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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD FOR NEWCOMERS/NECESSITY FOR WESTERN LIBRARY, December 10, 2003
This review is from: Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights (Paperback)
While U. S. writers sat around like geese trying to hatch a porcelain doorknob, and academics made faces over Western heroes, it took an enterprising Englishman to look up Wild Bill's family down in our neck of the woods at Troy Grove. They added the smidgen of new information and the personal touch that Rosa used to make his reputation as the world's foremost Hickok authority, which he incontestably is.
However, readers should be wary of claims of sensational new information uncovered in this sort of book, where the writer has obviously spun off a new version of the same old thing, with perhaps a kernel or two of new stuff, which indeed makes the new book worthwhile if you want a comprehensive Western Library, but hardly justifies kleig lights. We all knew 95% of what Rosa chews and re-chews from the Chicago Tribune Sunday supplements, but he winnowed the chaff of sensationalism out of it, and identified the pure grain, much to his credit.
Hickok comes across as what he was - a good, brave lawman who faced some bad characters that tried to kill him for his peace keeping efforts on behalf of various communities and finally for his reputation. Don't believe anything else. My great grandfather was parish minister for the Church of God at Troy Grove, and I have his 1871 license yet. My family knew Wild Bill as Jim when he came home on visits. He frolicked in the creek with the farm boys, helped get in hay, and generally was an all around good fellow. Naturally people tried to pry blood and thunder tales out of him, but didn't have much luck. If he'd ever told one, it would have come down to us in his home territory. They could always get a pistol shooting display out of him, though, and when I was a kid, we didn't talk about Wyatt Earp, of whom few had heard, but of Wild Bill.
Generally a derned good book to have, and certainly has the first believable verification of the fact from public records that Jim Hickok really was a very very good pistol shot and cool under fire. He was 75 yards away from Dave Tutt when he shot him dead center, and was under fire when he did it. None of us back home doubted the stories of Hickok cutting a card edgewise at 25 yards or so, or hitting dimes thrown in the air, but nobody made a sworn statement about it.
Another thing about what we heard that should be remembered is that we heard it only fifty years after he was gone, from people that remembered how he looked, the sound of his voice and laugh, and what they saw with their own eyes. (Fifty years ago today is 1953 and the world is full of people who were already adults at that time and thus capable of mature judgments.)
Go it, Joe! Another good job.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Was hoping for more, September 12, 2005
This review is from: Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights (Paperback)
Having loved Rosa's earlier works on this subject, it was with great excitement that I learned of the release of this latest in his biographical series. I was anticipating some new facts being brought to light through Rosa's extensive and on-going reserach. But I was dissapointed in this book. Simply because there is no new information that wasn't already uncovered in his earlier Hickok bios. I was left with the impression that Rosa has exhausted his research on this subject and was motivated to write this book by his obvious monumental passion regarding this western legend. The breakdown of events leading up to, during, and after each of these gunfights, has already been covered in his earlier works. Even his interesting theories such as the possibility that it was NOT Hickok who did all the killing in the Rock Creek incident have already been discussed in detail in his earlier works. Rosa got me hooked on this subject years ago with the first edition of "They Called Him Wild Bill." And since then I have read and loved all of his subsequent follow-up works on Hickok. I would have been happy even if he had uncovered just one shred of new information in this book, but it wasn't the case. This being said, I do reccomend this book as a starting point (even though it is the latest in his series) for anybody who wants a quick and well researched read on Hickok's gunfights. But for a more detailed history of Hickok, the man, along with his gunfights, any of his earlier biographies will serve for better reading. There IS a chapter in this book that covers in typical Rosa detail, the fire-arms Hickok used or may have used in each gunfight. But as for new information on Hickok himself, or his gunfights, it won't be found here if you have already read his earlier works.----But hey, if this guy writes another bio on Hickok, I'll still rush out to buy it for if any new information does come to light, I'm sure he'll be the one who uncovers it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a Good Intro to Wild Bill But Devotees Will Like It, July 31, 2006
This review is from: Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights (Paperback)
If you're looking for one book on Wild Bill's life, this is not it. Instead, read Rosa's They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok. This book has nothing on Hickok's Civil War experience, no evaluation of the tales of his shooting prowess, no account of his days on the plains or on the stage. It is a detailed look at the five documented gunfights -- and death -- of Hickok. Rosa reconstructs each with contemporary records, presents diagrams and timelines, and looks at the weapons each party used. He also looks at how Hickok wore his guns and the provenance of several guns claimed to have been carried by Wild Bill. For hardcore Wild Bill devotees, there is some new information uncovered by Rosa since _They Called Him Wild Bill_. The illustrations are both plentiful and useful.
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