Ebook59 pages1 hour
Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: The Wild West's Odd Couple
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
1/5
()
About this ebook
In many ways, the narrative of the Wild West has endured more as legend than reality, and a perfect example of that can be found in the legend of James Butler Hickok (1837-1876), forever known as “Wild Bill”. Indeed, separating fact from fiction when it comes to the life of Wild Bill is nearly impossible, something due in great measure to the fact that the man himself exaggerated his own adventures or fabricated stories altogether. When he was killed while playing poker in the mining South Dakotan outpost of Deadwood, he put Deadwood on the map and ensured both his place and his poker hand’s place in legend. Whether Hickok’s legacy would have endured without his legendary death is anyone’s guess, but by becoming the first well known Westerner to die with his boots on, he immediately became the West’s first hero.
The most famous woman of the Wild West was also possibly the most colorful and mysterious. “Considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age”, Calamity Jane claimed to be a veteran of the Indian Wars, a scout, and the wife of Wild Bill Hickok, all on the way to becoming a dime novel heroine. While all of those legends have stuck, it’s unclear to what extent if any they are actually true, and even her contemporaries doubted the authenticity of her statements. More than anything, people in frontier towns like Deadwood looked on with amusement at the girl who was more often than not drunk and was described by one of Wild Bill’s friends as “simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish.” Her frequent drinking binges and her insistence that messing with her would “court calamity” had helped establish her nickname even before she arrived in Deadwood in the mid-1870s.
Ultimately, Calamity Jane’s tall tales, eccentric personality, and association with Wild Bill would all make her a popular figure in the last quarter of the 19th century, and she became so well known that she started taking part in traveling shows of the kind made famous by Buffalo Bill Cody, where spectators could hear her colorfully (and drunkenly) talk about her life in the Wild West, with each telling stretching the truth ever further. Her legacy continued to crystallize after her death and eventually turn her into a legend, immortalized in countless dime novels, books, TV and the silver screen, helping make some of her contemporaries and surroundings notorious as well.
The most famous woman of the Wild West was also possibly the most colorful and mysterious. “Considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age”, Calamity Jane claimed to be a veteran of the Indian Wars, a scout, and the wife of Wild Bill Hickok, all on the way to becoming a dime novel heroine. While all of those legends have stuck, it’s unclear to what extent if any they are actually true, and even her contemporaries doubted the authenticity of her statements. More than anything, people in frontier towns like Deadwood looked on with amusement at the girl who was more often than not drunk and was described by one of Wild Bill’s friends as “simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish.” Her frequent drinking binges and her insistence that messing with her would “court calamity” had helped establish her nickname even before she arrived in Deadwood in the mid-1870s.
Ultimately, Calamity Jane’s tall tales, eccentric personality, and association with Wild Bill would all make her a popular figure in the last quarter of the 19th century, and she became so well known that she started taking part in traveling shows of the kind made famous by Buffalo Bill Cody, where spectators could hear her colorfully (and drunkenly) talk about her life in the Wild West, with each telling stretching the truth ever further. Her legacy continued to crystallize after her death and eventually turn her into a legend, immortalized in countless dime novels, books, TV and the silver screen, helping make some of her contemporaries and surroundings notorious as well.
Read more from Charles River Editors
Religions of the World: The Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Legends: The Salem Witch Trials Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology and the Religion of the Ancient Celts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Legends of Music: The Life and Legacy of Tupac Shakur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ancient Artifacts: The Dead Sea Scrolls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Any Means Necessary: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane
Related ebooks
Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Calamity Jane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRich People Behaving Badly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remembering the White House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrowing Up on Route 66 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMcLean Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLafitte: the pirate of the Gulf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucille Ball: Biography of the Famous American Actress Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBelding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittleton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5New Bedford Mansions: Historic Tales of County Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFront Row At The White House: My Life and Times Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters from the Closet: Ten Years of Correspondence That Changed My Life Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5John Wilkes Booth and Robert Lincoln: Rivals in Love? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStarved Rock State Park:: The Work of the CCC Along the I&M Canal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lincolns in the White House: Four Years That Shattered a Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edith Wharton: New Year's Day, False Dawn, The Old Maid & The Spark (4 Books in One Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSex and Sexuality in Early America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsButch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid: The Lives and Legacies of the Wild West's Famous Outlaw Duo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembering Fishkill Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Complete Works of Jenkins Lloyd Jones Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeattle's Great Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Galveston Buccaneers: Shearn Moody and the 1934 Texas League Championship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gilded Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grand Haven Area: 1860-1960 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWill County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCalamity Jane and Her Siblings: The Saga of Lena and Elijah Canary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Album: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
1/5
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane - Charles River Editors
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1