Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends |  | Author: Allen Barra
Publisher: Castle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $9.99
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Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 276530
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.8
ISBN: 0785814949
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.02092
EAN: 9780785814948
ASIN: 0785814949
Publication Date: January 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Sorting through the innumerable legends about Wyatt Earp and his brothers is a monumental task, but Allen Barra, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a lifelong devotee of western lore, has tried mightily to sort the fact from fiction to determine once and for all if the Earps were heroes or villains. Judging by the cascade of films, books, and TV shows that have portrayed the Earps and their pal "Doc" Holliday, some people simply can't get enough of the legends, and those folks will find Inventing Wyatt Earp fascinating. The central event of the Earp story is the fabled gunfight near Tombstone's O.K. Corral, a violent eruption in a simmering feud between, believe it or not, frontier Democrats and Republicans. Barra delves deeply into the motivations of all the participants and those who would later tell their stories, and he deserves credit for conducting his prodigious research with skepticism. However, the thoroughness of Barra's approach is a double-edged sword: his relentless examination of Earp's life and the various accounts of it can at times lead the narrative into a blinding sandstorm of minor details. Nonetheless, for those with a strong interest in sorting out the truth about the legends of Tombstone, this book is a valuable source. --Robert McNamara
Product Description
The gunfight at the OK Corrall was merely on e incident in the life of the most remarkable figure of the American West. In his 82 years, Earp was a buffalo hunter, d etective, prospector, saloon keeper and finally an advisor o n Hollywood Westerns. '
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
It Doesn't Get Much Better... August 21, 2009
Charles R. Jones (Denver, Colorado USA)
I have been researching and reading about the Tombstone, AZ affair between the Earps, Doc Holliday, and the "Cowboys" for years. This book is an excellent means by which to understand the man who was Wyatt Earp, why and how he acted as he did, and what brought him to Tombstone. His relationships, quirks, and amazing courage as well as his keen sense of right and wrong, are well described within the covers of this book. I highly recommend it to all who are curious. The author has written one of the two best works ever written on this man! Wyatt's epitaph could easily have read..."Here Rests A Man!"
 A MUST READ December 17, 2008
Gary D. Schott
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
For anyone interested in the American West, or the incidents that took place in Tombstone Az this is a must read. I have this as well as numerous others, and this coupled with Casey Tefertiller's bio of Wyatt Earp will give the reader all they really need. Very well done.
Very Good Indeed November 2, 2008
Robert T. Reppert (Bandung, West Java Indonesia)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is very good bit of research and writing, an entertaining read. To me it is a companion work to Casey Tefertiller's Wyatt Earp biography. Both are great reads and both seem to let the facts, the research, lead them where they may.
 NOT HISTORICALLY SOUND July 5, 2008
Niceguy (Tucson, Arizona)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
IF YOU START READING THIS BOOK WITH CONSIDERABLE KNOWLEDGE OF WYATT EARP, YOU WILL PROBABLY TOSS IT DOWN IN DISGUST AND NEVER FINISH READING IT.
THEREFORE, BEFORE BUYING IT, YOU SHOULD GAIN THAT CONSIDERABLE KNOWLEDG FROM THE MANY OTHER EARP BOOKS THAT ARE OF MORE VALUE, SUCH AS STUART LAKE'S "WYATT EARP, FRONTIER MARSHAL," OR "I MARRIED WYATT EARP," (HIS WIFE'S MEMOIR). SINCE BARRA'S BOOK IS CERTAINLY NO PLACE TO START.
IF YOU DO THAT, YOU CAN RETURN TO PARAGRAPH ONE FOR A FORECAST OF WHAT A WASTE OF TIME THIS BOOK IS. AS THAT SACRED ELDER OF WESTERN WITING, C. LELAND SONNICHSEN, USED TO COMMENT: "I DON'T SEE WHY THIS BOOK HAD TO BE WRITTEN."
OTHER INSTA-EXPERT, OVERNIGHT WONDER EARP BOOKS TO SIMILARLY AVOID WERE WRITTEN BY PAULA MITCHELL MARKS, AND CASEY TEFERTILLER. THERE IS AN ERRONEOUS BELIEF THAT APPLIES TO MARKS, THAT THE TIME DEVOTED TO GETTING A PHD. CAN MASTER ANY SUBJECT. THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT SUCH A BRIEF SPURT ISN'T ENOUGH TO MASTER MUCH OF ANYTHING. AS FOR TEFERTILLER, A SPORTS WRITER LIKE BARRA, HE SHOULD STICK TO REPORTING ON THE GREAT "EXPCTORATOR" SPORT, AND GIRLS' SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL.
IF YOU DO BUY ONE OF BARRA'S BOOK, GO TO THE USED ONES. THE LOW PRICE OF ONE IN HARD COVER USED SHOULD CONFIRM WHAT I SAY ABOVE. AT ABOUT FIVE BUCKS APIECE THEY ARE A GOOD INVESTMENT, SINCE IN A FEW YEARS THEY WILL SELL AS CURIOSITIES FOR A LOT MORE THAN THAT. IN THE INTERIM, WHILE WAITING FOR YOUR PROFITS, S SMALL INVESTMENT WILL ENABLE YOU TO BIND THEM IN CARPET AND USE THEM FOR DOORSTOPS, PAPERWEIGHTS AND LIKE THAT.
 Frequent typos, poor editing doom otherwise good book March 31, 2008
Gregory B. Iverson
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I start a project, I generally finish it. That includes reading a book. But I can't tell you how many times I nearly shelved this book in disgust all because of the MANY typos, omitted words, unclosed quotes and unclosed parentheses, etc., as other reviewers have previously noted. Mr. Barra thanks his proofreader in the acknowledgments but I don't know why. If she is the one responsible for all these many mistakes - I lost count but there must be scores - Mr. Barra's gratitude is misplaced. That the book is informative is without question. It is, accordingly, unfortunate to the extreme that mere editorial sloppiness made reading it almost painful. I'm not usually uncharitable in my remarks about the well-researched work of others but this book is undeniably the poorest example of editing that I have ever encountered for published material. It's sad that simple things like spelling and grammar and syntax overshadow scholarship.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
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