Customer Reviews

Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just finished this most interesting biography of Wyatt Earp and I found myself both fascinated and a bit skeptical. I was fascinated by the life of Wyatt Earp as it was written by a man who interviewed him over a period of time. I was impressed with the research that the author, Stuart Lake, appeared to have put into his project. He had interviewed a number of surviving witnesses to the life of Earp. He also had a number of newspaper accounts and appears to have located a number of valuable documents in the course of his research. The book wasted little time in getting to Wyatt's career in law enforcement in the American West. The bulk, and I mean just about ALL, of the book is spent on his career in Wichta and Dodge City, Kansas as well as Tombstone, Arizona. The many famous (and not so famous) outlaws and lawmen of the Old West move in and out of the story on a regular basis. Stuart lists an almost endless number of feats of daring by Wyatt Earp in the process of making his case for Earp as the greatest of all men of the American West. Many of the events are depicted in great and compelling detail. Many of the parties are quoted, presumeably, from the memory of Earp himself. There is never a dull moment in the life of our hero, especially considering that all this action took place over a relatively short period of time. The book, at times, reads like a well-researched dime novel. For a chance to re-live the wild, wild West, it has little competition.

As for my skepticism, I came away wondering first of all; did all this really happen? Perhaps it did but our hero (and I am not trying to be facetious, Wyatt Earp truly is a hero) does it all seemingly with one hand tied behind his back. My other reservation has to do with the politics of the times and places. There are only good guys and bad guys and no exploration as to the motivations of either side except for good and evil. I found myself wondering if I were the only source of information about the events of my time and I had to relate to the world in 50 years or so the events I had witnessed. Take the Invasion of Iraq, the presidential election of 2000, or the impeachment of President Clinton. I certainly could make a claim as to who was the "bad guy" and who was the "good guy" while somneone else of a different political persuasion could make the opposite claim. There is no one to speak for the opposing view in this book. The author quotes frequently from the Tombstone "Nugget" but always prefacing the unreliability of the source. I found myself wondering if there might not have been something of another side to the events in Tombstone. The labor strife in mining communities of those days was very significant; just study the history of Butte, MT. Is it possible that Earp supported the powers that be and the miners looked for support from wherever they could get it? Maybe not, but it would have been helpful if the author tried to give a bit of an impartial look at the motives of the opposing side in Tombstone. That said, and realizing that this is about Wyatt Earp, not the miners, this is a book well worth the time of any fan of the American West.

Given everything I've read about this book I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and veracity of the narrative. I can understand how earlier reviewers taking Lake's claim to have received 100% of his facts from Earp, only from Earp, and entirely from Earp might have prejudiced people against Wyatt Earp, because there is a certain amount of "The tall lean figure of the fearless . . . " etc. The introduction puts this into context excellently well and I have no hesitation in recommending this book to people who are interested in the man and his era, with the proviso that they also read other texts (Sadie is referred two once or twice, never by name, during the portion of the narrative that covers Tombstone; Earp's marriage to and subsequent life with Josie (Sadie) Marcus Earp turns up only in the very last chapter -- on the next-to-last page, if I recall correctly). An excellent summarization of the Wyatt Earp mythos -- perhaps obviously so, since it is created with in large part creating that mythos (g). Still and all, not a book to be scorned, but to be read with a cross-reference or two at hand. The prose style holds up very well indeed.

It is hard finding books that tell the stories of the old west (especially of Wyatt and gang) that are free of opinion and myths. But Stuart N. Lake does just this in his wonderful book. A must for complete information on the exciting life of this Tombstone legend. I've read many books on this subject and have even been to Tombstone and Mr. Lake is an accurate author.

This is a good beginning book on the life of Wyatt Earp. The author later admitted that Wyatt Earp did not tell him all the stories in the book. In fact, Earp was pretty silent about his life story. The Monmouth portion of the book omitted these facts: Earp lived in Monmouth, his birthplace, three different times-- 1848-50, 1856-59, and 1868-1869-- until the age of twenty-one. His grandfather was a justice of the peace in Monmouth, and his father was a constable. His family lived in town, and bought properties during the first two time periods. Wyatt was not married in Illinois, but in Missouri, by his father, then a justice of the peace. This book rivets your attention and makes you proud of Wyatt Earp, an Old West lawman, born into a family preserving the peace.

A tremendous amount of research went into this book and it shows. Very well done.

I have always been facinated with the old west and its heroes. This book by Stuart Lake was very well written and exceptionally entertaining. I am in the middle of reading it for the second time. Especially interesting are the quotes from Wyatt Earp himself. The legends own words bring a sense of realism and authenticity to the writers story. I would recomend this book to anyone and hope the publisher puts it back in print.

I have just started reading the book. So this is really not a review but to pass on some information. Mr. Lake interviewed Wyatt exentsively before he wrote the book, so a lot of the viewpoint is Wyatt's. I don't know if Fred Dodge is mentioned in the book. He was my god father's father. I have a gun Wyatt gave him that he took off a dead criminal, also a stickpin the Wyatt had made for Fred out of a 1 dollar gold piece. Fred was a dead ringer for Morgan Earp. The other Earps had a hard time telling them apart. Fred was an undercover agent for Wells Fargo and was stationed at Tombstone. Wyatt did not find this out until Sep. of 1926. Wyatt had convinced Fred to allow Lake to do his biography. Fred wrote to Wyatt and informed him of his position and that solutions to some of the crimes would be found in the biography of Fred. Fred shipped a strog box to Lake filled with his notes and diaries. Lake died before he could write the biography. His daughter, Marion Lake, came across the strong box in a closet. She had to remove a board on the bottom because she could find no key. She compiled many of the notes into a book titled, "Undercover for Wells Fargo". This book is interesting and a good add to the books about the Earps. The book has been out of print for years but hopefully with the resurgence in the interest in western characters, maybe Houghton-Mifflin will release it again. I have been searching for a copy for a long time. I found one in a library in Lubbock, but that is the only copy I have seen. If you can find a copy of this book, you will find it a useful addition to your library.

I had a good time reading this novel. This was the first "Old West" novel I have read and I was very pleased. I have to admit, before reading this book I was fascinated with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. I also plan on reading more about them. This book does the history justice by confirming some myths and debunking others and throughout is very fair and objective. I recomend this book heartily to history buffs and western fans alike.

I have a small library of Wyatt Earp books and Lake's book is always maligned by other Earp historians. No other book, however, seems to give us as much insight into Earp as Lake's. Sure, the facts are exaggerated and, in several instances, created out of whole cloth but more factual books also contain significant mistruths without ever giving us a feel for the man. Tefertiller's "Wyatt Earp" is indoubtedly better history but it isn't a better read. If you can only read one book about Earp, this may be the best one to read.

I read Lake's book as a child. Wyatt Earp became a real hero to me. Later I found there was much more to the story, and much less. Lake found Earp to be uncooperative. So much so he didn't publish this book until Wyatt had been dead three years. Great portions of it were complete fiction such as the episodes in Abilene, Ks. and the arrest of Ben Thompson which never happened. But then, Wyatt Earp never claimed that it had. Lake wanted to write a tale of the old west and in the late 1920's Wyatt was about the only survivor of that breed of men who lived by their wits and survived those days. Nevertheless this book is a lot of fun. If you want a true picture of Wyatt Earp check out the latest issue of American Heritage magazine (Mar/April, 1999). He was a controversial figure and in many ways an admirable one. The story of the making of the myth is as fascinating as the man.