| 9781501129759 |
| 1501129759 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Summary
Summary
"A marvelous journey into both history and imagination...A perfectly compelling and fast-paced story" ( San Francisco Chronicle ) from Ron Hansen about an iconic American criminal of the old West: legendary outlaw, Billy the Kid.
Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand--a skill that both got him into and out of trouble and that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well-spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime westerns, novels, and movies. But the whole story of his short, epically violent life has never been told as it has been here.
"The Kid's story has been told many times. But not like this" ( The New York Times Book Review ). In his incredible novel, Ron Hansen showcases his masterful research and inimitable style as he breathes life into history, bringing readers back into the late 1800s and into Billy's boyhood as a ranch hand just trying to wrest a fortune from an unforgiving landscape. We are with Billy in every gunfight and horse theft and get to know him in full before his grand death in a hail of bullets in 1881 at the age of twenty-one. Original, powerful, and swiftly told, The Kid is an "entertaining and lively...an excellent, transportive read" ( Publishers Weekly , starred review).
Author Notes
Ron Hansen was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1947.He received a BA degree in English from Creighton University in Nebraska in 1970. He is the author of more than 20 books, stories, and anthologies. He received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for his book Nebraska, a collection of short fiction, in 1989. Some of his other works include Mariette in Ecstasy; the children's book, The Shadowmaker; Desperadoes; the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which won the John Edgar Wideman Award in 1984; and the novel Atticus, a suspenseful murder mystery detailing a father's fierce love for his son. Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1996.
Among the anthologies written by Hansen are The Sun So Hot I Froze To Death, Can I Just Sit Here For A While?, and True Romance. His short stories, with titles ranging from "His Dog" to "Playland," have appeared in the Stanford Alumni Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, the Iowa Review, Esquire, and many others.
Besides holding Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, Hansen has received a Lyndhurst Foundation Grant and is a fellow of the University of Michigan Society of Fellows. Hansen has also held the position of Gerald Manley Hopkins S.J. Professor of Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University.
In May 2006 he was inducted into the College of Fellows at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. Also in that year The Assasination of Jesse James was adapted for the screen. In 2009 Mariette In Ecstasy was adapted for the stage at Lifetime Theater in Chicago.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Hansen's (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) fictional treatment of Billy the Kid, the Old West killer, is entertaining and lively, a portrayal of swift and deadly frontier justice in the early 1880s of New Mexico. This is a fictionalized biography of Billy (1859-1881), but Hansen is no apologist for Billy's cattle rustling, horse stealing, and murderous ways; instead, revealing Billy the Kid for what he really was-a handsome, likable, cold-blooded gunman. Much of the story covers the Lincoln County War between two rival business and political factions, the Murphy-Dolan bunch of owlhoots and the Tunstall-McSween partnership favored by Billy and his unwashed gang of vigilante Regulators. When Tunstall is murdered by a Murphy-Dolan posse, Billy and his saddle pals vow bloody revenge, and start bumping off Murphy-Dolan men, including the crooked county sheriff. When the Kid is not gunning down baddies and others who just get in the way, he is flirting, singing, and dancing with Mexican beauties, and courting Sallie Chisum, the niece of a real-life cattle baron, John Chisum. Both gangs get whittled down by soaking up too much lead, until Billy is convicted of murder, escapes jail after killing his two jailers, and is pursued by tenacious lawman Pat Garrett. Hansen's colorful description of the New Mexico Territory as a lawless land of lying politicians and thieving businessmen is historically accurate, resulting in an excellent, transportive read. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
As an American icon, Billy the Kid looms large in the collective imagination-a horse-stealing, gunslinging outlaw whose life has spawned copious amounts of fiction. Hansen (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) treats us to a detailed yet compellingly readable fictional biography of William Henry McCarty. Charming and deadly, Billy tried to live life on the straight and narrow but was drawn into horse thievery after his beloved mother died. Alternating between stints as a ranch hand and gang member, Billy spent time in jail, honed his sharpshooting skills, and progressed to more serious crimes. At the time of his death, Billy was the New Mexico Territory's most wanted, and notorious, outlaw. Verdict From Billy's parents, to the women he wooed, to his final shootout, Hansen's work provides a rich tapestry of this outlaw's life and compatriots. The digressions into the stories of the supporting characters detract a bit from the forward momentum, but, ultimately, this is an evenhanded literary portrait.-Sarah Cohn, Manhattan Coll. Lib., Bronx, NY © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
