Customer Reviews

Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Chances are you never heard of the great nineteenth century freight-hauling firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. You never heard the official name of the firm's most famous effort, the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. You have certainly heard of the popular name of the endeavor: the Pony Express. You know the Pony Express, because from its beginning, it was the stuff of legend, and the legend has never stopped growing. That is the main point of _Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express_ (Broadway Books) by Christopher Corbett. Corbett has given as good a history as can be written about the Pony Express because he has shown what difficulties there are in digging up such history. "We know that much to be true" becomes a frequent refrain in his work to emphasize how little we really know of the truth. It isn't important. The legends about the Pony Express may not be literally true, but they are real and they mean something, and Corbett's book is about them as much as it is about plain facts.

Take the title of the book, for a start. An ad that supposedly ran in newspapers all through California in 1860 sought "Young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred." The ad has been reproduced many times as part of the Pony Express's history, in such journals as _The New York Times_, but there is no documentation of any original. Such a title for the book is thus perfectly emblematic of its contents, and also ensures that the undocumented quotation will continue to be attached to the Pony Express. Such are the risks of writing fact about legend. Russell, Majors, & Waddell instituted the Pony Express in 1860 as a commercial gamble that mail could get in days from the western edge of civilization (St. Joseph, Missouri) to the western edge of the country (Sacramento, California), almost two thousand miles. The most surprising thing about _Orphans Preferred_ is that almost exactly halfway through the book, the Pony Express is disbanded. This reflects its short life; it ran for only eighteen months, overtaken by the first transcontinental telegraph. So much legend was based on such an ephemeral institution that the second half of the book examines the making and continuance of the legend. One name looms largest: Buffalo Bill Cody, who had a Pony Express performance at every show.

Buffalo Bill's representation may well have been heroic, but it must have been realistic, too. That is much more than can be said for the Pony Express in novels, and especially in movies. Corbett lists various movies through which the Pony Express rides, and could never have actually ridden due to its northern route or restricted months of operation. _The Pony Express_, made in 1953 and staring Charlton Heston, is "the best bad movie" about the service, and is "a spectacular fraud," containing "virtually no facts in its entire 101 minutes." But it is wrong to let facts get in the way of a legend; Buffalo Bill never did, and because of him, everyone still knows about the Pony Express. Corbett's entertaining book is certainly not a debunking of the myths as much as an appreciation of them.

Virtually everyone has heard of the Pony Express, the thundering horses, and the spirited young men who rode risking life and limb. All have seen a multiplicity of images, the stereotypic Pony Express horse and rider, that grace a variety of corporate stationery, restaurant menus and billboards. But who really knows the truth of the history of this singularly American venture?

Living in Pony Express country and having done my share of reading and having visited various Express-related sites I thought I was fairly well versed. But after reading "Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express" by Christopher Corbett I have to admit that my supposed knowledge was more a collection of the myth surrounding this short-lived, though spectacular, chapter in history.

"Orphans Preferred..." was thoroughly enjoyable read. Corbett does what all responsible authors tackling a dubious subject should do: he collects all of the information, both factual and fabricated, puts it in the hopper and does his best to sort things through. Then he leaves it to us, his readers, to maker our own conclusions. Not once in the book does Mr. Corbett claim to be totally convinced that this or that piece of information is undeniably true or undeniably false. He correctly leaves it to various quoted sources to do that.

But what else could he do? The information available about the Pony Express is at best a jumbled mess. Such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody and James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok muddied the waters with their efforts to link themselves to and take credit for various aspects of the Express. Hollywood, playing on this hearsay and extensive legend, did its best as well to further mess things up. The result: not one of us, including Author Corbett (and that made very clear by his own admission in the book), has a clear picture of what really went on.

But who's really counting? Corbett does a masterful job of setting straight, at least in my mind, what is absolute fact and what is absolute fiction, leaving a considerable amount of gray area in between.

Corbett eloquently points out in "Orphans Preferred..." that the legend will ride on regardless. Thank goodness it does. Legends are great so long as we know they are legends. But as Americans would we really let any of our favorite legends go, among which the Pony Express holds an honored place, without a considerable fight?

John Ford's movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" perhaps says it best: "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!"

Douglas McAllister

Orphans Preferred by Christopher Corbett is a fun history of The Pony Express. Corbett does his best to piece through the mythology of the "Pony", but he doesn't always have a lot to work with. Sometimes he spends pages explaining all the different possibilities of a fact which isn't all that important. There are neat, short biographies of some fascinating characters from the Wild West including Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock. Corbett treats the whole book as fun and not to be taken too seriously, and that's exactly how I suggest you read the book. He does his best to give us the facts, but sometimes the legend is more interesting, so he recounts that as well. I have a new understanding of The Pony Express and some of the people who helped create its myth, but many mysteries remain, including the "orphans preferred" newspaper advertisement.

Any rating of this book depends of the purpose for which it is being read.

* Four Stars. It is a good review of the many books that have been written on the Pony Express and I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting an overview of the literature available in book form. The main thesis of "Orphans Preferred" is clear enough at this level. The Pony Express was, and is, more important as a mythic legend in popular culture than as a deliverer of critical intelligence from one coast to other during its one and a half year history.

* Three and a half Stars. Young readers interested in the history of the Old West will find "Orphans Preferred" interesting and hopefully it will lead them to read some of the books discussed such as Mark Twain's "Roughing It" which I remember as being one of my favorite books during my teenage years. Some chapters are better than others from this point of view partly because authors such as Samuel Clemmons and Sir Richard Burton gave Corbett so much more to work with than ones like Mabel Loving did. Most chapters can stand independently of the book allowing them to be read separately but this independence of chapters also creates redundant material for those who swiftly read through the book.

* Two Stars. For those wishing to delve deeply into the Pony Express history "Orphans Preferred" is something of a disappointment. Corbett at least four times speaks of "the tradition of most Pony Express books" as having "no foot notes, no index, no bibliography" (p.7, p.182, p.207, p.210)". Unfortunately he partly adheres to this tradition. He has no footnotes, endnotes or index and while he does provide a useful bibliography and cite many of his sources in a general way in the text, his information is almost entirely from books written on the Pony Express and related topics. Information from other sources such as newspapers and letters is second hand. Curiously Corbett, a newspaperman by trade, discounts contemporary newspaper accounts in favor of eyewitnesses interviewed many years after the event (p.50). This might make sense for newspapers in New York and other far away locations but accounts printed shortly after the events from local newspapers along the trail are, in essence, eye witness accounts without the fog of many years and the bias of family members enhancing the stories of their loved ones. This failure to look at the original newspaper accounts leads Corbett to some misstatements and fragmentary views on certain issues. An example of this is the hotly debated question of who the first rider out of St. Joseph was. There were at least four newspapers in St. Joseph that are very likely to have had stories written by witnesses of the first ride, three in English and one in German. Statements from the three newspapers in English are used in "Orphans Preferred" but when Corbett does use this information from contemporary newspaper accounts they are fragmentary quotes from secondary sources. This results in some curious omissions and disconnects. He states that "the reporter-some say he became excited and ran back to the office without fully gathering the facts-neglected to mention who the first rider was."(p.2) In fact, in an article printed the day after the ride, the St. Joseph "Daily West" says "The rider is a Mr. Richardson, formerly a sailor, and a man accustomed to every description of hardship, having sailed for years amid the snows and icebergs of the Northern ocean." Corbett correctly points out that confusion between the rider, Johnson Richardson, and a St. Joseph stable boy, Willy Richardson, have added to the fog of who the first rider was (p.209). The "West" article does not give the rider's first name but the title "Mr." and the experience as a sailor would both indicate a man rather than a boy. In another place Corbett remarks about Johnson Richardson that "he was said to be a sailor, but what a sailor doing in the middle of the country is never explained."(p.2) A photograph donated to the St. Joseph Museum and displayed on their web site is thought to show four riders. One of them is wearing a sailor's jacket and hat. Former sailors may well have been in the West and Mr. Richardson may have been one of them. The question of the first rider at St. Joseph is far from a proven case. Corbett could easily have reviewed the newspaper articles, letters and other sources and presented a balanced chapter on this issue. Instead he continually brings it up in fragments throughout the book and presents the current "accepted" view that Johnny Fry was the first rider out of St. Joseph as fact.

While this book has shortcomings in some areas it has far fewer that most others, maybe all others, on this topic, so it belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the Pony Express.

Ah, the innocent times of yesteryear, when a company could actually try something in its busines line without worrying about the government interfering with it, or solving all kinds of "red tape" regulations! The Pony Express was a privately-run business that delivered the mail over miles and miles of trackless country, from Missouri to California, for 18 glorious months in 1860 and 1861. Soon, however, the telegraph took away its business, and it went under, quite quickly. Now all we know are the legends built up by countless dime novels and Hollywood pictures, and what we get is quite a distance from the truth. This book strives to give us what realy happened, and along the way we learn a lot about the Express, its founders, some of its riders, and then the legends that built up over the years. There are many interesting and unusual characters in this story, from Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody and others, to Broncho Charlie Miller. The writing keeps our interest, and the pace of the story never flags, nor did the horses and riders of this venerable institution of so long ago.

So, the story of the Pony Express is much bigger than the truth. The American frontier is fable land, and legends surround the westward expansion of the United States. America has a mythology about the west, and that's great. Cowboys, Indians, Pioneers, Gold Rush... it's the stuff of 1950's Hollywood. This book sets out to show how much of the Pony Express history is legend.

This is NOT a history of the Pony Express. This is a history of the STORIES surrounding the Pony Express, including those of Buffalo Bill, Horace Greeley, Indian wars, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and the business owners and various riders who are not common household names.

There is value in exploring these legends, their origins, and the truth behind them, but this book did not deliver that value.

The writing style is tiresome, repetitive, contemptuous, and unilluminating. Often, it is like reading someone's note cards for a term paper, rather than a real book. I wanted to be charmed with the old west... I might as well have not read this book. One star.

Extra star for the interesting section on Samuel Clemens -- I plan to read Roughing It by Mark Twain next.

Just returning from a trip throught Nevada Highway 50, I read this book so I can have some more insight on the Pony Express saga since I visited the Cold Spring and Sand Spring Stations or what was left of them as well as Fort Churchill.

For an enterprise that lasted only for 18 months, the legends of the Pony Express will probably lived on forever. It was interesting to read how the Paiute War seem to dominate fate of the Pony Express. I found this book to be well research and easy to read book on this subject. I found the book to be insightful as well as interesting as the perception of the Pony Express in the American western saga easily outlived the reality of the real thing. The author took great pains to show that. I believed he was successful in reflecting Pony Express as it really was, as how it was remembered by veterans and wannabes, and as it was percieved by historians.

Good reading all around, story about a small part of United States that outgrew its short period of history and grown into a legendary status.

If dry wit and historical musings are your cup of tea, this book is for you. Christopher Corbett mixes facts, hearsay, and humor to provide an engaging and amusing tale of the Pony Express, its creators, riders, and historians. What little is known of the Pony comes from decades of oral history and embellishments, leaving the truth to toss around like a tumbleweed in the wind, but Corbett leaves no trail untrod as he explores facts and tall tales of the famous mail delivery service. No one can unravel all the twists of the poorly documented, short lived Express, but Corbett's exploration into the past will give you some answers and quite a few chuckles.

This book has it all: horses, settlers, miners, indians, Mark Twain, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill, Annie Oakley, Queen Victoria, Sir Richard Francis Burton, modest men, and immodest men telling tall-tales. What more could you ask for? The Pony Express was only in business for 18 months, from April 1860 until October 1861. I was astounded by that fact, considering the place that the institution holds in the American imagination. It was a losing proposition, financially, from the get-go, and it was quickly done in by the transcontinental telegraph and railroad. The author, Christopher Corbett, has a lot of fun trying to separate the facts from the myth. Part of the enjoyment in reading this book is provided by the over-the-top language used by newspapers of the time. For example, here is the Sacramento Daily Bee regarding the first rider out of Sacramento, William Hamilton: "...quite a crowd was in attendance who cheered lustily as Hamilton and his mettled steed dashed off at a rattling pace." It's also fun to read about Mark Twain's experiences in "Roughing It." Twain did not mind the difficulties of overland stage travel, but he was disgusted by the food served to travelers (including the Pony Express riders): "The station keeper unended a disk of last week's bread...and carved some slabs from it which were as good as Nicholson pavement..." Why is Twain included in the book? Because he actually saw Pony Express riders, and wrote accurately concerning what they did and how they did it. Twain sometimes exaggerated in the interest of literary liberality, but not in this case. The problem is, not everyone stuck to the facts. Buffalo Bill Cody, for example, although a noted indian fighter and killer of buffalo, felt the need to add to his resume by claiming he rode for the Pony Express. As a teenager, he did work as a messenger for the men who started the Pony Express, but historical evidence strongly suggests he never was an Express rider. Still, bringing Buffalo Bill into the story enables Mr. Corbett to tell us about Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which ran for about 30 years and was extremely popular. Bill took his show to England in 1887. The Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, saw the show, and was so enthusiastic that he managed to convince his mother, Queen Victoria, to make one of her rare public appearances by coming out to Earl's Court to see the show. (Victoria had been in virtual seclusion since the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861.) Oh, and Victoria brought along a few friends: the king of Denmark, the king and queen of Belgium, the king of Saxony, the king of Greece, and various other princes and dukes. Victoria loved the show, which featured a stagecoach holdup, a Pony Express rider, and the 26 year old sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Buffalo Bill's press agent, Arizona John Burke, ("a master of the adjective to the exclusion of other parts of speech") obviously loved the publicity. Many people tried to hitch themselves to the Pony Express star, by claiming to have been riders- including one fellow who was born in 1854, which would have made him 6-7 at the time in question! The most famous so-called "rider" was Broncho (his spelling) Charlie Miller, who was born in 1850 and died in 1955. He was 11 at the time he supposedly rode for the Pony Express, so it's a pretty safe bet that he wasn't a rider, though he may have seen a few. (He also claimed to have been born in the back of a Conestoga wagon out in California. Alas, his real name was Julius Mortimer Miller and he was born in New York City. Oh well.) At the core of this book, though, are the actual riders and the horses. The Pony Express hired the best riders around and they bought the fastest horses available. The real riders were usually quite modest. For example, Richard Cleve once told a historian that "not much interesting ever happened." He then told of one trip where he went 160 miles in a blizzard, under whiteout conditions, with a temperature of 40 below zero. "Cleve apologized for not having a more interesting story." As Mr. Corbett states, the riders may not have been orphans, but they were almost always young, wiry, expert riders...who were willing to risk death daily.

Christopher Corbett has done a wonderful job in "Orphans Preferred," a unique look at not only the Pony Express but also the men and women who created the image of the mail service that has become a legend. Engaging bios on Buffalo Bill Cody, Mark Twain, and others show how fact and fiction were entwined, recreated, and hopelessly tangled together until one was indistinguishable from the other. Corbett's wit and dry humor will make you chuckle. An informative, engaging read.