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Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend
Acclaim for Doc Holliday "Splendid . . . not only the most readable yet definitive study of Holliday yet published, it is one of the best biographies of nineteenth-century Western 'good-bad men' to appear in the last twenty years. It was so vivid and gripping that I read it twice." --Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University, and author of The New Encyclopedia of the American West "The history of the American West is full of figures who have lived on as romanticized legends. They deserve serious study simply because they have continued to grip the public imagination. Such was Doc Holliday, and Gary Roberts has produced a model for looking at both the life and the legend of these frontier immortals." --Robert M. Utley, author of The Lance and the The Life and Times of Sitting Bull "Doc Holliday emerges from the shadows for the first time in this important work of Western biography. Gary L. Roberts has put flesh and soul to the man who has long been one of the most mysterious figures of frontier history. This is both an important work and a wonderful read." --Casey Tefertiller, author of Wyatt The Life Behind the Legend "Gary Roberts is one of a foremost class of writers who has created a real literature and authentic history of the so-called Western. His exhaustively researched and beautifully written Doc The Life and Legend reveals a pathetically ill and tortured figure, but one of such intense loyalty to Wyatt Earp that it brought him limping to the O.K. Corral and into the glare of history." --Jack Burrows, author of John The Gunfighter Who Never Was "Gary L. Roberts manifested an interest in Doc Holliday at a very early age, and he has devoted these past thirty-odd years to serious and detailed research in the development and writing of Doc The Life and Legend. The world knows Holliday as Doc Holliday. Family members knew him as John. Somewhere in between the two lies the real John Henry Holliday. Roberts reflects this concept in his writing. This book should be of interest to Holliday devotees as well as newly found readers." --Susan McKey Thomas, cousin of Doc Holliday and coauthor of In Search of the Hollidays
805 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
October 19, 2008
I gave it three stars for the author's research. But as far as story telling I would give two stars. It was a bitch to get through. It is thoroughly, thoroughly, and thoroughly researched. The author will go off on tangents about ALL the characters involved no matter how small a person's role, the politics at the time, the players involved in those politics, everything. A particular moment in Doc's life is backed up by pages and pages of information about everyone else that had even a small role in whatever the particular moment maybe. With all that info it is too bad it could not have been told by a better storyteller with strong editing skills.
May 29, 2021
This book has a promising start, looking at Doc Holliday's formative years in Georgia. Since little is known about the legendary frontier gambler/gunman, the observations about how the Old South shaped him are quite informative. There is also a solid look at his final years in Colorado. In between, there is his time in Tombstone. The story falls apart here. Doc had a famous friend named Wyatt Earp; in case you ever forget, Roberts will remind you. Much like most of the movies about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Earp is the focus here. Doc is relegated to sideshow status in his own book. The author has assembled an impressive amount of research; if only he had edited it better. The book has too much detail, bogging down the narrative and offering readers down too many dry gulches of exposition. Unless you are planning your own book on frontier Tombstone, give this book a pass.
January 2, 2016
This is the biography of a man who left no account of himself in his own words, which means it as much a book about "Doc Holliday" as it is about John Henry Holliday, D.D.S. Possibly slightly more. Given the inevitable constraints of its subject matter, I think it is an excellent book and excellent biography (the two overlap, but are not necessarily the same); Roberts is very careful about distinguishing between facts, fiction, and the stuff in the mushy area in-between. He's also very good about pointing out things we want to be true, such as the legend of the romance between Doc and his cousin Mattie (later Sister Mary Melanie), or the even more unsupported legend that Kate Elder nursed Doc on his deathbed.
I am furious at Mattie's sister Marie, who burned Doc's letters; in "protecting" her sister, she destroyed what seems to have been history's only chance to see John Henry Holliday without the obscuring lens of other peoples' agendas. (Which is not to say the letters wouldn't have been colored by his own agenda, but at least the coloration in that case would be intrinsic.) From Perry Mallon to Bat Masterton to Wyatt Earp to Mary Katharine Cummings (assuming that she was, in fact, Kate Elder, as Roberts does and I find myself inclined to agree), everyone who spoke about Doc at any length had a blatant agenda of his or her own; mostly these agendas are transparent (except for Bat Masterson, about whom I find myself thinking, wtf?) and mostly they are about saving the speaker's reputation at Doc's expense. (Wyatt and Kate, I am looking AT YOU.) Mallon, of course, is entirely self-serving and made of lies, but Roberts shows his part in creating the legend of Doc Holliday--it's kind of scary, actually, to see how, once something has been said, no amount of debunking or disproving can make it go away entirely.
The description that sums Doc up for me is this one, which Roberts attributes to Lee Smith: "He did not have a quarrelsome disposition, but managed to get into more difficulties than almost any man I ever saw" (379). It's hard not to become partisan; Doc Holliday was not a good man, but he seems to have been striving to be the best man he could be under the rotten circumstances he found himself in. This quality makes him show up well against not only the Cow-Boys (especially Ike Clanton), but also against the self-serving revisionism of Wyatt Earp and Kate Elder. Of course, we can't know what Doc would have said if he'd lived longer, but I tend to think that, while it might not have been strictly truthful, it would have been honest.
I am furious at Mattie's sister Marie, who burned Doc's letters; in "protecting" her sister, she destroyed what seems to have been history's only chance to see John Henry Holliday without the obscuring lens of other peoples' agendas. (Which is not to say the letters wouldn't have been colored by his own agenda, but at least the coloration in that case would be intrinsic.) From Perry Mallon to Bat Masterton to Wyatt Earp to Mary Katharine Cummings (assuming that she was, in fact, Kate Elder, as Roberts does and I find myself inclined to agree), everyone who spoke about Doc at any length had a blatant agenda of his or her own; mostly these agendas are transparent (except for Bat Masterson, about whom I find myself thinking, wtf?) and mostly they are about saving the speaker's reputation at Doc's expense. (Wyatt and Kate, I am looking AT YOU.) Mallon, of course, is entirely self-serving and made of lies, but Roberts shows his part in creating the legend of Doc Holliday--it's kind of scary, actually, to see how, once something has been said, no amount of debunking or disproving can make it go away entirely.
The description that sums Doc up for me is this one, which Roberts attributes to Lee Smith: "He did not have a quarrelsome disposition, but managed to get into more difficulties than almost any man I ever saw" (379). It's hard not to become partisan; Doc Holliday was not a good man, but he seems to have been striving to be the best man he could be under the rotten circumstances he found himself in. This quality makes him show up well against not only the Cow-Boys (especially Ike Clanton), but also against the self-serving revisionism of Wyatt Earp and Kate Elder. Of course, we can't know what Doc would have said if he'd lived longer, but I tend to think that, while it might not have been strictly truthful, it would have been honest.
May 11, 2020
A very readable account of Doc Holliday and the little we know of him. It's been said that trying to flesh out the real Doc is like trying to put clothes on a ghost; to search for him is to pilot in the near dark. Roberts does a thorough job at sorting through what we can know and what we can reasonably surmise. People described Doc in contradictory ways, so if we decide we know him then that probably says more about us than him. Still, there are things that can be known - and I suspect most of us will find some surprises here.
The last chapter and the epilogue consider his legend as it evolved after his death, and how the real John Henry Holliday became the character Doc Holliday we are familiar with in films and so on. This is an essential part of a biography for such a person, and I am grateful that Roberts considered this as thoroughly as the "facts" of Holliday's life.
An interesting book, and highly recommended.
The last chapter and the epilogue consider his legend as it evolved after his death, and how the real John Henry Holliday became the character Doc Holliday we are familiar with in films and so on. This is an essential part of a biography for such a person, and I am grateful that Roberts considered this as thoroughly as the "facts" of Holliday's life.
An interesting book, and highly recommended.
July 7, 2014
Without a doubt Mr. Roberts has written the best book I have ever read about the enigmatic Dr. John Henry Holiday and I have read many. Mr. Roberts has done through research, debunking some of the popular myths that surround Doc. Yes, there is some speculation but that is almost inevitable considering there are huge periods of Doc's life where there is no record of what he was doing or where he was. If you only read one book about Doc this is the one to pick.
October 17, 2017
A solid historical book
Well researched, extremely well foot noted, historically accurate and a good analysis of a complicated figure who lived in a very complex era. Well worth the time to read.
Well researched, extremely well foot noted, historically accurate and a good analysis of a complicated figure who lived in a very complex era. Well worth the time to read.
October 10, 2024
Very good presentation of a complicated figure from the American Old West.
Doc Holliday was a complicated person who packed a full life into a few short years. He will forever be tied to Wyatt Earp and the gunfight behind the OK Corral in Tombstone Arizona in 1881.
The author gives a fair account of Doc's life fully acknowledging what is known and what can only be speculated.
Highly recommended for fans of the American West and those that want to understand the times and the men and women who shaped it.
Doc Holliday was a complicated person who packed a full life into a few short years. He will forever be tied to Wyatt Earp and the gunfight behind the OK Corral in Tombstone Arizona in 1881.
The author gives a fair account of Doc's life fully acknowledging what is known and what can only be speculated.
Highly recommended for fans of the American West and those that want to understand the times and the men and women who shaped it.
February 18, 2015
A friend had just finished reading a book about Doc Holliday and he had enjoyed it. While on a visit to Tombstone, I found this book in one of the stores there. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Old West town's. Living in Prescott, AZ, I was very interested to note that Doc had spent some time in this area (primarily on Whiskey Row). Although a little slow in spots, the book kept me interested until the very end. It covers the major events that took place during that time period as well as covers some of the legends that surround the Doc Holliday/Wyatt Earp relationship. Once I finished reading the book, I had to go watch the movie Tombstone again. Val Kilmer was spot on with his portrayal of Doc. This movie certainly deserves more recognition than it got. I think now I may have to go in search of a good book on Wyatt Earp.
July 11, 2012
Even after you strip Doc Holliday of all the Hollywood hype and yarns, you are left with a fascinating fixture of the American West. Gary Roberts does a bang-up job at trying to sift through fact and fiction, but just as all to frequently happens when an author tries to write a definitive tome, the book is sometimes laden with baggage that seems superfluous to the main thread. However, I would recommend this book to anyone who has a soft spot for western and specifically southwestern history.
March 29, 2020
Too much Earp
The writer recounts volumes and volumes of newspapers mostly about the Earps for over half the book. Doc is mentioned sparingly until the final two chapters. It was a tough slog to get through it.
The writer recounts volumes and volumes of newspapers mostly about the Earps for over half the book. Doc is mentioned sparingly until the final two chapters. It was a tough slog to get through it.
February 6, 2024
4.5 out 5 stars
Doc Holidays life was shrouded in mystery and because of that it is impossible to separate the legend from the man. But maybe that is the way it ought to be. He lived a life worth romanticizing. He lived a wild and certainly unorthodox life but he would have gladly gave up his life for his friend Wyatt and he saved Wyatt’s life in Dodge City and after the events in Tombstone he seemed to attempt to turn over a new leaf and was desirous to be an upright man. His past and his illness haunted him and the latter did him in before the former. He wrote letters to his first cousin Mattie back in Georgia for the whole of his life. It is said he was in love with her but she joined a convent. She had kept most of her letters from him but chose to burn some of them before her death so we’ll never know for sure. It was maybe her influence in their correspondence over the years and his own mortality coming apart day by day because of TB that lead to his conversation to Catholicism at some point. Docs last meeting with Wyatt was probably my favorite part of the book; after a long talk where wyatt thanks Doc for saving his life Doc then throws his arm around Wyatt’s shoulders as they both know this is their last meeting and says, “Goodbye old friend, it will be a long time before we see each other again.”
Doc Holidays life was shrouded in mystery and because of that it is impossible to separate the legend from the man. But maybe that is the way it ought to be. He lived a life worth romanticizing. He lived a wild and certainly unorthodox life but he would have gladly gave up his life for his friend Wyatt and he saved Wyatt’s life in Dodge City and after the events in Tombstone he seemed to attempt to turn over a new leaf and was desirous to be an upright man. His past and his illness haunted him and the latter did him in before the former. He wrote letters to his first cousin Mattie back in Georgia for the whole of his life. It is said he was in love with her but she joined a convent. She had kept most of her letters from him but chose to burn some of them before her death so we’ll never know for sure. It was maybe her influence in their correspondence over the years and his own mortality coming apart day by day because of TB that lead to his conversation to Catholicism at some point. Docs last meeting with Wyatt was probably my favorite part of the book; after a long talk where wyatt thanks Doc for saving his life Doc then throws his arm around Wyatt’s shoulders as they both know this is their last meeting and says, “Goodbye old friend, it will be a long time before we see each other again.”
October 11, 2023
a lot of the critiques of this book come from the fact that it focuses too much on people involved with doc holliday rather than doc himself. i found that to be completely accurate honestly, but i don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.
O.K. corral and what happened in tombstone concerning the earp brothers, while not about doc, was still a defining moment in his life. i believe that considering the amount of information available on doc, it was necessary to include other figures in his life to give context to what he was thinking about/ focused on. the section of the book that focuses on the cowboys has little to do with doc outright, but the entire situation was most likely consuming his thoughts and waking moments. i think the criticisms are fair, and the book would fare better if it was marketed as a book about holliday and the earps instead of holliday alone. that being said, it is extremely well researched and written, and you can tell the author has a lot of passion towards the subject. i really enjoyed this book personally!
O.K. corral and what happened in tombstone concerning the earp brothers, while not about doc, was still a defining moment in his life. i believe that considering the amount of information available on doc, it was necessary to include other figures in his life to give context to what he was thinking about/ focused on. the section of the book that focuses on the cowboys has little to do with doc outright, but the entire situation was most likely consuming his thoughts and waking moments. i think the criticisms are fair, and the book would fare better if it was marketed as a book about holliday and the earps instead of holliday alone. that being said, it is extremely well researched and written, and you can tell the author has a lot of passion towards the subject. i really enjoyed this book personally!
May 24, 2019
There are no definitive answers here about Holliday's life, but he never promised any, and I had an enjoyable romp through the boomtowns of the West. Kate Elder struck me as an awful woman who had no use for Doc while he lived and only clung to him after his death as a means to generate attention for herself, if not a little money in the bargain. If so, no one obliged with the latter. Maybe it was the only means she thought she had to attain some sense of financial security for herself in a world where old, widowed women were left to fend for themselves if there were no children to look out for them, but it felt so nakedly crass, and I'm sorry that that's the only "love" Doc managed to find for himself.
November 19, 2023
As one can tell it took me forever to get through this book. I started, stopped, started and stopped. The author did a mammoth amount of research (kudos) but he adds info on people I never heard of, a lot on the Earps, the Cowboys both as a group and individually, as well as every politician, bar owner and every other person in town. Doc wasn’t mentions in entire chapters other than saying he was in the same bar. I think the newspapers of the day did a much better job of describing events in their town than today. It appears conversations were abundant so we could read their. details today. It was a very tedious book to work through!
April 17, 2022
This book is an exhaustive review of John Henry "Doc" Holliday's life. As such, it's likely to be too much for the casual reader. If you just want a brief review of Doc Holliday's life, then this book isn't for you.
However, if you want to learn *everything* that is known about Doc Holliday, then this book is indispensable. This biography includes historical perspectives that shaped Doc's life, descriptions of just about everyone Doc is known to have interacted with, and explorations of of questions that linger about his life. It is the definitive resource on everything "Doc Holliday."
However, if you want to learn *everything* that is known about Doc Holliday, then this book is indispensable. This biography includes historical perspectives that shaped Doc's life, descriptions of just about everyone Doc is known to have interacted with, and explorations of of questions that linger about his life. It is the definitive resource on everything "Doc Holliday."
January 1, 2018
A muddy book about a colorful character. Determining the "facts" about a legendary figure from a time when "journalists" were unabashedly concerned with concocting "fake news" to support their political positions is a monumental task. Unfortunately, as a result, much of this book ends up reading more like a lengthy series of footnotes rather than telling a coherent story. The quest to tell the "truth" is not a straightforward matter.
November 29, 2024
Starts out slower than molasses, but you need to bear with it. Gradually it starts getting crazier and crazier until I was just shaking my head and laughing repeatedly.
It does a good job of explaining the reasons behind the OK Corral fight, Wyatt Earp's vendetta ride afterwards, and Doc's constant problems with legal entanglements, outlaws, and his tuberculosis. This is one book in which even minor persons have had articles or other historical matter written about them, so everyone is a 'character.'
It does a good job of explaining the reasons behind the OK Corral fight, Wyatt Earp's vendetta ride afterwards, and Doc's constant problems with legal entanglements, outlaws, and his tuberculosis. This is one book in which even minor persons have had articles or other historical matter written about them, so everyone is a 'character.'
December 1, 2018
This was a long book with a lot of citations. The reason I am giving this book 5 stars it’s not because of its readability. It presents many different arguments for one event throughout the length of the book. That said, the author has done his research.
October 10, 2020
Best Biography of the "Good Bad Man".
A detailed and fair bio of Doc Holliday, separating John Henry Holliday facts from legend. And Val Kilmer probably had it the closest of all dramatic depictions!
A detailed and fair bio of Doc Holliday, separating John Henry Holliday facts from legend. And Val Kilmer probably had it the closest of all dramatic depictions!
July 23, 2021
Incredible in depth dive into a notorious historical figure out of the old west. Not many details have been missed yet the story flows easily. No heavy lifting as they say. I found it extremely entertaining and learned quite a bit along the way.
May 1, 2025
It's incredibly how much sympathy I have for a thug after reading this book.
It was well-written, albeit a bit dry at times. But as a non-fiction book, what else can you expect? In exactly that same context, I think this was an extremely entertaining piece of history.
It was well-written, albeit a bit dry at times. But as a non-fiction book, what else can you expect? In exactly that same context, I think this was an extremely entertaining piece of history.
January 23, 2020
Definitely enjoyed reading about a fellow Georgian and learning so much about his life and what lead him to become so well known.
July 19, 2020
A very written biography. Having read others I would say this is the best one.
July 23, 2020
I’m not huge into biographies, but this was really well written with tons a great facts.
July 10, 2021
LOTS of historical information that i had not seen anywhere else. took me a while to read and absorb but well worth it.
January 4, 2022
Ok
Well written..t it was Full of conjecture and slow at times. Not great but good. Very well Researched And otherwise accurate.
Well written..t it was Full of conjecture and slow at times. Not great but good. Very well Researched And otherwise accurate.
December 19, 2022
Great book about the life of Doc Holliday. Well researched and well written. Has lots of seemingly accurate information and very interesting part of the history of the old west.
March 21, 2023
Ever since watching Tombstone of which Doc Holliday stole the movie for me I’ve always been curious about him. This book is so interesting. Enjoyed it very much.
June 4, 2023
So much research and so many facts make it kind of boring.
September 14, 2023
Wonderful and well written, for both content and context.
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