My Friend Doc Holiday

[mr phil]

            In the movie Tombstone Wyatt  gave Doc Holiday a book written by him about Doc.  Does anyone know if there was such a book and is it still available in some form ?

[Coal Creek Griff]

It was a Hollywood invention, although after the movie an entrepreneur printed one...

[Shotgun Franklin]

From what I've read, by the time Doc died he and Wyatt were not on good terms.

[mr phil]

 :'(Yup I figured that there was no actual  death bed exchange of the book. But I was thinking that it could be possible that some sort of autobiography might have existed.

[joec]

I read somewhere that Earp had a writer named Stuart Lake's to do his biography which he did in 1931. Keep in mind that Wyatt Earp died in 1929 so it is perhaps possible that his story was told as he remembered it.

[w.b. masterson]

joec,
Or maybe just the way he WANTED to remember it. Buntline Special, indeed!

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

 I think even when the truth is told, there will always be doubters, it just the way we are, it's a human thing 

[Shotgun Franklin]

A big part of the problem with biographies or autobiographies is the 'proving' of things done. I couldn't begin to prove a lot of what I've done, no photos, witnesses now dead, nothing in the Newspaper. Most history isn't history when it happens, it needs a little aging and by then the proof has passed.

[mr phil]

I seem to remember hearing that Earps wife furnished a good amount of the info for that book.  Wyatt had been very unhappy with most of the story that people knew about. He and his brothers were looked at like the villains up to that point. He had also developed a reputation as a crooked boxing referee. Of course I'm sure that most of that was sour grapes from people that lost big on what-ever fights he was connected with.
I was mostly wondering if there was any books on Doc.

[Deadeye Dick]

MP
Go here--         http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=doc+holliday&x=0&y=0

I have the one about The Life and Legend. Pretty good book.

Deadeye Dick

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I've got " Doc Holliday, A family Portrait" by Karen Holliday Tanner. ISBN 0-8061-3320-1 (paper back). Good read,IMO........Buck

[mr phil]

  Thanks boys.  Heck there are a few out there aren't there.  Thanks a bunch

[shrapnel]

Wyatt Earp by Stuart N. Lake is a good book. There is some question about some of the personal accounts in the book as Stuart interviewed Earp the last few years of his life. We all tend to remember our own histories a bit more colorful than they might have been, this may be the case here. Wyatt Earp is a good read and still gives you a better understanding of who Wyatt really was...

[St. George]

Stuart Lake was known to fabricate his stories - though he was no match for Ned Buntline.

Try this:

Wyatt Barry Stapp Earp
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2006, 11:26:33 am »     

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There are a number of accounts of the Earps and the times they lived in.

He lived well into the 20th Century - dying in 1929, so there was quite a bit written at a time when the Old West was being seriously romanticized - though that started with the Wild West Shows of the late 1880's.

Winnowing out the wheat from the chaff is continually being done, as research techniques improve and forgotten pages turned.

Here's what looks to be the definitive work on Earp - with an impressive bibliography.

'Wyatt Earp - A Biography of the Legend' - by Lee A. Silva

Volume I: The Cowtown Years - ISBN 0-9714719-0-8 - (currently available)

Volume II: Tombstone: The Legend-Making Years - (pending publication)

Volume III: The Forgotten Years - (pending publication)

Volume IV: The Last Years and the Legend -  (pending publication)

Research is the best way to understand the times.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Trailrider]

When the legend becomes "fact", print the legend!

[Herbert]

For me the truth always seems to be more interesting,for some reason when the legend is created most of the shady sides of the story is lost

[mr phil]

  Well I just got " Doc Holiday A Family Portrait " from Amazon. .  Amazing times we live in huh. I'll let you all know how it is.

[Rube Burrows]

Well I just got " Doc Holiday A Family Portrait " from Amazon. .  Amazing times we live in huh. I'll let you all know how it is.

Read that book many years ago and found it interesting. Its somewhere in my collection.