Looking for Book Recommendations on Billy the Kid or just Western Lore in General

Bag

9:12a, 3/18/24

Have done several deep dives in recent years (Pirates, Napoleon, WW2...)
Now I want to do several books on The Frontier (Billy the Kid, Wells Fargo...) Does anyone have good books on this subject ?

Bighunter43

12:54p, 3/18/24

I'd recommend Billy the Kid: A short and Violent Life by Robert M. Utley! It's well researched and well written!!

BQ78

1:00p, 3/18/24

Utley's is the best.

Gardner's To Hell on a Fast Horse gets you the Kid and Pat Garrett.

For western lore, Gunn's The Last Gunfight is the OK Corral without the myth and as exciting as the movie.

galveston

1:03p, 3/18/24

Empire of the Summer Moon: A stunning historical account of the forty-year battle for control of the American West and of one of its most remarkable narratives: the century-spanning saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her half-white son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanche

BQ78

1:19p, 3/18/24

Oh another good western lore is Winston Groom's (Forest Gump) Kearney's March. Typically I do not recommend his history books, although he is a good writer but this one is worth it. It basically talks about the west in 1846 as the Mexican War begins but it is bigger than that and amazing how much was happening in the western territories in that year. Think Oregon Trail and Donner Party too.

StockHorseAg

3:53p, 3/18/24

This is a really good one on Wells Fargo.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/stagecoach-wells-fargo-and-the-american-west_philip-l-fradkin_andy-anderson/394099/item/5592987/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_midlist_standard_shopping_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=666157863328&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwzN-vBhAkEiwAYiO7oOs2dDWKSerzjGT9rruzTo_FIjn4BS0pskaIErejFEyjHX-DT7TJKBoCBwYQAvD_BwE#idiq=5592987&edition=5969714

AgRyan04

6:42p, 3/18/24

Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

chick79

9:35a, 3/19/24

Anything by Tom Clavin. Tombstone, Dodge City and The Last Outlaws.

Aggie1205

11:42a, 3/19/24

John Ringo: King of the Cowboys

YZ250

12:40p, 3/19/24

I like two Pulitzer prize winners about the American west in the 1800s.

Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto and Exploration and Empire.by William Goetzmann.

Bag

3:33p, 3/19/24

sounds like empire of a summer moon is getting a lot of play, I think i will start there

Cen-Tex

6:01p, 3/19/24

In reply to Bag

Bag said:
sounds like empire of a summer moon is getting a lot of play, I think i will start there

Have you watched the movie…. Old Henry ?

Agthatbuilds

8:23p, 3/19/24

Indian deparadations of texas

one safe place

11:39p, 3/19/24

In reply to AgRyan04

AgRyan04 said:
Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

Must be a big desk!

Bag

11:32a, 3/20/24

In reply to AgRyan04

AgRyan04 said:
Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

amazing list, cant wait to dig in

AgRyan04

9:17p, 3/20/24

In reply to one safe place

lol....fair point!

Maybe not ALL of them are on my desk, but a lot of them

whoop1995

7:39a, 3/21/24

I was just in Lincoln, New Mexico touring the town and asked a couple of park rangers questions about billy the kid and all of them referred me to this book below by Frederick Nolan.

I haven't read it yet but if the people on the ground referred it…….

I collect ticket stubs! looking for a 1944 orange bowl and 1981 independence bowl ticket stub as well as Aggie vs tu stubs - 1926 and below, 1935-1937, 1939-1944, 1946-1948, 1950-1951, 1953, 1956-1957, 1959, 1960, 1963-1966, 1969-1970, 1972-1974, 1980-1981, 1983-1984, 1990, 2004, 2008, 2010

OldArmy71

10:28a, 3/21/24

In reply to YZ250

Quote:
Exploration and Empire.by William Goetzmann.

That's a name I haven't heard in years.

I took two graduate history/American Studies courses from him in the mid 70s. (The classes were listed in both departments.) I have wondered if people were still reading his book.

Bag

7:11a, 4/11/24

In reply to galveston

galveston said:
Empire of the Summer Moon: A stunning historical account of the forty-year battle for control of the American West and of one of its most remarkable narratives: the century-spanning saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her half-white son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanche

Just finished this one, great book, really enjoyed it, thanks for the tip

Bag

2:58p, 4/12/24

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West is up next

army79

12:13a, 4/15/24

Shotgun For Hire
About the hired gun that killed Pat Garrett - the man that killed Billy the Kid

BQ78

11:44a, 4/15/24

While searching the bookshelf to answer the Waterloo book recommendation I found another Billy the Kid book that iI should have included above:

Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.