The Saga of Billy the Kid
by Walter Noble Burns
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Description
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 1881. Burns paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanized into show more 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 civilization was rapidly displacing. 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. Richard W. Etulain's introduction discusses the singular place of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War."--Jacket. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
"The good: written in 1926, while some of the people who actually knew Billy the Kid were still alive and available for interviews; the style is unapologiticaly theatrical--emotional states and dramatic interpolations are an obvious attempt to flesh out the scenes and provide the reader with a reasonable feeling for the actions and thoughts of the participants.
The not-so-good: there doesn't seem to be any references to other sources than possible newspaper stories; there is obviously some exaggeration and spin in an effort to portray the Kid as a sociopath who was kind to his friends and damning to his enemies; there also didn't seem to be any attempt at scientific inquiry (although the '20s might not have been interested in the kind of show more analysis we cherish today)--for example Burns claims that the Kid was left handed because the one photo shows the Kid's handgun strapped to his left leg...even though we know that the ferrotype process produces reversed images.
Taking all that into account I enjoyed the story. When I couple it with the Wikipedia synopsys of Billy's life I don't see that the extra detail added more than a few intellectual tidbits and removed all the emotional coloring that makes the Kid worth knowing. And this book worth reading." show less
The not-so-good: there doesn't seem to be any references to other sources than possible newspaper stories; there is obviously some exaggeration and spin in an effort to portray the Kid as a sociopath who was kind to his friends and damning to his enemies; there also didn't seem to be any attempt at scientific inquiry (although the '20s might not have been interested in the kind of show more analysis we cherish today)--for example Burns claims that the Kid was left handed because the one photo shows the Kid's handgun strapped to his left leg...even though we know that the ferrotype process produces reversed images.
Taking all that into account I enjoyed the story. When I couple it with the Wikipedia synopsys of Billy's life I don't see that the extra detail added more than a few intellectual tidbits and removed all the emotional coloring that makes the Kid worth knowing. And this book worth reading." show less
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Author Information
6+ Works 268 Members
Walter Noble Burns (1872-1932), was a journalist and historian in Chicago.
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
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Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Saga of Billy the Kid
- People/Characters
- Billy the Kid
- Related movies
- Billy the Kid (1930 | IMDb); Billy the Kid (1941 | IMDb); The Outlaw (1943 | IMDb); The Left Handed Gun (1958 | IMDb); Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973 | IMDb); Billy the Kid (1989 | IMDb)
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History
- DDC/MDS
- 364.15 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses Offenses against the person
- LCC
- F786 .B69 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history New Southwest. Colorado River, Canyon, and Valley
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 145
- Popularity
- 226,368
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 11
