Wyatt Earp died this day, in 1929. Today we showcase his story using the book “Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal” by Stuart N. Lake 1955. The book jacket has a nice wrap-around colored action drawing of the “fight at the OK Corral”. It is an action painting that brings movement to the scene of Earp’s most famous episode in life. The book came out in 1931, shortly after Wyatt Earp died. Lake had interviewed Wyatt Earp several times to write the book. This is definitely a cowboy book to feel good about Earp. Page after page one reads of a do-gooder that talks, if he doesn’t have to fight; slugs if he doesn’t have to use a gun; shoots only if nothing else can be done; always cool in action, never rash. He wasn’t a drinker or womanizer, and always thought about the law. If you like western stories, this is the best.
The names of Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, Doc Holliday, the Clanton and McLaury brothers are all larger than life, in this spellbinding book. As the author states “Since Wyatt Earp has so long been a myth to lovers of the Old West, it is no more that fair to state definitely that this biography is in no part a mythic tale. It would be less than fair to subject and to reader if any least resource of effort had been spared in seeking the utmost accuracy of fact.” And thus I read about the larger than life “Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal”.
All was good until I started reading and hearing other things. My local PBS has a show about Wyatt Earp spending time in Peoria. So there was an article by Phil Luciano writer for Peoria Journal Star stating the same. The more I looked online, I found there might be evidence that instead of hunting buffalo in 1872, Wyatt Earp may have spent time in Peoria jail for being a bouncer on a floating bordello (?!). The name of Wyatt Earp being a Peoria Bummer came up a lot. Wow, perhaps Stuart Lake was whitewashing the story of Wyatt Earp.
This means that I have made some book orders, to perhaps find out more of this story…and to enlarge the library with some more interesting books. I will update this at a later date. Both you and I will need to keep reading.
Addendum:
I now have the book “Mattie, Wyatt Earp’s Secret Second Wife” by E.C. (Ted) Meyers, 2010. This book has a bunch of “the missing years” with Wyatt and his wife Mattie. There is the where and when of their meeting, along with the “Peoria Bummer” news. That includes dates of arrest, sentencings, and time spent in jail. This gives me a more rounded view of Wyatt Earp.
Librarytomes 