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Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends
Myths surround these two Wild West legends synonymous with the town of Deadwood. Although Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane spent only a few weeks in Deadwood at the same time, their fame and fate have become intertwined and their relationship legendary.
James D. McLaird examines the contemporary accounts that turned these two Wild West wanderers into dime-novel and motion-picture stars. Contemporary novelists and journalists created an astonishingly strong legacy for both Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, accounting for much of their notoriety. Gun fights, scouting missions, and daring escapes from enemies filled stories about the dashing pair; even their day-to-day existence seems to have been fraught with danger and excitement, teetering on the brink between lawful and unlawful. McLaird traces the role that writers and the city of Deadwood itself played in the creation of the legacies of the famous couple.
Fact and fiction have become so intertwined that a definitive picture of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill is almost impossible. Their brief friendship and subsequent burial next to each other in Mount Moriah Cemetery simply added to their legendary status and made them stalwarts of Wild West pop culture and Deadwood mythology.
James D. McLaird examines the contemporary accounts that turned these two Wild West wanderers into dime-novel and motion-picture stars. Contemporary novelists and journalists created an astonishingly strong legacy for both Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, accounting for much of their notoriety. Gun fights, scouting missions, and daring escapes from enemies filled stories about the dashing pair; even their day-to-day existence seems to have been fraught with danger and excitement, teetering on the brink between lawful and unlawful. McLaird traces the role that writers and the city of Deadwood itself played in the creation of the legacies of the famous couple.
Fact and fiction have become so intertwined that a definitive picture of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill is almost impossible. Their brief friendship and subsequent burial next to each other in Mount Moriah Cemetery simply added to their legendary status and made them stalwarts of Wild West pop culture and Deadwood mythology.
174 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2008
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About the author
James D. McLaird
5 booksJames 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 8, 2020
Well researched book that showed Hickok was asked to leave 2 towns as he was a vagrant.
May 22, 2017
A good and accurate account, unclouded by romanticism. Read while in Deadwood so much appreciated!
July 11, 2017
The book gave a factual history of both individuals. It certainly debunked the myths surrounding these people, while giving an excellent explanation of how they became frontier legends.
August 6, 2017
Fairly short read about 120 pages but nicely illustrated with many photographs.
November 16, 2019
Pretty interesting book, describes the life and myths surrounding Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Read this for my Wild West History Class but will be adding this to my bookshelf.
June 20, 2010
"Legend" is a word tossed around too easily and misused too often. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a legend is "an unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical."
In titling his latest book, James D. McLaird demonstrates he knows what the word means. Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends explains that much of what we think we know about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane in Deadwood is, in fact, the stuff of legend.
An emeritus professor of history at Dakota Wesleyan University and author of an earlier biography on Calamity Jane, McLaird wastes no time conveying his point. On the first page of the introduction, he tells the reader that Wild Bill and Calamity Jane "accomplished little of significance to deserve their prominence" in the history of Deadwood. Still, the goal of Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends isn't to demolish the celebrity of Wild Bill -- whose real name was James -- or Calamity Jane -- whose real name was Martha Canary. Instead, as a historian is inclined to do, McLaird examines their lives using facts, not mythology.
Essentially, Wild Bill and Calamity Jane become their era's equivalent of mass media darlings. Hickok garnered his national reputation thanks to a February 1867 article in Harper's New Monthly Magazine and ensuing dime novels. McLaird notes, though, that the magazine article's tales of Hickok's derring-do "bore little resemblance to actual events, and some episodes were entirely fictionalized." Similarly, the connection between Hickok and Calamity Jane is more tenuous than commonly thought.
The two met for the first time in July 1867, when Calamity Jane hooked up with a group heading to the Black Hills that included Hickok. Less than a month later, Hickok was dead. Although known in the area because of previous trips there and as a dance-hall girl, Calamity Jane's national fame didn't begin until after Hickok's death. Like Hickok, a magazine article and, more important, a series of highly popular dime novels published between 1877 and 1885 featuring "Deadwood Dick," in which she was a character, pushed her into the spotlight.
McLaird approaches each individual's life story separately, which is easier than popular belief might think. McLaird argues with some credence that no intimate connection between the two arose in the public eye until Calamity Jane was buried next to Wild Bill in Deadwood's Mount Moriah Cemetery in 1903. Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends examines how each gained their national reputations and compares the mythology built around them during and after their lives to more historically accurate accounts. McLaird also explores their lives once the spotlight of fame fell upon them, as well as Hickok's brief period of time in Deadwood and how the two ultimately became even bigger cultural icons and a joint part of Deadwood lore and tourism.
McLaird relays their stories concisely, pointing out the heavy varnish that at times was used to polish their character. His book illustrates what gave rise to differences of opinion that existed about them during their time. To some, they helped personify the lure and individualism of the west. To others, they were simply "scum," undeserving of attention. Yet where McLaird pokes holes in popular versions of their lives, he does so recognizing that it is the folklore that means so much to popular American history and culture, helping make the book an interesting combination of biography and cultural/historical study.
No one can doubt that Wild Bill and Calamity Jane live on into the 21st Century, whether in popular culture, such as the HBO television series Deadwood, or by helping make the actual town of Deadwood a popular tourist attraction to this day. In exploring both the fact and fiction of their lives, McLaird establishes that, individually and collectively, Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are legends in the true sense of the word.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
In titling his latest book, James D. McLaird demonstrates he knows what the word means. Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends explains that much of what we think we know about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane in Deadwood is, in fact, the stuff of legend.
An emeritus professor of history at Dakota Wesleyan University and author of an earlier biography on Calamity Jane, McLaird wastes no time conveying his point. On the first page of the introduction, he tells the reader that Wild Bill and Calamity Jane "accomplished little of significance to deserve their prominence" in the history of Deadwood. Still, the goal of Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends isn't to demolish the celebrity of Wild Bill -- whose real name was James -- or Calamity Jane -- whose real name was Martha Canary. Instead, as a historian is inclined to do, McLaird examines their lives using facts, not mythology.
Essentially, Wild Bill and Calamity Jane become their era's equivalent of mass media darlings. Hickok garnered his national reputation thanks to a February 1867 article in Harper's New Monthly Magazine and ensuing dime novels. McLaird notes, though, that the magazine article's tales of Hickok's derring-do "bore little resemblance to actual events, and some episodes were entirely fictionalized." Similarly, the connection between Hickok and Calamity Jane is more tenuous than commonly thought.
The two met for the first time in July 1867, when Calamity Jane hooked up with a group heading to the Black Hills that included Hickok. Less than a month later, Hickok was dead. Although known in the area because of previous trips there and as a dance-hall girl, Calamity Jane's national fame didn't begin until after Hickok's death. Like Hickok, a magazine article and, more important, a series of highly popular dime novels published between 1877 and 1885 featuring "Deadwood Dick," in which she was a character, pushed her into the spotlight.
McLaird approaches each individual's life story separately, which is easier than popular belief might think. McLaird argues with some credence that no intimate connection between the two arose in the public eye until Calamity Jane was buried next to Wild Bill in Deadwood's Mount Moriah Cemetery in 1903. Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends examines how each gained their national reputations and compares the mythology built around them during and after their lives to more historically accurate accounts. McLaird also explores their lives once the spotlight of fame fell upon them, as well as Hickok's brief period of time in Deadwood and how the two ultimately became even bigger cultural icons and a joint part of Deadwood lore and tourism.
McLaird relays their stories concisely, pointing out the heavy varnish that at times was used to polish their character. His book illustrates what gave rise to differences of opinion that existed about them during their time. To some, they helped personify the lure and individualism of the west. To others, they were simply "scum," undeserving of attention. Yet where McLaird pokes holes in popular versions of their lives, he does so recognizing that it is the folklore that means so much to popular American history and culture, helping make the book an interesting combination of biography and cultural/historical study.
No one can doubt that Wild Bill and Calamity Jane live on into the 21st Century, whether in popular culture, such as the HBO television series Deadwood, or by helping make the actual town of Deadwood a popular tourist attraction to this day. In exploring both the fact and fiction of their lives, McLaird establishes that, individually and collectively, Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are legends in the true sense of the word.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
July 8, 2010
Mclaird does a good job of separating the facts from the legends that have been built around these two people. Although the story of their lives is a lot different than the popular myths about them they are still very interesting people in their own right and the author gives you a chance to see how they really were. Mclaird also explored the fantastic stories that were circulating about them and it was interesting to see how the legends and the stories started and grew even long after both had passed on and how those legends affected them during their lifetimes. The book is in two parts, first looking at Wild Bill and then Calamity Jane. It is very well documented and you feel that it is very well researched. I loved all the quotes from contemporary sources like newspapers and diaries. Mclaird carefully stays away from embellishing the stories but the writing doesn’t get dry or dull. I learned a lot of things that I never knew before about both of them and had a good time doing it.
October 10, 2012
When I started to read this book it talked about how many of the stories about Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were mere legends, and the author wanted to set the record straight about what their lives were really like.
My initial response was, what's the fun in that?
But it turns out they both lived such wild and crazy lives that the book is still exciting without resorting to embellished tales used by many other biographers of the two.
The book gives you a blow by blow account of the two Wild West legends' lives, which is exciting, but the author doesn't do much to get you emotionally involved with the two.
It simply chronicles the events of their lives until their deaths.
Still, if you're interested in the history of this time period and the characters that populated the Wild West, you'll likely find it a very interesting book.
My initial response was, what's the fun in that?
But it turns out they both lived such wild and crazy lives that the book is still exciting without resorting to embellished tales used by many other biographers of the two.
The book gives you a blow by blow account of the two Wild West legends' lives, which is exciting, but the author doesn't do much to get you emotionally involved with the two.
It simply chronicles the events of their lives until their deaths.
Still, if you're interested in the history of this time period and the characters that populated the Wild West, you'll likely find it a very interesting book.
June 4, 2012
I read this book for History class and it was a bit boring, but very factual and informative. I learned a lot about two legendary figures in South Dakota history and this book helped me write a paper (for a book project for History class--we got to choose the topic). If you've been to Deadwood, SD, and want to learn more about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, this is a good book for you.
July 30, 2016
A factual look into the lives of two supposed Old West Legends. The author moves away from the traditionally accepted stories about Hickok and Jane and, instead, delves into journals, newspapers and memoirs from the days that tell a far different story about the pair that is far from legendary or heroic.
April 18, 2013
I picked this up in Deadwood last summer. It's a good history of two western characters, but a bit dry in places.
September 4, 2015
Sometimes being naive is more interesting! Now I know...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews