The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok
by Richard Matheson
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Wild Bill Hickok was a celebrity before there ever was a Hollywood. And he was dead before he was forty. Now Richard Matheson, Spur Award-winning author ofJournal of the Gun Years, delves into the life and times of James Butler Hickok . . . gunfighter, U.S. marshal, legend. The cruelty that turned him violent. The fears that drove him. And the historic events that cause his name to live on more than century later. A compelling vision of the man behind the myth--and an unforgettable show more journey into the American frontier. show lessTags
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While Matheson is mostly known as a fantasy and horror writer, this is not really a weird western though, arguably, a small element of the fantastic is present in Hickok’s brushes with Spiritualism.
Matheson’s introduction says he did not intend to write this book to demean Hickok, but there is, especially for those who have read Joseph G. Rosa’s biographies of him, a certain perverseness in the story despite Matheson largely following the historical chronology of Hickok’s life. In his surviving letters, Hickok appears somewhat illiterate. Here it’s all an act as Hickok tells us in this account of his life written a few days before Jack McCall guns him down in August 1876. While associate Doc Carver noted Hickok’s lack of show more prowess shooting a rifle, it’s the weapon here Hickok most likes, and the novel’s Hickok certainly does not start out with an innate talent for shooting revolvers.
The perversity continues with accounts of the “real” story of Hickok’s gun battles at the Rock Creek stagecoach station and his duel with Dave Tutt and the circumstances behind his dismissal as city marshal in Abilene. Still, despite the violence done to the historical record, there were a couple of highlights that may appeal to those devoted to Rosa’s account of Hickok. One is the humorous tale behind how he came to be dressed in the buffalo coat and fur cap captured in a famous photo. The other is Hickok’s encounter with Matheson’s creation Clay Halser, featured in Matheson’s Journal of the Gun Years, another man, like Hickok, trapped by the expectations of his legend.
Oddly, Matheson does not mention the improbable tales surrounding Hickok’s horse, Black Nell, and little is done with Hickok’s brief stage career. Matheson does do a lot with an area of Hickok’s life for which little documentation exists: his romance and marriage to trick rider and circus performer Agnes Lake.
Mostly, though, Matheson uses the historical Hickok to give us a fiction of a fearful man, his nerves frequently calmed by whiskey, trying to live up to his father’s strict admonitions to act like a gentleman and ensnared, and, yet, oddly ennobled by his dime novel myth.
A pleasing work of frequently humorous fiction but perhaps not for those seriously devoted to the historical Hickok. show less
Matheson’s introduction says he did not intend to write this book to demean Hickok, but there is, especially for those who have read Joseph G. Rosa’s biographies of him, a certain perverseness in the story despite Matheson largely following the historical chronology of Hickok’s life. In his surviving letters, Hickok appears somewhat illiterate. Here it’s all an act as Hickok tells us in this account of his life written a few days before Jack McCall guns him down in August 1876. While associate Doc Carver noted Hickok’s lack of show more prowess shooting a rifle, it’s the weapon here Hickok most likes, and the novel’s Hickok certainly does not start out with an innate talent for shooting revolvers.
The perversity continues with accounts of the “real” story of Hickok’s gun battles at the Rock Creek stagecoach station and his duel with Dave Tutt and the circumstances behind his dismissal as city marshal in Abilene. Still, despite the violence done to the historical record, there were a couple of highlights that may appeal to those devoted to Rosa’s account of Hickok. One is the humorous tale behind how he came to be dressed in the buffalo coat and fur cap captured in a famous photo. The other is Hickok’s encounter with Matheson’s creation Clay Halser, featured in Matheson’s Journal of the Gun Years, another man, like Hickok, trapped by the expectations of his legend.
Oddly, Matheson does not mention the improbable tales surrounding Hickok’s horse, Black Nell, and little is done with Hickok’s brief stage career. Matheson does do a lot with an area of Hickok’s life for which little documentation exists: his romance and marriage to trick rider and circus performer Agnes Lake.
Mostly, though, Matheson uses the historical Hickok to give us a fiction of a fearful man, his nerves frequently calmed by whiskey, trying to live up to his father’s strict admonitions to act like a gentleman and ensnared, and, yet, oddly ennobled by his dime novel myth.
A pleasing work of frequently humorous fiction but perhaps not for those seriously devoted to the historical Hickok. show less
A swift first person account of the life of "the Prince of Pistoleers," James Butler (styled "Wild Bill", explained here as the result of an excitable elderly woman's tag for Hickok being reported in a local newspaper) Hickok, presented in the form of a lost manuscript, Richard Matheson's The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok is also a sort-of sequel to his Silver Spur-winning Journal of the Gun Years (1991): that book's protagonist, Clay Halser, makes a cameo appearance here.
Matheson manages to imbue Hickok with a certain nobility, for all of his unapologetic cowardice (and really, what's the more realistic attitude towards the prospect of combat with firearms? George Washington's vainglorious declaration of love for "the charming sound of show more bullets," or Matheson's Hickok's attempts to run and hide?), and decency, for all of the low-brow farcical scenes he stars in. It's a testament to Matheson's skill that such a short book can run the gamut from broad comedy to social satire to brooding considerations of man's propensity towards violence (an inclination which his Hickok emphatically does not share) and the ridiculous methods by which a celebrity is manufactured.
It's also noteworthy that, in the wake of such revisionist takes on the western genre as Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and the too-brief cable TV series Deadwood (Keith Carradine played Hickok in the first four episodes of the first season), Matheson felt the need to include an apologetic disclaimer, labeled "Introduction," in which he states that he doesn't "wish to offend historical purists who believe that Wild Bill Hickok was an authentic frontier hero" and that he didn't intend "to demean Hickok in any way." It's rather sad -- and disturbing -- to think that there are enough people who passionately believe in steely-eyed, glacial-nerved, death-dealing he-men that Matheson felt himself obligated to assuage their wrath before they ever read this book. If you, Dear Reader, are one of these true believers, pass on! (Oh, and though he doesn't play a large role in The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok, Matheson clearly favors theinsanity "detached reality" interpretation of Gen. George Armstrong Custer's character -- another reason for, um, "historical purists" to give this book a miss.)
Another note in passing to Deadwood dissers: though the oaths and profanities here are elided (which has the odd effect of making them seem far saltier than they actually are), only a very young reader, a reader almost wholly unacquainted with the English language, or a reader so naïve as to require round-the-clock supervision, would fail to discern exactly what they are. show less
Matheson manages to imbue Hickok with a certain nobility, for all of his unapologetic cowardice (and really, what's the more realistic attitude towards the prospect of combat with firearms? George Washington's vainglorious declaration of love for "the charming sound of show more bullets," or Matheson's Hickok's attempts to run and hide?), and decency, for all of the low-brow farcical scenes he stars in. It's a testament to Matheson's skill that such a short book can run the gamut from broad comedy to social satire to brooding considerations of man's propensity towards violence (an inclination which his Hickok emphatically does not share) and the ridiculous methods by which a celebrity is manufactured.
It's also noteworthy that, in the wake of such revisionist takes on the western genre as Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and the too-brief cable TV series Deadwood (Keith Carradine played Hickok in the first four episodes of the first season), Matheson felt the need to include an apologetic disclaimer, labeled "Introduction," in which he states that he doesn't "wish to offend historical purists who believe that Wild Bill Hickok was an authentic frontier hero" and that he didn't intend "to demean Hickok in any way." It's rather sad -- and disturbing -- to think that there are enough people who passionately believe in steely-eyed, glacial-nerved, death-dealing he-men that Matheson felt himself obligated to assuage their wrath before they ever read this book. If you, Dear Reader, are one of these true believers, pass on! (Oh, and though he doesn't play a large role in The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok, Matheson clearly favors the
Another note in passing to Deadwood dissers: though the oaths and profanities here are elided (which has the odd effect of making them seem far saltier than they actually are), only a very young reader, a reader almost wholly unacquainted with the English language, or a reader so naïve as to require round-the-clock supervision, would fail to discern exactly what they are. show less
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Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926 in Allendale, New Jersey. He was eight when his stories appeared in a local newspaper, the Brooklyn Eagle. He served during World War II. He received a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1949. In 1950 he first was noticed as an upcoming writer-to-watch, starting with the short show more story Born of Man and Woman. He wrote numerous novels and short stories during his lifetime including I am Legend, The Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, and Hell House. He won the World Fantasy Convention's Life Achievement Award, the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement, the Hugo Award, the Golden Spur Award, and the Writer's Guild Award. He also was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010. When Hollywood approached him for the rights to his novel The Shrinking Man, he negotiated the chance to write the screenplay. This began a long career in screenwriting and adapting. He wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's Duel and 16 episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone. He won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1973 for The Night Stalker. He died on June 23, 2013 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok
- Original title
- The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok
- Original publication date
- 1996-01
- Dedication
- I dedicate this book
with much gratitude
to all those who helped me
in my writing career:
William Peden, Anthony Boucher, J Francis McComas, H L Gold, Harry Altshuler, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Howard Browne... (show all), Al Manuel, Albert Zugsmith, Alan Williams, Malcolm Stuart, Rick Ray, Sam Adams, Lee Rosenberg, Rod Sterling, Buck Houghton, Jules Schermer, Jim Nicholson, Sam Arkoff, Roger Cormon, Anthony Hinds, Dan Curtis, Larry Turman, Steven Spielberg, Allen Epstein, Him Green, Stan Shpetner, Stephen Deutsch, Jeannot Szwarc, David Kirschner, Jeff Conner, DAvid Greenbkatt, Gary, Goldstein, Bob Gleason, Greg Cox
and, especially, Don Congdon - First words
- I was, as you may know, the youngest of four brothers.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And on that note, I sign these memoirs.
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