They Call Me Doc: The Story Behind the Legend of John Henry Holliday - Softcover

Herda, D. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076276046X ISBN 13: 9780762760466

Publisher: The Lyons Press, 2011

Synopsis

A fresh, lively retelling of the life of one of the most infamous characters of the Old West, Doc Holliday, by an imaginative, yet accurate storyteller.

About this title

About the Author

D. J. Herda is the author of numerous books on a wide range of topics―including Outlaws of the American West―as well as several hundred thousand articles, syndicated columns, and short stories.

From the Back Cover

Reassessing the life of one of the most infamous characters of the Old West He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew. --Wyatt Earp, speaking of Doc Holliday This new biography sets the record straight on the man best known for his participation in the shootout at the O.K. Corral--a man of refinement who went West after contracting tuberculosis and became a gunfighter, gambler, and saloonkeeper. Telling the story in Doc Holliday's own voice, D. J. Herda reveals many unexplored facets of this legendary figure's personality. They Call Me Doc provides a riveting, well-rounded picture of both the mythological character and the real man.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter One, “Speaking Out”

A lot of people have written about me these past five score years and more since my untimely demise. A lot of people have said things, and a lot of people have been wrong.
 Not that I blame them.
     When you have lived as colorful and, as some might say, sordid a life as I, and when you have been gone from center stage for so long a period as I, things are bound to go a bit bug-eyed from time to time.
 Still, I have seen people refer to me as though they knew me. As such, they have portrayed me as a cold-blooded killer and a heartless, homeless wretch, as a whoring whirl-a-way and a confidence man and even—if you can believe it—a drunk.
 Me. Can you imagine?

Edition details

• Publisher: The Lyons Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076276046X
• ISBN 13: 9780762760466
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 214