The World of Doc Holliday: History and Historic Images

by Victoria Wilcox

His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp, and he is probably most famous for his time in Tombstone. But Doc Holliday’s story is a much richer than that one sentence summary allows. His was a life of travel across the west—from Georgia to Texas, from Dodge City to Las Vegas, across Arizona and from New Mexico to Colorado and Montana. Revealed from contemporary newspaper accounts and records of interviews with Doc himself and the people who knew him and packed with archival photos and illustrations, The World of Doc Holliday offers a real first-hand accounting of his life of adventure.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published December 18, 2020

About the author

Victoria Wilcox is Founding Director of Georgia’s Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum (the antebellum home of the family of Doc Holliday, now a site on the National Register of Historic Places), where she learned the family’s untold stories of their legendary cousin and his connection to the real people behind "Gone with the Wind." Her work with the museum led to two decades of original research, making her a nationally recognized authority on the life of Doc Holliday.

Wilcox is the author of the documentary film "In Search of Doc Holliday" and the historical novel trilogy "The Saga of Doc Holliday (Southern Son, Dance with the Devil, Dead Man’s Hand)." She has twice received Georgia Author of the Year honors and in 2016 was named Best Historical Western Novelist by True West Magazine. Her new pictorial biography "The World of Doc Holliday: History & Historic Images" will be released in 2020.

Wilcox has lectured across the country, appeared in local and regional media, guested on NPR affiliates, and was featured in the Fox Network series "Legends & Lies: The Real West." She is a member of the Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, The Wild West History Association, and the Writer’s Guild of the Booth Museum of Western Art and has been a featured contributor to True West Magazine.

In the summer of 2017, Wilcox joined actor Val Kilmer (Tombstone) as guest historian at the inaugural Doc HolliDays in Tombstone, Arizona, site of the legendary OK Corral gunfight.

Reviews:

"As a biographer of John Henry 'Doc' Holliday, I can only be envious of Victoria Wilcox’s telling of his story. The facts of a life so intriguing —and the gaps in the facts — are cruel dampers to the historian, limited as he is by the record. Wilcox pursues the truth in a powerful and moving novel that is not tainted by the legend of its central character, trapped by the documentary evidence of his life, or tempted to ignore history. She tells his story with an intimate voice that is surprisingly fresh and compelling. Here, Doc is alive and his world real--wonderfully so."

--- Dr. Gary Roberts, bestselling author of 'Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend'

"This wonderfully written novel brings together one of the great stories of the American Frontier. Author Wilcox has done a superb job through fiction of creating a sense of time and place and giving us an intriguing look at one of the most controversial figures in the West – Dr. John Henry Holliday."

--- Casey Tefertiller, author of 'Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend'

Reviews

[Mark Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victoria Wilcox’s new book, The World of Doc Holliday, is a wonderful journey along the train tracks that follow the trail of John Henry Holliday. No matter if you are a researcher or a student of history or simply a fan of the Western genre, you’re going to learn a lot in this book. Plus, have some fun as you hop aboard for the ride and find out what the Wilcox Express serves up.
“Doc” is one of Georgia’s (and America’s) most compelling celebrities of the nineteenth century in that his reputation totters precariously on that fence that separates the famous from the infamous. After numerous memorable “Doc” performances preserved on film (Val Kilmer, Dennis Quaid, Jason Robards, Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas, Stacy Keach . . . on and on the list goes), it seems everyone to want to know more about the gunfighting dentist. There’s a lot of myth floating around about Doc, and much of that has been put into print. Wilcox’s book is one of the elite few that offers reliable information. And she delivers it so well.
All readers who fell in love with her Doc Holliday historical novel trilogy will find Wilcox’s new book a must-read companion piece. The World of Doc Holliday offers a diverse array of photos of people and places that Doc met along his way.
In many ways this book is like a railway system with a main line and many spurs. It is a book of tangents, and each switch pulled that takes the reader along another side-line is a most welcome and edifying diversion exposing the reader to all kinds of surprises: Doc Holliday connections to people and places not known by the general public. And some of it not known to Old West researchers until now. This diverse travel agenda is a major part of this book’s charm.
So enjoy the scenic ride. Follow Holliday’s timeline on the main track and take every transfer on a sidetrack offered. You’ll be glad you bought a ticket. This is Victoria Wilcox at her best.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with much interest. I didn’t really know much about Doc Holliday past the usual snippets. I liked how Wilcox wound his life around the railroads. I appreciated her other tidbits of tales like the connection between Holliday and Linda Ronstadt and even Teddy Roosevelt. The writing was smooth and interesting. This is a great additional to the canon of gunslingers, outlaws, and the old west. It also displays how Doc had a taste for trouble. Thanks to edelweiss and the publisher for the advice copy.

[Carla Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!