Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life

by Robert M. Utley

Overview

Robert M. Utley does what countless books, movies, television shows, musical compositions, and paintings have failed to do: he successfully strips off the veneer of legendry to expose the reality of Billy the Kid. Using previously untapped sources, he presents an engrossing story—the most complete and accurate ever—of a youthful hoodlum and sometime killer who found his calling in New Mexico’s bloody power struggle known as the Lincoln County War. In unmasking the legend Utley also tells us much about our heritage of frontier vigilantism and violence.
         

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803295667
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	12/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	503,686
Lexile:	1290L (what's this?)
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Robert M. Utley is a preeminent historian of the West and the author of numerous award-winning books, including The Last Days of the Sioux Nation; Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848–1865 (Nebraska, 1981); Custer and the Great Controversy: The Origin and Development of a Legend (Nebraska, 1998); and Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891 (Bison Books, 1984).
 

Editorial Reviews

Most Americans are familiar with the legend of the outlaw William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. Utley, a noted historian of the Old West, has written a scholarly biography of the Kid, which--as does all good biography--incorporates the history of his times. Using interviews conducted with the Kid's contemporaries, Utley draws a portrait of a youth who, while not the bloodthirsty killer painted by newspapers of the period, was not a Western Robin Hood, either. Utley concludes: ``Except in its final months . . . the Kid's career did not measure up to his reputation. Although a superb gunman and arresting personality, he was a quite ordinary outlaw . . . .'' While Pat Garrett's The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid (Univ. of Oklahoma Pr., 1954. o.p.; 1986. pap.) is useful for its contemporary portrait, public and academic libraries serving clients with an interest in the period or the region will want this title.-- Sue Kamm, Los Angeles P.L.

Library Journal

http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2010/08/a-pardon-for-billy-the-kid-.html

UNP blog - Cara Pesek

"Utley deftly slices away the veneer of legend to reveal the flesh-and-blood young man a tragic figure who was neither a mythical hero nor a ruthless killer, but a rather ordinary outlaw whose career did not live up to his reputation."—Michael Wallis, True West

True West - Michael Wallis

"In the last three decades, scholarship about Billy has shaken off its pulp origins and become professional, the best three books, in my view, being Robert M. Utley's Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life (1989), Frederick Nolan's The West of Billy the Kid (1998), and now Michael Wallis's Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride."—Larry McMurtry, New York Review of Books

New York Review of Books - Larry McMurtry

"In the last three decades, scholarship about Billy has shaken off its pulp origins and become professional, the best three books, in my view, being Robert M. Utley's Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life (1989), Frederick Nolan's The West of Billy the Kid (1998), and now Michael Wallis's Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride."—Larry McMurtry, New York Review of Books

— Larry McMurtry

New York Review of Books