Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend [Paperback]

Casey Tefertiller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 1999

"Quite impressive. I doubt if there has been or will be a more deeply researched and convincing account." --Evan Connell, author Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn

"The book to end all Earp books--the most complete, and most meticulously researched." --Jack Burrows, author John Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was

"The most thoughtful, well-researched, and comprehensive account that has been written about the development and career of an Old-West lawman." --The Tombstone Tumbleweed

"A great adventure story, and solid history." --Kirkus Reviews

"A major contribution to the history of the American West. It provides the first complete and accurate look at Wyatt Earp's colorful career, and places into context the important role that he and his brothers played in crime and politics in the Arizona territory. This important book rises above the realm of Western biography and shows the development of the Earp story in history and myth, and its effect on American culture." --John Boessenecker, author Gold Dust and Gunsmoke

"The ultimate Wyatt Earp book." --Professor Richard Brown University of Oregon

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Basing his account on primary resources, Tefertiller, a former writer for the San Francisco Examiner, has tried to write an unbiased report of the storied life of lawman Wyatt Earp?a villain and a hero in Tombstone, Arizona, both before and after his death in 1929. Portrayed by novelists, historians, and filmmakers, the Earp brothers?especially Wyatt?became the stuff of legends. Attempting to uncover what really happened in Tombstone, Tefertiller draws on newspaper articles and personal accounts by Earp's friends, enemies, and acquaintances. The result is a fresh look at legendary events, showing how the image of Earp was formed. This well-researched historical work is a pleasure to read. Recommended for collections on the American West and wherever Earp is popular.?Terri P. Summey, Emporia State Univ. Lib., Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

This biography of the controversial western lawman, by a former San Francisco Examiner writer, uses newly found primary sources and exhaustive archival research to uncover the real man obscured by myths, tall tales, and calumnies. Tefertiller's version of Earp finds, amid some unpleasant elements, a real core of heroism. He had a penchant for gambling and saloon life, was an energetic womanizer, and had a habit of applying undue force in arresting suspects. Yet he was also, as Tefertiller documents, indisputably courageous. His varied and colorful career included time as a security guard on Wells Fargo stagecoaches, prospecting, running faro games, and speculating on western lands and mines. Most famously, though, he served as a town sheriff and a US marshall. That Earp could be at various times a gambler and a marshall should not, the author suggests, seem all that startling: Gamblers were highly esteemed figures in the demimonde of the wide open towns of the frontier. Men familiar with violence seemed to these communities to be the ideal choice to establish order. During his term as marshall of Tombstone, Ariz., Earp did just that, confronting rustlers, robbers, and gunmen, bringing them to justice or occasionally shooting it out with them, most famously in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp's actions inevitably brought him into conflict with powerful, autocratic ranchers and corrupt politicians. The charges that blackened Earp's reputation, Tefertiller argues, were largely fictions circulated by his enemies, who planted stories about him in pliant frontier newspapers. Using a wide variety of primary sources, Tefertiller manages to summon up a human, complex figure and, while not omitting flaws, to persuasively demonstrate that Earp believed in the law and did his best in hard times to defend it. A great adventure story, and solid history. (42 photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471283622
• ISBN-13: 978-0471283621
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 109 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wyatt Earp: An American Hero May 2, 2000

By B Ardell Young VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Casey Tefertiller has written a very well researched, totally fair, and engrossing book about the most famous person of the old west.

He approaches Earp's life with an open mind and captures the essence of the man without nominating him for sainthood or branding him as the next satan.

He provides the detail from Earp's early years which help shape his adult personality and actions in Dodge City and Tombstone. He does not attempt to hide the seedy side of Earp's life during those years or the fact that Earp was not above using people or events to advance his cause or personal gain.

The most important part of the book is the detailed discussion that explains the reasons for the gunfight with the Clantons and his revenge against the cowboys,for the murder of his brother, that showed Earp to be more ruthless than any outlaw of his time.

It has always amazed me that movie makers during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, dreamed up total fiction about Earp instead of using the truth. I have to credit the makers of "Wyatt Earp" and "Tombstone" for correcting this error. Both movies capture the soul of Earp in different ways.

If you are going to read one book about Wyatt Earp, this is the one to read because it is the best. If you want to read another, try "Inventing Wyatt Earp". It was written about the same time as this book and is very good.

46 of 52 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wyatt Earp, Ambiguous Hero September 2, 1999

By Mark Edward Bachmann

Format:Hardcover

Those of us who grew up during the 1950's and 60's knew Wyatt Earp through TV Westerns and old movies, all made in an era that didn't tolerate much ambiguity between right and wrong. For us, Wyatt was a great frontier lawman and unquestionably a Good Guy if there ever was such a thing. Today, of course, moral ambiguity is fashionable and revisionist historians have conditioned us to look for the Dark Side in our heroes. And in fairness to the revisionists, heroes never do measure up to the pictures in our imaginations, with the simple facts of Wyatt Earp's life standing as a case in point. Far from being a professional lawman, he drifted into law enforcement at various times in his life simply as a job that had to be done. What really drove him were the fickle ambitions of the itinerant gambler, saloon keeper, adventurer, and small-time land speculator he was, hardly the stuff of heroic mythology. Nonetheless, the most remarkable dimension of Casey Tefertiller's biography is that Wyatt still emerges from it as a hero. The very fact that, in a time when life expectancies tended to be short, Wyatt repeatedly scrapes through extraordinary dangers and survives them all to die of natural causes in 1929 probably in itself fits one definition of heroism. Symbolic of the whole picture was the famous OK-Coral incident in which he leads the action, coolly wins his fight and, looking very much like the bullet-proof iron man his legend later turned him into, walks away without so much as a scratch anywhere on his body, the only armed participant in the bloody duel to do so. But the heroism went beyond his survival powers.... Clearly, the man had a real magic about him, magnified by the fact that he clearly never relished violence and relied more on sheer force of will in performance of his law enforcement duties. He rarely fired his gun, and avoided even carrying it unless he had to. Maybe, once again, there is simply not enough documentation to support a reliable account, and Tefertiller is unwilling to indulge in imaginative reconstruction. But, boy, what a story we must be missing out on here! Despite its failings, this biography is enjoyable and informative, and is certainly a must-read for Old-West aficionados. Read more ›

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wyatt's bio May 16, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

"The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" When I purchased this book two years ago I was not sure that I really wanted to read another Earp book... Casey Tefertiller obviously spent days in research libraries, reading over old newspapers and seldom-seen manuscripts. Many of these documents had not been quoted and referenced within a major work on Wyatt Earp. The author tried to remain neutral and objective and present the facts he uncovered so the readers could draw their own conclusions. For the most part, I feel, Tefertiller was successful in keeping his personal opinions to a minimum. I was a little disappointed that the author did not spend more time on Wyatt's early life and upbringing. How did a young man working on the family farm, while his older siblings were off to the Civil War, develop the traits that would bring us the man who became the legendary 'Frontier Marshal'. Much of book centers around the Tombstone years, the shoot-out and the vendetta ride of Waytt Earp. Of course, this is the portion of Wyatt's life that most people are concerned with. The book is very attractively packaged loaded with photos and notes. However, I wish the publisher has just printed this 500 page book on 500 pages rather the 344. My middle-aged eyes were really put to the test. I recommend this book to Wyatt Earp and fans of the old west. Enjoy.. Jim Groom

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a history book, not a novel May 17, 2001

By H. Campbell

Format:Paperback

With this book, Casey Tefertiller has moved the field of Wyatt Earp history into a new era characterized by scrupulous research and rigorous handling of source material. For more than a score of years, a charismatic, iconic figure has enthralled Earp afficionados with tantalizing secret manuscripts and mysterious sources. The iconoclastic Mr. Terfertiller has eschewed the use of this phoney-baloney, novelistic history and has attempted to expunge all traces of it from his book. "Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend" is a meticulously documented book and by far the most important biography written on the life of Wyatt Earp to date.

Mr. Tefertiller provides a cursory overview of Earp's pre-Tombstone life in Chapter One (31 pages). Three supposed errors appear on the first page:

1. "the family... headed for California in 1863." The year "1863" is a typographical error as revealed by endnote [1] where Mr. Tefertiller correctly notes that the Earp party traveled in a train of forty wagons to San Bernardino in "1864."

2. "Two years later the Earps moved again, landing in Pella, Iowa, where Wyatt's younger brothers, Morgan and Warren, were born." This statement is correct, as written. Mr. Tefertiller only identifies the "male" members of the Nicholas Earp family by name (Newton, James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan and Warren). The four female members of the family (Mariah, Martha, Virginia, and Adelia) are not specifically identified. Three of the girls died young, and Adelia married early. Adelia never lived in Tombstone and played no important role in the saga of Wyatt Earp's adult life.

3. "The growing family remained settled [in Pella] until the Civil War broke out." Mr.... Tefertiller covers ten years of the Nicholas Earp family life with this brief sentence. In fact, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois and returned to Pella. In 1852, Nicholas Earp traveled to California and left his family behind in the care of relatives. Mr. Tefertiller's book contains 402 pages with small type and narrow margins and crams a vast amount of Earp material between it's covers. Obviously a more complete treatment of Wyatt's early life was sacrificed to provide a more detailed account of Wyatt's adult years; the years of which, most Earp afficionados have the greatest interest.

"Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend" presents a balanced account of the complex life of Wyatt Earp. This book is a must read for all students of Western history. Read more ›