Synopses & Reviews
Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Joaquandiacute;n Murrieta are fixed in the American imagination as towering legends of the Old West. But that has not always been the case. There was a time when these men were largely forgotten relics of a bygone era. Then, in the early twentieth century, an obscure Chicago newspaperman changed all that.
Walter Noble Burns (1872andndash;1932) served with the First Kentucky Infantry during the Spanish-American War and covered General John J. Pershingandrsquo;s pursuit of Pancho Villa in Mexico as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. However history-making these forays may seem, they were only the beginning. In the last six years of his life, Burns wrote three books that propelled New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid, Tombstone marshal Wyatt Earp, and California bandit Joaquandiacute;n Murrieta into the realm of legend.
Despite Burnsandrsquo;s remarkable command of his subjectsandmdash;based on exhaustive research and interviewsandmdash;he has been largely ignored by scholars because of the popular, even occasionally fictional, approach he employed. In American Mythmaker, the first literary biography of Burns, Mark J. Dworkin brings Burns out of the shadows. Through careful analysis of The Saga of Billy the Kid (1926), Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest (1927), and The Robin Hood of Eldorado: The Saga of Joaquandiacute;n Murrieta (1932) and their reception, Dworkin shows how Burns used his journalistic training to introduce the history of the American West to his eraandrsquo;s general readership. In the process, Burns made his subjects household names.
Are Burnsandrsquo;s books fact or fiction? Was he a historian or a novelist? Dworkin considers these questions as he uncovers the story behind Burnsandrsquo;s mythmaking works. A long-overdue biography of a writer who shaped our idea of western history, American Mythmaker documents in fascinating detail the fashioning of some of the greatest American legends.
Review
andldquo;American Mythmaker is a book for the ages, an important and much-needed roadmap to that place where, because ofand#160;Walter Noble Burns,and#160;western history and storytelling met in an indelible way. Itandrsquo;s a tribute to author and historian Mark J. Dworkin that we learn how and why the legends we love to believe were crafted, without our losing any sense ofand#160;their addictive frontier magic.andrdquo;andmdash;Jeff Guinn, author of The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corralandmdash;And How It Changed the American West
Synopsis
Walter Noble Burns (1872andndash;1932) served with the First Kentucky Infantry during the Spanish-American War and covered General John J. Pershingandrsquo;s pursuit of Pancho Villa in Mexico as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. However history-making these forays may seem, they were only the beginning. In the last six years of his life, Burns wrote three books that propelled New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid, Tombstone marshal Wyatt Earp, and California bandit Joaquandiacute;n Murrieta into the realm of legend.
About the Author
Mark J. Dworkin (1946andndash;2012) is the author of Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas: Mysteries of Ancient Civilizations of Central and South America and numerous articles, including several on Walter Noble Burns.