Doc Holliday. A Family Portrait.

KAREN HOLLIDAY TANNER

Publication: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998, Norman

First edition. 8vo. Brown fabricoid, silver stamping on the spine, frontis., foreword, xxx, 338pp., acknow., preface, maps, charts, illus., epilogue, appendix, notes, biblio., index. Foreword by Robert K. DeArment. Frontis is a photo of John Henry Holliday, D.D.S., on the occasion of his March 1, 1872 graduation from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. The numerous illustrations include photographs of such noted gunmen as Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, John Ringo, and many others. A splendid and detailed portrayal of a larger than life man whose reputation was built largely by Walter Noble Burns whose Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest was published in 1927, and Stuart N. Lake, whose Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshall appeared in 1931. From this starting point the legend began and continued to be embellished by a host of writers of newspapers and popular magazines. Even Hollywood has portrayed him as being a large, muscular, and powerful man, when in fact he was a physical weakling. The author is a cousin of the noted gunfighter and she presents an accurate account of John Henry Holliday's early life. This book is a significant contribution to our knowledge of one of the most fascinating figures of the American western frontier. The book will eventually be recognized as one of the foremost works in the gunfighter genre. Fine in dust jacket.