Legends of the West E-Book

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 54

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the “Wild West”, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors’ Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Of all the colorful characters that inhabited the West during the 19th century, the most famous of them all is Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), who has long been regarded as the embodiment of the Wild West. Considered the "toughest and deadliest gunman of his day", Earp symbolized the swagger, the heroism, and even the lawlessness of the West, notorious for being a law enforcer, gambler, saloon keeper, and vigilante. The Western icon is best known for being a sheriff in Tombstone, but before that he had been arrested and jailed several times himself, in one case escaping from prison, and he was not above gambling and spending time in “houses of ill-fame”.  

The seminal moment in Earp’s life also happened to be the West’s most famous gunfight, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which famously pitted Earp, his brothers Morgan and Virgil, and Doc Holliday against Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury. Though the gunfight lasted less than a minute, it is still widely remembered as the climactic event of the period, representing lawlessness and justice, vendettas, and a uniquely Western moral code. For Earp, the aftermath led to assassination attempts on his brothers, one of which was successful, touching off the “Earp Vendetta Ride”.

By the end of the 19th century, Earp was already a poignant symbol of that time and day, having permanently etched his name in the folklore of the West, but he stayed out west, engaging in everything from gold mining to vigilante justice on the Mexican border. A living legend, he even served as an advisor to early Hollywood, which was already pumping out Western movies. When he died in 1929 at the age of 80, one of the West’s toughest fighers and one of its longest survivors had finally passed

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wyatt Earp details Earp’s amazing life and career, including all of its famous ups and infamous downs, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Wyatt Earp like you never have before, in no time at all.

Leseprobe

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wyatt Earp

By Charles River Editors

About Charles River Editors

Charles River Editors was founded by Harvard and MIT alumni to provide superior editing and original writing services, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, Charles River Editors republishes civilization’s greatest literary works, bringing them to a new generation via ebooks.

Introduction

Wyatt Earp (1848-1929)

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the “Wild West”, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors’ Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Of all the colorful characters that inhabited the West during the 19th century, the most famous of them all is Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), who has long been regarded as the embodiment of the Wild West. Considered the "toughest and deadliest gunman of his day", Earp symbolized the swagger, the heroism, and even the lawlessness of the West, notorious for being a law enforcer, gambler, saloon keeper, and vigilante. The Western icon is best known for being a sheriff in Tombstone, but before that he had been arrested and jailed several times himself, in one case escaping from prison, and he was not above gambling and spending time in “houses of ill-fame”.

The seminal moment in Earp’s life also happened to be the West’s most famous gunfight, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which famously pitted Earp, his brothers Morgan and Virgil, and Doc Holliday against Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury. Though the gunfight lasted less than a minute, it is still widely remembered as the climactic event of the period, representing lawlessness and justice, vendettas, and a uniquely Western moral code. For Earp, the aftermath led to assassination attempts on his brothers, one of which was successful, touching off the “Earp Vendetta Ride”.

By the end of the 19th century, Earp was already a poignant symbol of that time and day, having permanently etched his name in the folklore of the West, but he stayed out west, engaging in everything from gold mining to vigilante justice on the Mexican border. A living legend, he even served as an advisor to early Hollywood, which was already pumping out Western movies. When he died in 1929 at the age of 80, one of the West’s toughest fighers and one of its longest survivors had finally passed

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wyatt Earp details Earp’s amazing life and career, including all of its famous ups and infamous downs, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Wyatt Earp like you never have before, in no time at all.

Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp (right) in Dodge City, 1876. 

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wyatt Earp

About Charles River Editors

Introduction

Chapter 1: Wyatt’s Early Years

Childhood Years

Return to His Family

On the Move Again

Chapter 2: Tombstone, Arizona

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Earp’s Vengeance Ride

Chapter 3: Wyatt and Sadie Roam the West

San Diego

San Francisco

Alaska, Seattle, and Back Again

Alaska and Nevada

Los Angeles

Hollywood

The Quest to Set the Record Straight

Chapter 4: Wyatt Dies but a Legend is Born

Bibliography

Chapter 1: Wyatt’s Early Years

Childhood Years

Wyatt and his mother

Nicholas Porter Earp was a wanderer. As a young man, he led his family as they crisscrossed the Plains and into the western United States, always in search of the next "big thing" that could put money in his pocket. On July 27, 1840, the widower with one son married Virginia Ann Cooksey in Hartford, Kentucky. They had eight children, including Nick Earp's fourth son, Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp. Wyatt was born on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois, and was named for his father's captain in the Mexican-American War. Shortly after he was born, Nick moved the family to a farm in Pella, Iowa, where the family would remain for several years.

Wyatt’s boyhood home in Pella

Being the son of Nick Earp could be challenging. He was known to drink to excess, didn't always pay his bills, and could be a bully. His sons were a close-knit group, to the point that Wyatt tried to run away and join his older brothers, Newton, James, and Virgil, when they were fighting for the Union in the Civil War. More than once, Nick found 13 year-old Wyatt and had to bring him back home. Wyatt became a proficient - if unwilling - farmer by the time the Earps pulled up stakes again in 1864, this time to join a wagon train headed to California.

It was in California that the Earps heard the news that Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac at Appomattox, informally bringing the Civil War to an end. With the end of the war came the true unification of the United States, at least in geography if not in ideals and culture. Considered by many to be the greatest engineering innovation of the 19th century, the Transcontinental Railroad would not only bring people, industry, goods, and ideas west, it would provide Wyatt with work as a young man and expose him to the type of rough and tumble environment that he revisited time and again throughout his life.