The Wanderer: James Butler Hickok and the American West

With few notable exceptions, most of the men who gained fame in the post-civil war American West, once stripped of the fanciful myths that made up their public persona, have little left to justify that fame and regard. James Butler Hickok was one of the notable exceptions. He excelled in almost everything he did, and his precocious proclivities were evident very early. He fell in love with a half-Indian girl, was a bodyguard for a U.S. Senator, took part in two battles in the border war ski...