The Saga of Billy the Kid (Historians of the Frontier & American West) - Softcover

Walter Noble Burns (author) & Richard W. Etulain (foreword)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826321534 ISBN 13: 9780826321534

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 1999

Synopsis

First published in 1926, this entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. Saga focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanised into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilisation was rapidly displacing1881.Burns, his destroyer was Pat Garrett, the courageous sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett's shooting of Billy in 1881 hastened the closing of the American frontier. Walter Noble Burns's 'Saga of Billy the Kid' kindled a fascination in Billy the Kid that survives to this day. Richard W. Etulain's foreword discusses the singular importance of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

About this title

Review:

"The dramatic biography is one of the first books about Billy the Kid and is . . . a major factor in developing the legend of the young outlaw."

. . . this book is almost single-handedly responsible for the elevation of Billy the Kid to the status of mythic hero.

The dramatic biography is one of the first books about Billy the Kid and is . . . a major factor in developing the legend of the young outlaw.

About the Author:

Walter Noble Burns

About this edition

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0826321534
• ISBN 13: 9780826321534
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 322