What do you think?
Rate this book
The Notorious Luke Short: Sporting Man of the Wild West (Volume 16)
Winner of the Co-Founders Best Book Award from Westerners International, Sept. 2016
Often times the smaller the man, the harder the punch—this adage was true in the case of diminutive Luke Short, whose brief span of years played out in the Wild West. His adventures began as a teenage cowboy who followed the trail from Texas to the Kansas railheads. He then served as a scout for the U.S. Army during the Indian wars and, finally, he perfected his skills as a gambler in locations that included Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City, and Fort Worth. In 1883, in what became known as the "Dodge City War," he banded together with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and others to protect his ownership interests in the Long Branch Saloon—an event commemorated by the famous "Dodge City Peace Commission" photograph.
The irony is that Luke Short is best remembered for being the winning gunfighter in two of the most celebrated showdowns in Old West the shootout with Charlie Storms in Tombstone, Arizona, and the showdown against Jim Courtright in Fort Worth, Texas. He would have hated that. During his lifetime, Luke Short became one of the best known sporting men in the United States, and one of the wealthiest. He had been a partner in the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, as well as the White Elephant in Fort Worth. He became friends with other wealthy sporting men, such as William H. Harris, Jake Johnson, and Bat Masterson, who helped broaden his gaming interests to include thoroughbred horse racing and boxing.
Before he died he would become a familiar figure in Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, and Saratoga Springs, where he raced his string of horses. He traveled with other wealthy sporting men in private railroad cars to attend heavyweight championship fights. Luke Short was always a little man dealing in big games. He married the beautiful Hattie Buck, who could turns heads at all the top resorts they visited as man and wife.
Jack DeMattos and Chuck Parsons have researched deeply into all records to produce the first serious biography of Luke Short, revealing in full the epitome of a sporting man of the Wild West.
Often times the smaller the man, the harder the punch—this adage was true in the case of diminutive Luke Short, whose brief span of years played out in the Wild West. His adventures began as a teenage cowboy who followed the trail from Texas to the Kansas railheads. He then served as a scout for the U.S. Army during the Indian wars and, finally, he perfected his skills as a gambler in locations that included Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City, and Fort Worth. In 1883, in what became known as the "Dodge City War," he banded together with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and others to protect his ownership interests in the Long Branch Saloon—an event commemorated by the famous "Dodge City Peace Commission" photograph.
The irony is that Luke Short is best remembered for being the winning gunfighter in two of the most celebrated showdowns in Old West the shootout with Charlie Storms in Tombstone, Arizona, and the showdown against Jim Courtright in Fort Worth, Texas. He would have hated that. During his lifetime, Luke Short became one of the best known sporting men in the United States, and one of the wealthiest. He had been a partner in the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, as well as the White Elephant in Fort Worth. He became friends with other wealthy sporting men, such as William H. Harris, Jake Johnson, and Bat Masterson, who helped broaden his gaming interests to include thoroughbred horse racing and boxing.
Before he died he would become a familiar figure in Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, and Saratoga Springs, where he raced his string of horses. He traveled with other wealthy sporting men in private railroad cars to attend heavyweight championship fights. Luke Short was always a little man dealing in big games. He married the beautiful Hattie Buck, who could turns heads at all the top resorts they visited as man and wife.
Jack DeMattos and Chuck Parsons have researched deeply into all records to produce the first serious biography of Luke Short, revealing in full the epitome of a sporting man of the Wild West.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2015
3 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 14, 2015
Luke Short was a cowboy, gambler, and gunfighter in America’s Ol’ West circa 1880–1900. The authors, both astute researchers and period aficionados (DeMattos cowrote A Rough Ride to Redemption: The Ben Daniels Story; Parsons cowrote A Lawless Breed: John Wesley Hardin, Texas Reconstruction, and Violence in the Wild West) have written the to-date definitive examination of Short, the least known of any of the Wyatt Earp/Bat Masterson crowd (there’s not even a Hollywood movie to which one can refer—he isn’t a character in any). Born in 1854, by age 15 Short was described by some as “the toughest of tough men” and smart enough to invest his earnings (livestock and cotton) instead of drinking or gambling them away. In 1878, he decided to reinvent himself as a gambler for “less physical effort and greater financial rewards” and moved around the West. Despite him hanging around with big players and getting in some big gunfights, there’s not a whole lot of information on him, so this book teases out the truth using news reports, obits, and the like (e.g., Masterson’s at-best unreliable late-in-life journals) and seems exhaustive and scholarly. The book is a gem of research, great at describing the sources, documenting provenances, and providing meticulous, but not obtrusive, footnotes. For all the excitement that Short thrived on, and from a time when newspaper reporters were disappointed if no one was killed in a gunfight, a cowboy’s life can seem pretty dull. VERDICT The authors’ craftsmanship is solid, presenting Short sans the glitz and drama of something like Unbreakable.
Displaying 1 of 1 review