Has anyone written a book on Ned Buntline?

[Pukin Dog]

I have heard he was a facinating character. If he hadn't lived someone would have made him up.  But I did a search on amazon and my libarary and no biographies on him.

If it weren't for him and his $.10 novels, most of our Western heros would never have gotten so famous.

[Pukin Dog]

Apparently NOT!

[Fly Cop Fry]

"This Old Bill" by Loren D Estleman.

It is a bio-novel about Buffalo Bill but has a lot of bio information about Ned Buntline.

Not a great book but is entertaining!

[Advertising]

[St. George]

In 1952, Jay Monaghan wrote 'The Great Rascal: The Life and Adventures of Ned Buntline' - published by Little, Brown and Co.

You can find it if you look hard enough.

Here's an excerpt.

The amazing Ned Buntline, adventurer extraordinary and creator of the dime novel, lived a life far more fantastic than that of any of his imaginary heroes.
If he hadn't actually existed and thus become the subject of this lively biography, it is doubtful if any novelist would have had the temerity to create so incredible a hero.
In fact the story of Ned Buntline reads like all the dime novels rolled into one.

Edward Zane Carroll Judson (the famous pseudonym of Buntline is a nautical term for a rope at the bottom of a square sail) was born in 1823, ran away to sea as a boy and, by the time he was fifteen, was a midshipman in the Navy.

Resigning four years later, he led a life of incredible adventures in the Seminole Wars, and later in the Northwest fur trade.

When he was twenty-three, he was tried for murder in Nashville, was lynched by a mob, and was cut down in time to be brought back to life.
He could sport more scars, including a bullet hole in his chest, than any man he met -and he had a whole supply of yarns to go with each wound.

Generally in trouble, whether financially, romantically or with the law, stocky, red-bearded Ned Buntline had at least as many enemies as friends.
Unscrupulous, often accused of blackmail, defendant in several trials, he once jumped bail in St. Louis, and was heavily implicated in the 1849 riot in Astor Place in New York.
A reformer who frequently got drunk after delivering a lecture on Temperance, Ned was also one of the founders of the Know Nothing Party.

In the 1840's he established the weekly - 'Ned Buntline's Own'.
 
In this sensational weekly he published not only his novels but also stories exposing gambling, prostitution and drinking in New York City - championing the cause of the Know-Nothing movement.

During the Civil War he served in the Union Army as a sergeant (later broken to private) and afterwards undeservedly assumed the rank of Colonel, a title which stuck until his death.
 
It was on a Western trip that he met handsome William Cody, dubbed him Buffalo Bill and wrote a series of dime novels based on Cody's life as a hunter and scout.
He also launched Cody on a theatrical career in a play he wrote in four hours-'The Scouts of the Plains' - with himself playing a leading part.
But despite the renown, infamous or otherwise, of his exploits, Ned Buntline is perhaps best remembered for his dime novels.

Typical of his four hundred-odd stories are: 'The Mysteries and Miseries of New York', 'Navigator Ned; or, He Would Be Captain', 'Stella Delorme; or, The Comanche's Dream', 'The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main; or, The Fiend of Blood', and Buffalo Bill.

Source: Monaghan. The Great Rascal: The Life and Advertures of Ned Buntline.

Scouts Out!

[W.T.]

Advanced Book Exchange ( www.abebooks.com ) is a listing service of the online offerings of about 12,000 antiquarian books dealers around the world.  Navigate to the 'advanced search page', plug in the title, hit 'enter', and you'll get a sorted listing - low price to high - of dealers with copies for sale.  Orders can be placed on the spot.  Watch out for them shippin' charges on low-priced copies!

There are now 61 copies of The Great Rascal: The Life and Adventures of Ned Buntline available thru Abebooks.  Little, Brown was the original publisher; Bonanza Books, a 'reprint house', apparently produced their own edition in the 60s - 70s.

Another resource for a wider search of the Internet for old books can be made with Bookfinder.com, a search engine that will retrieve online listings form many sources.

[St. George]

Good advice.

I used to use www.bibliofind.com until Amazon bought them, since some dealers who didn't advertise on ABE for whatever reason would advertise there, and when you're looking for a book - there can be no such thing as too many places to hunt.

You can always just type in the book's title on your search engine.

Sometimes, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Scouts Out!

[Free Hand]

Just a footnote:  A considerable number of people have done a quite a bit of reasearch on the five so called Buntline Specials that Stewart Lake wrote about in "Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshall", and have concluded that they never existed, including myself. Recently,however, I recently discovered something on the internet that is rather thought provoking. If you're intrested in reading more about this, and see a photo of Mr Buntline, go to:  www.members.aol.com/gibson/0817/buntline.htm