The Saga of Billy the Kid

Historians of the Frontier and American West

by Walter Noble Burns

First published in 1926, this entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. Saga focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and 1881. Burns paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanized into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilization was rapidly displacing. His destroyer was Pat Garrett, the courageous sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett's shooting of Billy in 1881 hastened the closing of the American frontier. Walter Noble Burns's Saga of Billy the Kid kindled a fascination in Billy the Kid that survives to this day. Richard W. Etulain's foreword discusses the singular importance of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Westerns, True Crime, American

322 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Walter Noble Burns was a writer of Western history and a Western fiction author, notable for his book, The Saga of Billy the Kid (1926).

Reviews

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

1926 Doubleday, Page & Company "Book Of The Month Selection"
Burns makes no claim that this is a work of historical fact. Like most of the stories about William H. Bonny, its a mixture of legend and first hand accounts.

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was just as much a story about Billy the Kid as it was about Pat Garrett and other characters of the wild west. Interesting enough but did not make me want to learn more.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely glad that in my research of Billy the Kid I chose this first. Reads like a mish-mash of non-fiction and pulp-western novel, and probably a lot of this is glorified romance...but I write FICTION, man. I want the historical details to be solid, but if I gotta choose between the mythical Billy the Kid and a sanitized one, I'll go with mythical, thanks...

[Don Voorhees · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fictional account with just a smattering of truth. Burns has written a saga, as the title suggests. You should also read "A Fitting Death for Billy the Kid" by Ramon Adams for more factual accounts of the incidents.

[Carolina Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nicely detailed review of Billy the Kid's rampage across New Mexico. Written in 1926, when a few of the witnesses were still alive to tell the tale, it has some credibility.
A must-have for anyone interested in a history of the lawless old west.

[Ralph Estes]

Poor; copies Garrett a lot, makes a lot up. But some quotes from persons still alive that he talked with.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out interesting but slowly bogged down in what I initially thought was poor psychological analysis. Eventually, I took a closer look at the book and author and realized it had been written in the 1920s. While the facts were good, a lot of the analysis and commentary didn't hold up.

[Firepsych · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like half fiction, half fact. Way too much detail, especially in conversations between individuals that must be speculation rather than fact. Still, entertaining and gives you some idea of who BTK was.

[Jeff Wombold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old west

This was a good book, but it seemed to paint a picture of a not so blood thirsty outlaw, but a ruthless killer that was both friendly, but would kill those who wronged him. Pat Garrett said he smiled a lot and never looked for trouble.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Some embellishment but made the read more vivid.

[Jim Mccabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Strong narrative. Burns knew how to tell a story.

[Sarah Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

was not what i thought it was. was only like one chapter about billy the kid and the rest were other people relevant to him.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that my husband I picked up a long time ago from a used book store. I thought it would be more of a scholarly work than it turned out to be.

Walter Noble Burns seemed to have a fascination with Billy the Kid which shows in his writing as a bit of a bias toward Billy the Kid. The events in this book happened in the Old West during 1978-1981 primarily. The book was published in 1926, some 45 years afterwards. Therefore, people and events were still fresh in the memory of those interviewed and in the collective memory of the region. Given that fact, it is hard to discount the events recalled unless you remember that memory changes over time. Despite that, it is evident that this bad man, Billy the Kid, was kind of a Robin Hood in the thoughts of the people who interacted with him.

I have often thought of the types of people who populate a new country or area - of the fortitude, the determination, and sometimes the desperation it would take to not run back home. It was a hard time and people did their best to live. That meant figuring out a code to live by where the law and order was mostly up to each one. Billy's code was adaptive for a time, but did not fit with civilization as it grew in the west.

I gave this book 3* due to the writing and the descriptions of the land, where the events occurred.

[Bill Melville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written nearly a century ago, Burns' chronicle of the legendary outlaw includes firsthand recollections from many people who encountered the kid in his short life. The author also sets the backdrop that allowed by someone like Billy the Kid to grow infamous in just five years in New Mexico. The story of Billy the Kid is necessarily interwoven with those of the Lincoln County cattle barons and Pat Garrett, a one-time ally who became sheriff and eventually hunted down The Kid. It definitely feels like it was written in a different era, but the book is better for that feel.

[T.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.