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Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend

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Forget Doris Day singing on the stagecoach. Forget Robin Weigert’s gritty portrayal on HBO’s Deadwood . The real Calamity Jane was someone the likes of whom you’ve never encountered. That is, until now. This book is a definitive biography of Martha Canary, the woman popularly known as Calamity Jane. Written by one of today’s foremost authorities on this notorious character, it is a meticulously researched account of how an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a Wild West heroine. Always on the move across the northern plains, Martha was more camp follower than the scout of legend. A mother of two, she often found employment as waitress, laundress, or dance hall girl and was more likely to be wearing a dress than buckskin. But she was hard to ignore when she’d had a few drinks, and she exploited the aura of fame that dime novels created around her, even selling her autobiography and photos to tourists. Gun toting, swearing, hard drinking—Calamity Jane was all of these, to be sure. But whatever her flaws or foibles, James D. McLaird paints a compelling portrait of an unconventional woman who more than once turned the tables on those who sought to condemn or patronize her. He also includes dozens of photos—many never before seen—depicting Jane in her many guises. His book is a long-awaited biography of Martha Canary and the last word on Calamity Jane.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2005

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About the author

James D. McLaird is Professor Emeritus of History, Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota. He is the author of numerous articles on western history and myth-making.

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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Christie.
1,856 reviews55 followers
June 20, 2012
First Sentence: "'A complete and true biography of the life of Calamity Jane would make a large book, more interesting and blood-curdling than all the fictitious stories that have been written of her,' remarked the editor of the Livingston (Montana) Enterprise in 1887, 'but it would never find its way into a Sunday school library.'"

You may think you know about Calamity Jane: the hard-drinking, rough-riding, swearing army scout who had a feminine side that captured the heart of Wild Bill Hickok. Hardly has a western movie/tv show/book felt complete without a Calamity Jane character. The true story of Calamity Jane is a far cry from the legend. Martha Canary, aka "Calamity Jane," was all in likelihood an alcoholic camp follower and dance hall girl with a fondness for telling tall tales. She had relationships with many men, but never Wild Bill. It was not all bad though. She was well-known for her compassion for the sick and less fortunate. The newspapers followed her every move, much like the media does the reality stars of our day. She cashed in on her fame by selling photos and an autobiography with her "adventures." Sadly, she died penniless and alone.

Despite how depressing it sounds, the book was fascinating to me. It really gives the reader a glimpse into how legends and myths arise. The author has done his research to find out the truth behind the myth, while at the same time trying to give insight into how the myth arose. The book is well-written and you can tell it was a labor of love for the author. I enjoyed how many pictures this book had in it. Often you have biographies where there's maybe 8 pages of pictures, this one has 20+ full page photos. I like that.

I did have some problems with the book. First of all, the author seems to want to talk more about all the things Calamity Jane didn't do than about the things she did do. It was disappointing when I wanted to learn more about the woman and just end up learning about all the lies people told about her adventures. The text is also overwhelmed with quotes from primary sources with very little input from the author especially in the first few chapters. I appreciate that the book is well-researched, but I would like the author's own words and viewpoints to come through.

The book is still pretty good. I knew very little about Calamity Jane before reading this book other than the few fictional representations of her in movies and a few snippets in books such as Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women. I learned so much about this fascinating character and her equally fascinating legend.

Genre Bingo: Western
Profile Image for Tamara.
718 reviews
November 28, 2021
In 2018, I stopped in Deadwood, SD while traveling in the area. I made a visit to the cemetery where Calamity Jane and Wild Bill were buried. Much to my surprise and my naive nature, there was a gift shop at the entrance which included this book. Books are a favorite souvenir to purchase while traveling … so it came home with me to read. It took me a few years … But, now I know more than I did before.

This is not a book I would recommend to anyone to read for entertainment. The author has gone to a great deal of effort to sort through fact and fiction. He recounts many, many, many fake stories or just not "the real Calamity Jane". In fact a book with just the details of Martha Canary there would not be very many pages. The myth, fiction, and fraudulent stories are greater in number.

So let me play spoiler for anyone wanting the bottom line. Martha Canary was born in Missouri 1856. Her mother was a drinker and used a saucy language (you can guess what I mean). So the apple did not fall far from the tree. Suffering financial difficulties, her father packed up the family and headed to Black Hills in one of many Gold Rushes. There they had nothing but hard times. Her mother dies and her father abandons her and her siblings. They are adopted out to one family or another. Martha was a fighter both figuratively and literally. She learned to survive in whatever method was required. There is one quote that I feel is appropriate,

'how much better anyone else would have done placed in the same position.'

She wore men's clothing frequently; she drank A LOT; she was a great storyteller; she wore guns on her side; she would nurse the sick; she was generous to someone in need; she did not stay anyplace for more than a year or two; she was remember fondly by some and disliked by others; she was loud and spoke her mind with saucy language. Although she was called Calamity Jane, there is no real understanding why? The myth was created by Dime Story Novelist and someone that produced false diaries and claimed to be the daughter of Calamity and Wild Bill. Who, according to this book, only knew each other in passing and occasional drinking buddies. Martha had many "husbands" she called by name. But none of them where Hickock.
Profile Image for Kristi Thielen.
391 reviews7 followers
June 22, 2023
I was born in Deadwood, South Dakota and have portrayed Calamity Janes at events. But what I dealt with was the legend of the woman, which is what most people frankly prefer. What McLaird has done is tease out the truth from the fabrications, misremembered memories or wishful thinking about Martha Canary that have surrounded her since the days of the Old West.

Canary herself made the task all the harder, since much of what she said in her lifetime was embellished or flatly untrue. She also lived at the height of the dime novel trade, created by and for easterners who craved stories of the wild west.

Her portrayal in numerous colorful novels only widened belief in stories about her derring-do, and even reputable historians of the last century have often struggled to separate truth from fiction about her relationship with Wild Bill Hickok, her boasts of rescuing a stagecoach driver, fighting Indians, scouting for military expeditions, and nursing smallpox victims.

McLaird details all this as well as her travels throughout the upper west, which were considerable – as she often wore out her welcome in towns and had to move on. Alcoholism, poverty, a short temper and a penchant for public display seem to be firmly historical. The rest? Not so much.

Perhaps her true place in western history is that of a woman who defiantly violated the restricting norms of female behavior, living on her own terms and in a time and place of constant social upheaval. That her life and legend survived all that is distinction enough.
Profile Image for Carol.
613 reviews
October 30, 2023
This book would better be titled "Debunking the Myth and Legend of Calamity Jane," as the reader learns from the very beginning that is the author's intent. The author does an admirable job with the task before him and it seems he read and watched everything ever published about Martha Canary, the real name of Calamity Jane. By the time the reader completes the book he/she is clear that just about everything in print, television and movie is false. The reader learns it was the romanticizing of the wild west through the dime store novels that created the "story" of Calamity Jane. In reality she was an orphan and became a camp follower (what better way to blend in than to wear men's clothing?), a prostitute and an alcoholic, albeit a charismatic one. She was in the right place at the right time to come close to famous people like Custer and Wild Bill and through those "close" connections fabricated stories that followed her from town to town and sometimes even proceeded her. While some might consider her the forerunner of the women's movement, doing things that most women would not do, I am not left with a positive impression of her. It is amazing how history has twisted the facts to present her more times than not favorable.
Profile Image for Samantha Newman.
152 reviews28 followers
September 3, 2011
Alright. I knew little to nothing about Calamity Jane before reading this book. And this book seems to really be all about debunking the prevalent false ideas about her and her accomplishments. It's sad to say that simply, it's disappointing to read, basically, that nothing she is famous for, she actually did. She was kind of just a drunk lady who wandered around and made up stories. ?? But- I'm not sure I believe that completely. At least, I wouldn't phrase it that way.

Let me first say that the more I read non fiction, the more ... disenchanted?... I become with how repetitive it can be. I know you've got to make something a whole book, but authors really repeat themselves a lot. Should I repeat that again? Most non fiction it seems should be a pamphlet for all the actual information in it. This book is not exactly that, but he does repeat a lot. He is very thorough. He covers a lot of history and makes his sources and research pretty clear. But in that process, a lot gets repeated and it just goes on and on.

It is an interesting study of how a myth is made. How things get blown out of proportion and out of reality. But I don't feel like this book really gave me a sense of who Martha Canary / Calamity Jane was. I don't feel like I knew her. Perhaps b/c documents concerning her are not exactly prevalent, so it's hard to pin things down, which I understand. But this book spent more time debunking than I expected or necessarily wanted. I mean that was interesting, b/c I had no idea what was commonly believed about her that wasn't true, and now I sure do...but what bothered me is it seemed the author kind of set aside anything positive about Martha. He didn't seem to have much affection for her and seemed to mostly want to show me how she didn't do what she was famous for. More interested in the myth making and debunking than actually teaching me about the person. I wanted to learn about the person more, you know?

I don't know if I sense some misogyny or if I'm reading too much into it, but the author seems to give her no credit. For anything. She didn't do the stuff she was famous for and what she did do wasn't a big deal. I would have liked to understand more about how any way you look at what she did and how she did live her life- and yes she clearly was an alcoholic and that's very sad- no matter which way you look at it it seems she did live her life in an unorthodox way for a woman at the time. He does concede that, but it's not focused on much. I guess I would have PREFERRED an accurate bio that did give the truth and did debunk myths while at the same time feeling a bit more respectful or admiring in tone, even a little. It seemed mostly very "she was not a great person and didn't do much to admire." And maybe that's true and I'm just disappointed to learn that. Still I guess I wasn't a fan of that aspect of the tone, or of the specific POV this was written from.

I also wanted to say that for all the researched debunking he did in this book about what she DIDN'T do, the conclusions he DOES make about her often seem unfounded, unbacked.

All this said, I'm glad I read it b/c I did learn a lot not only about Calamity Jane but about the wild west time period and such, and yes, about how American myths are made. I hate to say it, but...TOO LONG!
Profile Image for AJ LeBlanc.
359 reviews45 followers
October 26, 2010
The amount of research that went into this book is astounding. Mclaird painstakingly goes through documents to try and piece together the life of Martha Canary, who becomes Calamity Jane. The research is incredibly difficult because exaggerations, confusions, and outright lies were printed during her life and after. Martha herself adds to the deception by making up stories, exaggerating the truth and even adding years to her age. On top of this there were other women who also went by Calamity Jane so he has to cross reference articles and diaries to track her movements to figure out if a Jane mentioned in the paper is the Calamity Jane we're all taking about.

Martha became a tall tale during her life and she both thrived and fought against the attention. She was an alcoholic and did what she needed to do to get by. She did dress as a man and was able to hold her own, but she wasn't the gunslinger the movies and dime novels wanted her to be. She was often found in a dress working as a cook or taking in laundry.

Most importantly to the family and fans of Wild Bill Hickok, she was not Wild Bill Hickok's friend, lover, or secret wife. People were furious that she claimed even friendship with him and were even more upset when she was buried beside him in Deadwood. She, however, wanted to be linked to his legend and encouraged the stories.

Mclaird does a thorough job pulling together existing stories to validate or debunk and then adds new information to show more about her life as Martha and Calamity Jane.

It's interesting that when people are presented with the facts they willingly dismiss them so they can keep the legend. People don't seem to care about the truth because they want the stories. Even after reading this book, I still want the version of Calamity Jane that David Milch created for HBO's Deadwood.
Profile Image for EC.
68 reviews
March 18, 2015
I originally picked this book up to thumb through it, wondering why a publisher like the University of Oklahoma Press would published two books 10 years apart that seemed to be about the exact same thing. After flipping through the first few pages I thought this looked much more readable than Etulain's Calamity Jane so I read it (to be honest I did a lot of skimming of both books). I was right, it definitely was more enjoyable. If someone insisted they want to read about Calamity Jane I would definitely point them towards McLaird's book first. The problem is that there really isn't much to say about Calamity. She was basically famous for being famous and she didn't really do most of the things legend has her doing. Both these authors clearly state that up front. I just thought McLaid did a better job of writing about her travels around the west, and throwing in enough info about the events going on around her to make it a better read. Both authors talked about events in the decades after her death that contribute to her legend.

I never answered my original question, I didn't see that Etulain's book added anything that McLaird hadn't already said.

Profile Image for Denise.
1,169 reviews
January 23, 2011
"... historians know how to ruin a good story." This taken from Mr Mclaird's book at the conclusion (pg 269) seems to say it all - however I'm not sure about his status as a historian on Calamity Jane. What he wrote was mainly from others research or books and then he would add a few words of his own here and there. The issue I had most was his words seemed to be unfounded and assumed most of the item. While it's true I like the dime store novel idea of Calamity Jane I was willing to see what the real story is...saddly I don't think anyone really knows the real story of her. We take bits and pieces and make up our own story and to me that is what Mr Mclaird has done, with out much of a real conclusion other than we can't believe all that has been written, shown of spoken on Calamity.
Profile Image for Jo.
186 reviews12 followers
August 29, 2016
One of her pallbearers stated, "Now who in the world would think that Calamity Jane would get to be such a famous woman."
But for a momentary blip in time and some quirky happenstance placing Martha Canary among the group traveling into Deadwood with Hickok, would she have remained just another faceless, nameless struggling lost soul among the multitude of camp followers?
I have my doubts. She was such a natural force, impossible to ignore even in her last years as alcoholism took its toll on her health and behavior. Somehow, some way, something tells me we would all know something of Martha, even if she'd never taken a drink of whiskey or set foot in the Black Hills.
A meticulously researched, fascinating, unforgettable biography.
Profile Image for Tally.
42 reviews2 followers
March 1, 2015
Incredible research, but I confess that the introduction dissuaded me from wanting to finish the book. He essentially says Martha Canary's life wasn't very interesting, that she was a neglectful mother, tale teller and prostitute. Knowing that that was what I was getting into, after several chapters I decided to spare myself the disappointment of having to let go of the Doris Day-version of Calamity Jane that I've loved for so many years.

So, note to self: write more compelling introductions that make your readers want to read the book! Don't give it away and disappoint them off the bat.
Profile Image for Homicidal Muffin.
62 reviews8 followers
October 15, 2014
Why, why why was this book published? It was nothing but pure speculation.
Page after page of
Some say….
Maybe…
Could of…
Rumor was…
The author couldn’t even validate her birth date.
Did I mention that Jane was a known drunk who lied continually about her past, present and future.
I found nothing out; will find nothing out because Jane was bogus in every way possible. It would be no different than if I just select any random drunk on the street and listened to his stories.
39 reviews
March 29, 2009
I found this book a bit of a plod as well as a bit disappointing. It reveals, backed with historical documentation, the definitive Calamity Jane . She wasn't half as fun as the legend and actually had a pretty sad existence with her battles with alcoholism. She still lived her life larger than most folk and chummed with fascinating Old West characters.





1 review1 follower
May 10, 2011
Separates the women from the legend. It gives a view of the daily life of Martha Canary and explains how the legends and the myths of Calamity Jane came into the social conscious. The truth of her life can be disheartening and leaves you wishing the legend was true.
2 reviews1 follower
September 4, 2011
Being a student and a fan of the "Old West" as well as Native American History, I enjoyed it. It is fairly comprehensive and dispels a lot of rumors. I also enjoy getting to know the actual facts, time lines and so forth. A lover of history and fan of this Old West legend will really like the book.
9 reviews2 followers
Read
September 5, 2009
I learned that a lot of what was written about Calamity Jane was pure hogwash, especially her own autobiography.
Profile Image for Les Wolf.
241 reviews6 followers
April 14, 2017
As a genuine character, I find Eleanore Dumont (Madame Mustache) , a contemporary and one-time associate of Calamity Jane, more interesting in some ways, than Calamity Jane herself. No evidence exists that Calamity was ever a scout, Indian fighter, love interest of Wild Bill Hickock or saviour of the stagecoach. She was a bullwacker, legendary drinker, gambler, cook, nurse, laundry woman, dancer, prostitute and prodigious story-teller.
This book is exceptionally well researched and detailed in it's treatment of the "Jane legend" and a great deal of the taming of the West finds it way into its pages since Jane (Martha Canary) followed the progress of civilization in the Western states for most of her days. (The railroad produced boom towns as did gold rushes and a dancing hall girl could make good money). Jane had her tender side and her work as a nurse is well documented. She never traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody and nobody, not even her contemporaries, ever confirmed her exaggerated claims to her having performed heroic deeds.
Despite all of this, her legend has continued to grow and she has become a symbol of the independent spirit and rugged individualism that were deemed essential to tame the wild frontier.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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