humorous non-fiction as well as nondisputable facts. Short has the cunning wit of an intellectual and the story telling gift of a grandfather.

5.0 out of 5 stars Luke Short; Gambler, Gunfighter, June 12, 2008

By 

Bob Wood "OldWestAntiques.biz" (Hugo, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luke Short: A Biography of one of the Old West's Most Colorful Gamblers and Gunfighters (Paperback)

Wayne Short did his Great Uncle justice in this book while at the same time telling a full and complete story of Luke's life on the Western Frontier and his time as a gambler in the saloon's and mining camps of the Old West.

Luke Short is one of those guys that was overshadowed by the likes of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson but he was their equal in all aspects and their friend. This is a great book and a great story that needs to be told on the Silver Screen.

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