Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: "Where Council Fires Gleamed".

1. The Cody (or Was It Coady?) Family Tree.

2. "The Youngest Indian Slayer on the Plains".

3. The Dark Side of "Manifest Destiny".

4. "The Swift Phantom of the Desert".

5. From Horse Thief to Cavalry Scout.

6. Cody Takes a Shot at Domestic Life.

7. Scouting with Sheridan.

8. The Battle of Summit Springs.

9. "Buffalo Bill, The King of Border Men".

10. More Fame--and the Medal of Honor.

11. Triumph--and Tragedy.

12. "More Like Fiction than Reality".

13. "The Vastly Enlarged and Reorganized Wild West".

14. "Purely and Distinctively American".

15. Crossing the "Big Water".

16. The Last of the Indian Wars.

17. "A Congress of Rough Riders".

18. "On the Threshold of 1900".

19. The Old Scout on "His Native Heath".

20. "The Man Who Broke My Heart".

Epilogue: The Legacy.

Source Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the Author

ROBERT A. CARTER is a widely published and versatile writer of both fiction and nonfiction with a strong interest in Western history. He is currently completing a novel set in 1882 in Colorado. A native mid-westerner, he now lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Reviews

"...fine account of a Western hero..." (The Independent Magazine, 1 June 2002)

"...fine account of a Western hero..." (The Independent Magazine, 1 June 2002)

Carter has separated fact from myth in this exhaustive biography of Buffalo Bill Cody, owner of Buffalo Bill's Wild West traveling show and symbol of America's conquest of the West. Carter explores Buffalo Bill's life, moving from his childhood to his marriage to his years as a scout, expert marksman, peerless Buffalo hunter, and, finally, entrepreneur-entertainer to the world. Carter includes biographies of major individuals in Buffalo Bill's life, among them his wife and friends Sioux leader Sitting Bull and sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and he discusses Cody's significance in major historical events such as America's ongoing warfare against Native Americans. While another recent biography of Cody by Jill Kasson (Buffalo Bill's Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular Culture, LJ 7/00) centers on the historical relation between the Wild West show and American national identity. Carter's work sticks more to the incredible life and simply seeks to demolish the myths as it narrates the nevertheless epic story of a man who took on mythical qualities. Recommended for public and undergraduate libraries.--Charles L. Lumpskins, Pennsylvania State Univ., Philadelphia