The Saga of Billy the Kid (Historians of the Frontier and American West Series) [Paperback]

Walter Noble Burns (Author), Richard W. Etulian (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Historians of the Frontier and American West | Publication Date: September 1, 1999

First published in 1926, this entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. Saga focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and 1881. Burns paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanized into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilization was rapidly displacing. His destroyer was Pat Garrett, the courageous sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett's shooting of Billy in 1881 hastened the closing of the American frontier. Walter Noble Burns's Saga of Billy the Kid kindled a fascination in Billy the Kid that survives to this day. Richard W. Etulain's foreword discusses the singular importance of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

First published in 1926, this dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West.

About the Author

Walter Noble Burns (1872-1932), was a journalist and historian in Chicago.

Richard Etulain is professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico and the author or editor of more than forty books. Etulain lives in Clackamas, Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826321534
• ISBN-13: 978-0826321534
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,831 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Look Into A Short Life!!, March 30, 2002

By 

Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saga of Billy the Kid (Historians of the Frontier and American West Series) (Paperback)

Billy the Kid is one of the West's most famous outlaws, yet there is little in the history books to detail his short but very violent life. In addition, most of what has been written has been written in the later part of the 20th century and relies not so much on true knowledge as on what can be found here and there.

This book, original written in 1924, is wonderful because the author actually found people still alive who had known Billy the Kid and who had lived through the Lincoln County Wars. While these people were hardly young when interviewed, they still had very good memories of Billy and his life style. This provides a look that is often missing in history.

One area that was missing was any detailed information on the early life of Billy the Kid, but, as the author points out, much was lost and may never be known.

The language in the book is, at times, difficult to process, as it was written in the style prevalent in 1924, not 2002. And it is a language that is caught between the older American English and modern American English. Generally it is a smooth read, but does have a couple of rough spots.

This is a MUST READ if you really want to know about the portion of Billy the Kids life that ocured during the Linclon County Wars!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The basic Billy book, March 6, 2005

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saga of Billy the Kid (Historians of the Frontier and American West Series) (Paperback)

This, of course, is the Billy the Kid biography that all later ones have had to nod toward, either in sympathy or contempt. By modern standards it violates most rules of popular history, with its many "reconstructed" conversations and events, which had no living witnesses shortly after the fact. However, Burns did manage to conduct long, direct interviews with many still-living participants, something later historians could not hope to do.

Historians tend to be either strongly pro- or anti-Billy, and it is interesting that this 1925 narrative hews to a sort of neutral line, depicting both the positive and negative aspects of the Kid's character. The early Kid biography supposedly written by Pat Garrett himself already depicts the Kid as a dime-novel superhero; by contrast, Nelson Nye's somewhat later historical novel, A BULLET FOR BILLY THE KID, typically depicts the Kid as a cowardly, psychopathic monster without a single redeeming human feature. Historians also tend to be violently pro- or anti-Dolan-Murphy, Burns comes down very much on the anti-Dolan-Murphy side, which is the side most more recent historians have also come down on. Burns also spends more time on the background of John Chisum than most Kid historians have tended to do.

Well worth your reading time if you have any interest in the most famous "outlaw" of the Old West.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful verbally illustrative of life in the late 1800's., November 26, 2007

By 

Bobert (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saga of Billy the Kid (Hardcover)

Walter Noble Burns did tremendous research under the difficulty of so many deceased witnesses. His prose of descriptive scenes and events was as interestng as were the happenings themselves. His writing in the early 1920's style adds much to the reader with historical interest. I can not imagine one with such interest not thinking the book is wonderful. For those that like to learn via Hollywood, TV, or Video, it probably will be less attractive reading.