The Life and Legacy of Wild Bill Hickok E-Book

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: Legends of the West
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 61

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

"Wild Bill was a strange character. Add to this figure a costume blending the immaculate neatness of the dandy with the extravagant taste and style of a frontiersman, you have Wild Bill, the most famous scout on the Plains."" – General George Custer

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.

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.

The best known aspects of Hickok’s life hardly distinguish him from other famous Westerners. Like so many others, Hickok headed west as a fugitive of justice, yet that didn’t prevent him from becoming a frontier lawman in Kansas, like Wyatt Earp. Hickok also became well known in the West for being a professional gambler and a remarkably quick draw who proved quite deadly in shootouts, like Doc Holliday.

What made Hickok stand out from so many of his day was that he was both successful at what he did and he managed to cultivate his own legend through tales of his exploits. By the mid-1870s, Hickok was notorious enough that he went out of his way to play cards with his back to the wall so he could see anyone approaching him. On one of the few occasions he did not, August 2, 1876, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while holding two pair, Aces and Eights (all black), now known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

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. Hickok and his life story became the subject of countless “dime store” novels which cast him in larger than life roles loosely based on his adventures or entirely made up. Once Wild Bill became a fixture of American pop culture, he stayed there, and he continues to be depicted in television, movies, and the like.

Leseprobe

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wild Bill Hickok

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

Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876)

"Wild Bill was a strange character. Add to this figure a costume blending the immaculate neatness of the dandy with the extravagant taste and style of a frontiersman, you have Wild Bill, the most famous scout on the Plains."" – General George Custer

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.

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.

The best known aspects of Hickok’s life hardly distinguish him from other famous Westerners. Like so many others, Hickok headed west as a fugitive of justice, yet that didn’t prevent him from becoming a frontier lawman in Kansas, like Wyatt Earp. Hickok also became well known in the West for being a professional gambler and a remarkably quick draw who proved quite deadly in shootouts, like Doc Holliday.

What made Hickok stand out from so many of his day was that he was both successful at what he did and he managed to cultivate his own legend through tales of his exploits. By the mid-1870s, Hickok was notorious enough that he went out of his way to play cards with his back to the wall so he could see anyone approaching him. On one of the few occasions he did not, August 2, 1876, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while holding two pair, Aces and Eights (all black), now known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

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. Hickok and his life story became the subject of countless “dime store” novels which cast him in larger than life roles loosely based on his adventures or entirely made up. Once Wild Bill became a fixture of American pop culture, he stayed there, and he continues to be depicted in television, movies, and the like.

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wild Bill Hickok chronicles Wild Bill’s life, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story, attempting to separate fact from fiction to determine what the frontier legend was really like. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Wild Bill like you never have before, in no time at all.

Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Wild Bill Hickok

About Charles River Editors

Introduction

Chapter 1: Hickok’s Early Years

Childhood

Bleeding Kansas

Chapter 2: Nebraska and the Murder of Dave McCanles

Chapter 3: Civil War and the Hickok-Tutt Shootout

The Hickok-Tutt Shootout

Harper’s New Monthly Creates a Legend

Chapter 4: Wild Bill’s Career in Law Enforcement

Hays City, Kansas

Abilene, Kansas

Chapter 5: Wild Bill in Show Business

Chapter 6: Deadwood and Hickok’s Final Days

Agnes Lake

Deadwood and Calamity Jane

Deadman’s Hand at the Saloon No. 10

Chapter 7: Hickok’s Legacy

The Myth of Wild Bill Hickok

Bibliography

Chapter 1: Hickok’s Early Years

Childhood

James Butler Hickok was born on May 2, 1837 in Homer, Illinois to parents that had a clear sense of right and wrong. The English farm family, which could trace its heritage back to William Shakespeare, was part of the growing anti-slavery faction that was emerging in the decades before the Civil War. By the time Oliver and Polly Hickok’s son James was born, the underground railroad had been providing safe havens in the North for slaves fleeing the South for over a decade. The Hickok farmhouse, where Oliver and Polly raised six children, eventually became one of the stops on the underground railroad into north-central Illinois, about 90 miles southwest of Chicago.

This memorial marks the site of Wild Bill’s childhood home

Oliver Hickok owned his own store until the financial crisis of 1837, which forced him to do neighborhood chores just to make a living. James worked in the neighborhood, too, when he was old enough to do so, although he found that he preferred shooting game to feed the family instead of plowing farmland. He was good at it, too. Young James showed such a propensity for handling guns that it was not long before he was an expert marksman, a talent his community couldn’t help but notice either. A voracious reader, James soaked up the stories of the legends of the frontier, such as Kit Carson and Daniel Boone, and like many young men who grew up on the Plains, the expansive West held great allure. It represented freedom, open land, and opportunity.