Best book on Tombstone, the Earps, etc..

[jphendren]

I am looking for a  book about the events surrounding the O.K. corral gunfight, and the Earp Vendetta ride, any notable ones I might buy?  I'm not just interested in the O.K. corral gunfight, but all of the event that take place in the movie Tombstone.

Thanks,

Jared

[Stillwater]

I am looking for a  book about the events surrounding the O.K. corral gunfight, and the Earp Vendetta ride, any notable ones I might buy?  I'm not just interested in the O.K. corral gunfight, but all of the event that take place in the movie Tombstone.

Thanks,

Jared

I have probably 25, or more, books on the history of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone, AZ. Quiet a few of them aren't worth very much.

The book that I think is about the best, is "Wyatt Earp", "The Life Behind The Legend." This book was written by Casey Tefertiller.

Available from Amazon, this book is well written and very interesting.

Wyatt Earp, is like George Armstrong Custer, people either love him, or hate him... It seems like somebody always has an axe to grind from one side of the equation, or the other.

Bill

[Major 2]

"It seems like somebody always has an axe to grind from one side of the equation, or the oither."

Yeah !  doesn't IT ?

[Advertising]

[Harley Starr]

"It seems like somebody always has an axe to grind from one side of the equation, or the oither."

Yeah !  doesn't IT ?

Yup!

[Mossyrock]

After you read the above-referenced book, track down the book that STARTED the legend: "Wyatt Earp - Frontier Marshall", by Stuart N. Lake.  If this book hadn't been written, the "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (a phrase Lake coined) would have just been a footnote in the dusty history of a played-out silver town in Southern Arizona.  Thanks to Lake, we have the Earp legend...and all of the phooforaw that has gone with it over the years.  I submit to you now, as a long-time (now former) resident of Sierra Vista, AZ, that if Lake had not written that book, Tombstone would be GONE...nothing but another Arizona ghost town.  So, while we sometimes diminish Lake as being a profiteering showboat, if it wasn't for him, a large part of the Legend of the West wouldn't exist.

[Stillwater]

After you read the above-referenced book, track down the book that STARTED the legend: "Wyatt Earp - Frontier Marshall", by Stuart N. Lake.  If this book hadn't been written, the "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (a phrase Lake coined) would have just been a footnote in the dusty history of a played-out silver town in Southern Arizona.  Thanks to Lake, we have the Earp legend...and all of the phooforaw that has gone with it over the years.  I submit to you now, as a long-time (now former) resident of Sierra Vista, AZ, that if Lake had not written that book, Tombstone would be GONE...nothing but another Arizona ghost town.  So, while we sometimes diminish Lake as being a profiteering showboat, if it wasn't for him, a large part of the Legend of the West wouldn't exist.

You are right about Stuart Lake's book, and what would have been the fate of Tombstone.

I don't like Stuart Lakes book very much. He was under the influence of Josie Earp, having to put up with her protection of Wyatt Earp's name.

That is another parallel between Custer and Earp. They both were protected by their women after their death.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Kind of a Catch 22 isn't it? If not for the glorification of Wyatt Earp and Custer, Jesse James, J.B. Hickok and all, how would the this sport be?

[Stillwater]

Kind of a Catch 22 isn't it? If not for the glorification of Wyatt Earp and Custer, Jesse James, J.B. Hickok and all, how would the this sport be?

If it had not of been for all the western novel writers, would this sport have started and flourished, as it does now...?

Bill

[The Elderly Kid]

As for fictional treatments of the events in Tombstone in 1882 and their aftermath, I highly recommend Loren Estleman's "Bloody Season." It's an entirely unsenimental, warts-and-all treatment of the events and the characters. As Estleman says in his afterword to the book, it's difficult to get at the truth of what happened because everybody, and I mean everybody, lied about it. They lied about it at the time and the survivors continued to lie about it for the rest of their lives. Even the newspaper accounts differ widely, because the newspaper owners were on one side or the other. Earp himself told John Ford some whoppers when Ford was planning "My Darling Clementine," though that may have been because Earp was so bored with the whole matter by that time. It must have been like being a Beatle (though with less money): your whole life is defined by what you did for a couple of years when you were young. We'll never know what really happened.

[Stillwater]

As for fictional treatments of the events in Tombstone in 1882 and their aftermath, I highly recommend Loren Estleman's "Bloody Season." It's an entirely unsenimental, warts-and-all treatment of the events and the characters. As Estleman says in his afterword to the book, it's difficult to get at the truth of what happened because everybody, and I mean everybody, lied about it. They lied about it at the time and the survivors continued to lie about it for the rest of their lives. Even the newspaper accounts differ widely, because the newspaper owners were on one side or the other. Earp himself told John Ford some whoppers when Ford was planning "My Darling Clementine," though that may have been because Earp was so bored with the whole matter by that time. It must have been like being a Beatle (though with less money): your whole life is defined by what you did for a couple of years when you were young. We'll never know what really happened.

I'm not taking issue with your post in any way. However, lets examine the statement that: Earp himself told John Ford some whoppers, when Ford was planning "My Darling Clementine."

Since Wyatt Earp died in early 1929, and the movie,"My Darling Clementine," did not hit the theaters until 1946, Was John Ford, the director, telling some whoppers himself?

Surely telling Whoppers isn't an unknown activity in Hollywood. In fact, I would think telling whoppers is a very profitable movie industry activity, considering the inflated tales I have read about prominent people in the movie industry.

Have you heard some of the inflated tales Steven Segal tells in his biography?

Bill

[The Elderly Kid]

As Ford told the story, he met Earp while still a prop boy working on a silent film starring Harry Carey, Sr, whom he knew. Carey was playing Doc Holliday and Earp was acting as technical advisor. He said Wyatt told him about going into the fight through a dust cloud raised by a passing stagecoach, which Ford later put in his film. As you say, who knows what happened this many years later? It might have been Wyatt putting on a wide-eyed kid, or Ford may have made it up himself to add authenticity to his film.

[Coal Creek Griff]

Not the "best" book, by any means, but an interesting one is Wyatt Earp Speaks, edited by John Stephens.  It contains an collection of newspaper articles, trial transcripts and other first-hand accounts.  Most of these, of course, contain gross misrepresentations (lies), so the reader has to sort some of them out, but I'm finding it to be interesting reading.

CC Griff

[Old Doc]

As Ford told the story, he met Earp while still a prop boy working on a silent film starring Harry Carey, Sr, whom he knew. Carey was playing Doc Holliday and Earp was acting as technical advisor. He said Wyatt told him about going into the fight through a dust cloud raised by a passing stagecoach, which Ford later put in his film. As you say, who knows what happened this many years later? It might have been Wyatt putting on a wide-eyed kid, or Ford may have made it up himself to add authenticity to his film.

I've always wondered who told Ford that Doc Holiday was a physician instead of a dentist.

[The Elderly Kid]

I guess if you're going to cast Victor Mature, one of the buffest, most fabulous physical specimens in movies, as a scrawny, diminutive, tubercular gambler, playing fast and loose with his professional title is a minor matter.

[Old Doc]

I guess if you're going to cast Victor Mature, one of the buffest, most fabulous physical specimens in movies, as a scrawny, diminutive, tubercular gambler, playing fast and loose with his professional title is a minor matter.

Oh stop being picky. At least he was coughing. That movie is incredibly full of historical inaccuracies and yet still considered one of Ford's best. Go figure.

[hhughh]

Because, my friends, as Ford indirectly told us in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Second vote here for "Bloody Season".  Really enjoyed it.

Hugh

[Old Doc]

Because, my friends, as Ford indirectly told us in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Second vote here for "Bloody Season".  Really enjoyed it.

Hugh

That quote always sounded good but I never quite deciphered it.

[hhughh]

I think what he meant was when you delve into, research, etc. a legend/myth long enough to dispell it with concrete fact, the legend will still be the better story to tell.

[Stillwater]

I think what he meant was when you delve into, research, etc. a legend/myth long enough to dispell it with concrete fact, the legend will still be the better story to tell.

I wonder how many times this has happened...

Bill

[Old Doc]

What I don't get is, if the legend "becomes" fact, then the two are the same. So what difference does it make which one you print, the story is the same. If he had said, "If the legend makes a better story than the facts, print the legend." That would have made sense to me. Keep in mind, this is a guy who thought Doc Holliday was a surgeon.