Author Description

The American West was a glittering gold mine for early-day writers, who eagerly extracted from it the names of picturesque "heroes" to form the foundations of their fanciful and romantic reconstructions. In The Western Hero in History and Legend, Kent Ladd Steckmesser examines how folk heroes are created, choosing for the purpose Billy the Kid, as prototype of the outlaw; Wild Bill Hickok, the gunfighter; Kit Carson, the mountain man; and General George A. Custer, the soldier. He finds that these men, whatever the relative importance of their actual exploits, are significant to interpretations of history because of the epic proportions of their legends. By debunking much of the mythology surrounding these four famous Western figures, Steckmesser provides a valuable lesson in critical analysis as well as showing how rumor, untruth, and legend can become accepted as history. A new foreword by Brian W. Dippie is also included in this edition.