Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend

Get to Know the Man Behind the Legend

In ¿Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend¿ Gary Roberts immediately establishes his credentials in historical research and although he comes from a life in academia, that never inhibits his storytelling ability. Roberts tells about a young Atlanta dentist, his family conflicts, the relationship with his catholic cousin Mattie Holliday, contracting tuberculosis and then moving west. Doc continues his dental practice in Dallas where he is attracted to saloon life and becomes a skilled gambler. In Ft. Griffin, Texas Kate Elder sets her sights on Doc and when trouble comes and a noose is about to be tied around Doc¿s neck Kate executes a daring escape plan and the two of them ride north to Dodge City, Kansas where they begin a tumultuous relationship. Doc sets up a dental practice in the cattle town and establishes good relations with the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Eddie Foy. When a wild bunch of drunken cowboy¿s corner assistant city Marshall Wyatt Earp Doc hurries to his rescue. Wyatt is grateful to Doc and that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Later they wind up in Tombstone, Arizona. A corrupt political ring runs Cochise County and uses a cowboy faction as muscle. Wyatt¿s intent to run for Cochise County Sheriff on a ticket of law and order opens up a hornet¿s nest. When the showdown comes Doc joins Wyatt and his brothers on the side of law and order in the shootout at the OK Corral. Ring lawyers accuse the Earps and Holliday of murder and take them to court. A twenty-eight day hearing, before Judge Spicer, frees Doc and the others but the cowboy¿s won¿t quit. They harass the mayor and Judge Spicer, ambush and wound Virgil Earp and assassinate Morgan Earp. Roberts continues the post Tombstone story with Jail time for Doc in Denver and a shooting episode in Leadville. Then on November 8, 1887 Doc succumbs to tuberculosis and is buried in Linwood Cemetery at Glenwood Springs, Colorado. You will enjoy this engaging and informative book while getting to know the man behind the legend. Tom Barnes author of ¿Doc Holliday¿s Road to Tombstone.¿

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The definitive biography of a legend

This is a long-awaited book that is destined to be a classic in American biography. Gary L. Roberts has captured the life and the legend of his fellow Georgian in a manner unlikely to be excelled in our lifetime. The highly respected Roberts, who has written dozens of articles about various aspects of western history over more than four decades, is Professor Emeritus of History at Abraham Baldwin College, and is the acclaimed author of the acclaimed study of 19th century New Mexico mayhem, ¿Death Comes for the Chief Justice: The Slough-Rynerson Quarrel and Political Violence in New Mexico.¿ This book is the culmination of a lifetime of research into the life of the legendary gunfighting dentist, and Roberts often harkens back to sources he tapped many decades ago, sources long unavailable. Several features make this a work apart. There is Roberts¿s vivid writing style, with prose that sparkles and at times touches the reader to the core. This is especially true of the magnificently written final two chapters- lengthy analyses of the Doc Holliday legend this reviewer believes are destined to become classics- The Anatomy of a Western Legend, and The Measure of a Legend. Dr. Roberts brings to this field a wider view of western American history and its themes than most writers in this genre are interested in studying, placing Doc in the context of the Railroad Age, the coming of the Industrial Revolution to the American West, the closing of the frontier, and more. His feel for historical process enables him to deliver measured judgments that are convincing. Roberts¿ understanding of Holliday¿s roots in antebellum Georgia, his boyhood Civil War trials, and the chaos of the Reconstruction Era comes naturally to this author from the Peach State. Readers will find much new material on many figures and episodes, and this reviewer found the bringing of Doc¿s sometime paramour Big Nose Kate to life particularly believable. Kate is a real human being for perhaps the first time in western letters. Yet the author does not claim to have the final word on the intriguing figure of John Henry Holliday true historian that he is, he understands historical writing as part of an ongoing dialogue. To that end he has used a prodigious amount of modern research, seemingly leaving no stone unturned, and has listed his sources in a detailed and admirable section of annotated endnotes that scholars will be using for years to come. The photographs sprinkled throughout the text will add to the reader¿s experience. Readers interested in the sagas of Dodge City, Tombstone, and the single most famous stand-up and face each other gunfight in the history of the American West, and yet who want more than the Hollywood versions of these, will want to read this book. Doc Holliday, The Life and Legend, makes a fine companion to the 1997 biography Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend by Roberts¿s research colleague Casey Tefertiller. It is unlikely an accident that the titles of both books are similar. Both books have advanced our understanding of these two household names, and Roberts here has deepened our knowledge of not only the life, but the context of the life and the development and meaning of the legend of Doc Holliday.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

VERY DISAPPOINTED

The first 300 pages are mainly about Wyatt Earp and his brothers. An occasional paragraph popped up concerning Doc Holliday which barely held my interest.

Sometimes The Truth Can Be A Letdown

Other reviewers seem split on this book - they either love or hate it. While I think Roberts did a fine job as far as not inventing new facts or accepting old legends, the book seems padded to me. Perhaps 50 pages less of supposition would have made this a better read. Doc left so little of himself behind that he makes a difficult subject for a biography and there is no way to decide if he was hero or villian.

factually negligent and lacking proper research

Roberts book, another attempt to capture something unique, has fallen short of its presumed goal of a 'new' offering concerning an American Western legend. Starting out, kudos to Gilchriese and Bartholomew as noted historians that contributed to his work,Roberts might as well have included Pinochio to form a trio of nose growers. Not crediting Glenn Boyer (with Bill Bork) as the premier Big Nose Kate researcher is more than ridiculous, and perhaps, a personal slight. Finally, many errors crop up within the text, such as on page 197 where Roberts is taking us thru the famous October '81 street fight: '....Tom McLaury grabbed his coat lapels and threw them back.....' It is well documented by serious historians that Tom was wearing a shirt and had NO coat. This effort was disappointing and offered nothing new to the West's most famous dentist.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

If you recognize the name DOC HOLLIDAY, this book is FOR YOU!!!

Wow - what an intriguing account, written by one of the best authorities on the Old Western Frontier. Books don't get any better than this, and if you have ANY interest in the names Wyatt Earp, Ike Clanton, or Doc Holliday, you MUST BUY THIS BOOK !! You will find yourself 'walking back in time', like 'you're in the story itself'. The HIGH ANXIETY of the incredible tangles associated with lawmen, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, Cow-Boys, revenge, and so forth, will keep your heart rate moving at a clip! I strongly recommend this book, and commend the author for an OUTSTANDING piece of work, so detailed and thorough, and yet so readable!! BUY THIS BOOK for yourself, or as a gift! It will remain a FAVORITE in your home library!!

Informative but disappointing

The book should really be entitled The TIMES And Life Of Doc Holliday. It was very slow to develop and read more like a history text book rather than a biography. The first third of the book has way to many names and dates and minimally related events. Robert's obsessive concern with backing up his writings with facts, names and quotes seems to over ride the development of the novel. The book was informative but challenging to read and and related less to Doc Holliday, the person than I would have liked. Overall I felt I learned a lot but more about the times rather than about Doc. The second half of the book does do a better job allowing the reader to feel they were getting to know Doc.

Beautifuly done!!!

This is one of the best books I've read and I plan on buying it next chance i get. If you've ever been interested in Doc Holliday, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, or the wild west, you need to read this! Just after reading this I watched Tombstone and took a special interest in guns. It makes you want to go back in time and meet the infamous Doc Holliday!

The real Val Kilmer

The author claims that his biography of the notorious Western gunslinger is not the definitive one, but it's difficult to believe that more information about Doc Holliday will be unearth any time soon. Here is a well-crafted portrait of a tragic figure, a lonely, cultured Southern gentleman, dying of tuberculosis, who may have been a successful businessman and pillar of the community as a practicing dentist, but who had too many inner demons to battle--one of which may have been unrequited love--to be content with respectability. A gambler, a drunkard, a dangerous gunslinger, courageous according to the Southern code of honor but not fatalistic, a devoted friend to Wyatt Earp and a feared enemy to everyone who betrayed him. His exploits in Tombstone turned him into a true American legend, whose actual life may be always obscured by the tall tales spun about him. But he has cast a long shadow over our knowledge of the Old West, and the tapestry of American nineteenth-century history would not be as rich without him. Wherever he is, may he be resting in peace, and may the author of this fine biography be thanked for writing about him.

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