Customer Reviews

When All Roads Led to Tombstone: A Memoir

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved reading this book, even without chapter headings and even with dubious captions (I cannot point these out, as I am not an expert.) I do, however, live in the Sulphur Springs Valley, and have some knowledge of the Chiricahua Mountains where the Rucker Ranch was located. Gray's memories of the tall grass and red clover that filled our valley before it was overgrazed by the cattle consortiums, his stories of life as a cowboy and its dangers from Apaches and outlaws cannot, in my opinion, be replaced by technically correct second-hand histories however accurate. This is like sitting on the veranda listening to your grandfather spinning tales of cattle drives, Apache raids, and trips to Tombstone, with glimpses of the characters we have grown up knowing. His view of them is personal and reflects his preception and experience. As primary history, I recommend this most colorful account. Read it with a salt shaker if you must, but enjoy it as an authentic memoir of his life and times.

There is an intrinsic value to this memoir that rivals the one book about Tombstone in which Wyatt Earp provided personal accounts. Gray, too, was an eyewitness as was Earp and he provides the Yang to the Hollywood Yin hype that surrounded Earp. If you want to have some idea of the truth, you should read W Lane Rogers book of Gray's Memoir. The REAL truth as is usually the case probably lies somewhere between. I have seen Tombstone and I have read Earp's accounts - I am not really very motivated to read all the 2nd and 3rd accounts. This book gives me a much better idea what it must have been to be a pioneer Westerner and I thank Rogers for bringing it together. Let's have at least one movie out of this - a REAL WESTERN!

How does one read a 145 page paragraph with no chapter headings or table of contents. the author had at least 30 but the editor left them out to make it difficult to read this wonderful tale of life in southeastern arizona in the 1880's and 1890's.

It is a wonderful story. Couldn't understand why the picture of Wyatt Earp was on the cover. hardly any mention of him in the book. Not about him.

With my limited knowledge of Tombstone, I found dozens of incorrect footnotes and captions. Why put them in and mislead?

This is an excellent story and the price is right. Just be prepared to struggle with small type and no chapters to organize your thoughts.

HISTORY OF TOMBSTONE WHEN THINGS WERE HAPPENING!

MAKES ONE WANT TO AT LEAST GO THERE AND SEE WHAT THE PLACE IS LIKE. THE PLACE WAS FULL OF CHARACTERS.

The book by Mr. J P Gray is excellent as he was a graduate of UCB (1880) and he actually lived thru the events he described. He wrote the book in 1940 and it is amazing how good his memory was. He does make a few mistakes which the editor did not catch. Also it is very difficult to real a 145 page paragraph, unreleaved by chapters or a Table of Contents.

There is an index but it is useless as it indexes the editor's footnotes which are mostly incorrect. Also the many old-time photos also have incorrect captions. The editor was apparently totally unfamiliar with Tombstone in the 1880's.

The photo of of Wyatt Earp on the cover is completely misleading as he is barely mentioned in the text. Half of the book is Appendix, which are irrelevant to the text. There is no biography of John Gray or info on the Rucker Ranch where he lived.

There is another version of "All Roads..." available through most research libraries as the Bancroft, Huntington, UCLA, Montana Hist. Soc, ect which has a Table of Contents and the text is broken into about 30 chapters, easy to read. It is available for FREE on the internet. Mayby this publisher should get an ISBN so AMAZON.COM can carry both.It has been out for a year, long before this poorly edited version arrived.

I have gotten in the habit of buying any book that has Rogers' name on it. He is an astute historian, a superb writer and a wonderful editor. Gray's account of Tombstone's early years is particularly important--he was there and saw it all. Rogers' annotation adds considerable depth to Gray's story, and makes this an important book. As one who has spent a lifetime reading Arizona history, it doesn't get any better than this.

This is a superb book, well indexed, footnoted, etc. The notes in other reviews about misinformed captions and lack of chapters is bogus. The historic memoir had no chapter headings. The photo captions are absolutely accurate. Mr. Rogers has done western history a marvelous service by his obviously through research that has provided the readers of the Gray Memoir with valuble insights into the people, events and places that Gray wrote about... Enjoy!!! When is Rogers going to bring out another book? This and his Crimes and Misdeeds: Headlines from Arizona's Past are wonderful reads.

I am not a historian, nor do I pretend to be anything close, but I have read just about everything on the events surrounding the shootout that took place near the OK Corral in Tombstone, 1881. If Mr. Gray's description of his "eye-witness" observation of that shootout is any indication, I'd be careful in having much faith in any of his recollections. He has the location of the fight wrong(it was almost a block down from the corral in an empty lot), he has Frank McLaury sitting on a horse, which he was not(he was standing with his gun that he wasn't supposed to have in plain sight), and has Virgil Earp losing the use of his arm in the shootout, which did not happen until he was ambushed months later. These are only the mistakes based on facts, that all the opposing sides in the subsequent hearing agreed on.
The other discrepancies can be chalked up to passion, as he was clearly sympathetic to the factions in town aligned with Democrats who were in a feud of sorts with the Republican factions in town, of whom the Earps were associated with.

Now, having said all that, this is still a fascinating book, if you happen to be very interested in that area at that time as I am. The pictures are priceless, although there again, the captions on one or two of the Earp-era photos are questionable.
So, I cannot recommend it as a history book, per se, but you do get a good feel for the era and the area through the words of someone who lived there. So, there you have a convoluted review that may or may not help!

book is backwards, writers early years are at the end of the boo