Rough Rider: Buckey O'Neill of Arizona [Paperback]

Dale L. Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 1997

Buckey O’Neill was famous in Arizona Territory as a gambler, lawyer, newspaperman, miner, sheriff, and politician. This fast-moving narrative takes him from the streets of Tombstone all the way to Cuba, where he won Theodore Roosevelt’s admiration as the wildest and bravest of the Rough Riders.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Rough Rider] offers insight into an age too often distorted by popular myths and makes an excellent case for O’Neill as an unjustly neglected American personality. . . . The lessons of Buckey O’Neill’s life and death ought not to go unpondered."—Western American Literature

(Western American Literature )

"Life in frontier Arizona is well depicted in [this] biography. . . . [It is] a story of Irish daring."—Southwest Chronicle

(Southwest Chronicle )

"The tale is beautifully told. It teems with bizarre and sometimes hairy episodes while at the same time achieving strength through understatement, wry humor, and an artless effort to avoid making the hero larger than life."—El Paso Times

(El Paso Times )

About the Author

Dale L. Walker has twice won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. His books include Will Henry’s West and In a Far Country: Jack London’s Tales of the West.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press; Bison Books ed edition (November 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803297963
• ISBN-13: 978-0803297968
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and authoritative, March 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rough Rider: Buckey O'Neill of Arizona (Paperback)

Dale L. Walker's biography of O'Neill, one of the early West's most fascinating figures, is richly drawn, authoritative, and distinguished. O'Neill is best known as one of the Rough Riders of the Spanish-American War, but Walker meticulously depicts all the other facets of this legendary Arizonan. This is surely the standard work on O'Neill.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hero of the Rough Riders, April 21, 2000

By 

Dan Cusack (Brookfield. Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rough Rider: Buckey O'Neill of Arizona (Paperback)

Although I loved the Rough Riders movie on TNT, they got the character Buckey O'Neill wrong. This book will set you straight on a forgotten hero, who did more in 38 years than most men would do in a life time. Just how far would he have gone had he not been killed at Kettle Hill? The next time that I'm on Whiskey Row, I will give a toast to William Owen O'Neill. This is a great book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arguably Arizona's Favorite Son, September 5, 2004

By 

Alan Rockman (Upland, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rough Rider: Buckey O'Neill of Arizona (Paperback)

Buckey O'Neill was a legendary lawman, a gallant soldier, and a Democrat when being one meant fealty to the flag and country. Even in a Republican state like Arizona Buckey O'Neill is a state hero - and much revered in Prescott.

This son of an Irish immigrant and Civil War Veteran risked death many times, chasing outlaws across the deserts and praries. If he hadn't recklessly strolled along the front lines facing the Spanish emplacements on San Juan Hill, O'Neill might very well had gone on to bigger and better things, including possibly being territorial governor. He was a particular favorite of Theodore Roosevelt's, who took his death very hard.

Dale Walker has already written a superb book about the "Rough Riders" in the "Boys of '98" and here he sets the record on the man who is arguably Arizona's favorite son - above and beyond t Goldwater, the Earps, and perhaps even John McCain. Only the late hero Pat Tillman's life and career might be as adventurous and as legendary as O'Neill's was.