The Saga of Billy the Kid (Legends of the West) [Hardcover]

Walter Noble Burns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1992 | Series: Legends of the West

1926. John Chisum was one of the most important figures in the life of William Bonney, aka Henry Bonney, aka Billy the Kid. In this book, we learn more about John Chisum than had ever before been written and how he influenced Billy the Kid. We travel through the old west and fight with Billy in the Lincoln County War between the cattle barons. Later, Billy refused to honor the truce negotiated by Governor Wallace and kills Sheriff Pat Garrett. This is a great book on the old west and one of the most famous outlaws of all time.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 322 pages
• Publisher: Longmeadow Pr (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0681416505
• ISBN-13: 978-0681416505
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,589 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.