Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend

by Gary L. Roberts

Book Overview

Acclaim for Doc Holliday

"Splendid . . . not only the most readable yet definitive study of Holliday yet published, it is one of the best biographies of nineteenth-century Western 'good-bad men' to appear in the last twenty years. It was so vivid and gripping that I read it twice."
--Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University, and author of The New Encyclopedia of the American West

"The history...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470128224
• ISBN13: 9780470128220
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Writer and author

`Doc' Holliday, or, John Henry Holliday, a cold-blooded killer, or a man just trying to stay alive? Author, Gary L. Roberts did extensive research on Holliday, and many of those `Doc' came in contact with. From that research Roberts has put together a book that gives the reader a much better idea of whom `Doc' was, why he was like he was and the impact he had on history. The book, for me, dispelled faulty information I'd received about `Doc.' It also answered some of the questions I'd always had about `Doc.' At the time I write this review I'm fifty-seven years young. During those fifty-seven years I've seen `Doc' portrayed as a bad guy, a good guy, a mysterious acquaintance of Wyatt Earp and all those things between. `Doc' was always an enigma in my mind. I just finished reading "Doc Holliday" by Gary L. Roberts and I must say I feel I now know the man, as much as he could be known by someone never having talked with him. I was born just outside Kennett, Missouri; a state that harbored and made heroes out of people like Jesse James. I also spent twenty years as a `peace officer.' I think this added to my curiosity, and infatuation, with `Doc.' Gary L. Roberts has helped fill that void left by lack of information about `Doc' and therefore `quenched my thirst' concerning what he was really all about. Do yourself a favor and read this book. Richard Neal Huffman - the author of, Dreams In Blue: The Real Police (just another legend?) Confessions of a Serial Killer's Son

Getting to know the man behind the legend, March 22, 2007

In "Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend" Gary Roberts immediately establishes his credentials in historical research and although he comes from a life in academia, that never inhibits his storytelling ability. Roberts tells about a young Atlanta dentist, his family conflicts, the relationship with his catholic cousin Mattie Holliday, contracting tuberculosis and then moving west. Doc continues his dental practice in Dallas where he is attracted to saloon life and becomes a skilled gambler. In Ft. Griffin, Texas Kate Elder sets her sights on Doc and when trouble comes and a noose is about to be tied around Doc's neck Kate executes a daring escape plan and the two of them ride north to Dodge City, Kansas where they begin a tumultuous relationship. Doc sets up a dental practice in the cattle town and establishes good relations with the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Eddie Foy. When a wild bunch of drunken cowboy's corner assistant city Marshall Wyatt Earp Doc hurries to his rescue. Wyatt is grateful to Doc for saving his life, and that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Later they both wind up in Tombstone, Arizona. A corrupt political ring runs Cochise County and uses a cowboy faction as muscle. Wyatt's intent to run for Cochise County Sheriff on a ticket of law and order opens up a hornet's nest. When the showdown comes Doc joins Wyatt and his brothers on the side of law and order in the shootout at the OK Corral. Ring lawyers accuse the Earps and Holliday of murder and take them to court. A twenty-eight day hearing, before Judge Spicer, frees Doc and the others but the cowboy's won't quit. They harass the mayor and Judge Spicer, ambush and wound Virgil Earp and assassinate Morgan Earp. Roberts continues the post Tombstone story with Jail time for Doc in Denver and a shooting episode in Leadville. Then on November 8, 1887 Doc succumbs to tuberculosis and is buried in Linwood Cemetery at Glenwood Springs, Colorado. You'll enjoy this engaging and informative book while at the same time you're getting to know the real man behind the legend. Tom Barnes Author of "Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone." "The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle." "The Goring Collection." The Hurricane Hunters And Lost in the Bermuda Triangle Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone: The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday The Goring Collection

Getting to know the man behind the legend

In "Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend" Gary Roberts immediately establishes his credentials in historical research and although he comes from a life in academia, that never inhibits his storytelling ability. Roberts tells about a young Atlanta dentist, his family conflicts, the relationship with his catholic cousin Mattie Holliday, contracting tuberculosis and then moving west. Doc continues his dental practice in Dallas where he is attracted to saloon life and becomes a skilled gambler. In Ft. Griffin, Texas Kate Elder sets her sights on Doc and when trouble comes and a noose is about to be tied around Doc's neck Kate executes a daring escape plan and the two of them ride north to Dodge City, Kansas where they begin a tumultuous relationship. Doc sets up a dental practice in the cattle town and establishes good relations with the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Eddie Foy. When a wild bunch of drunken cowboy's corner assistant city Marshall Wyatt Earp Doc hurries to his rescue. Wyatt is grateful to Doc for saving his life, and that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Later they both wind up in Tombstone, Arizona. A corrupt political ring runs Cochise County and uses a cowboy faction as muscle. Wyatt's intent to run for Cochise County Sheriff on a ticket of law and order opens up a hornet's nest. When the showdown comes Doc joins Wyatt and his brothers on the side of law and order in the shootout at the OK Corral. Ring lawyers accuse the Earps and Holliday of murder and take them to court. A twenty-eight day hearing, before Judge Spicer, frees Doc and the others but the cowboy's won't quit. They harass the mayor and Judge Spicer, ambush and wound Virgil Earp and assassinate Morgan Earp. Roberts continues the post Tombstone story with Jail time for Doc in Denver and a shooting episode in Leadville. Then on November 8, 1887 Doc succumbs to tuberculosis and is buried in Linwood Cemetery at Glenwood Springs, Colorado. You'll enjoy this engaging and informative book while at the same time you're getting to know the real man behind the legend. Tom Barnes Author of "Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone."

A highly detailed bio of Doc

I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of historical detail and the extent of footnoting I found in this book. I am not a Western buff, although I do enjoy Western movies (including the ones with John Wayne). If Gary Roberts is right (and, of course, he is) the Wild West was rather different than the way it is portrayed in the movies. I was surprised by the number of arrests for gambling and for carrying a "concealed weapon", thinking that these were the norm in those days. As I got to the "gunfight at the O.K. Corral", I was again surprised to find this episode labeled the "Fremont Street fiasco". While Roberts presents this "fight" in great detail, given the disparate materials available to him, the actual gunfight seems greatly overblown in the popular imagination (including mine), due to an over-reliance on movies for historical information on the Old West. Roberts goes a long way to setting things straight. Doc remains a shadowy figure, befitting his status as a legend.

Destined to become a classic...

This is a long-awaited book that is destined to be a classic in American biography. Gary L. Roberts has captured the life and the legend of his fellow Georgian in a manner unlikely to be excelled in our lifetime. The highly respected Roberts, who has written dozens of articles about various aspects of western history over more than four decades, is Professor Emeritus of History at Abraham Baldwin College. He is the author of the acclaimed study of 19th century New Mexico mayhem, "Death Comes for the Chief Justice: The Slough-Rynerson Quarrel and Political Violence in New Mexico." This book is the culmination of a lifetime of his research into the life of the legendary gunfighting dentist. Several other features make this a work apart. There is Roberts's vivid writing style, with prose that sparkles and at other times touches the reader to the core. This is especially true of the magnificently written final two chapters- lengthy analyses of the Doc Holliday legend this reviewer believes are destined to become classics- The Anatomy of a Western Legend, and The Measure of a Legend. Dr. Roberts brings to this field a wider view of western American history and its themes than most writers in this genre, placing Doc in the context of the Railroad Age, the coming of the Industrial Revolution to the American West, the closing of the frontier, and more. His feel for historical process enables him to deliver measured judgments that are convincing. His long immersion in Holliday research enables him to cite sources long unavailable. Understanding Holliday's roots in antebellum Georgia, his boyhood Civil War trials, and the chaos of the Reconstruction Era comes naturally to this author from the Peach State. Readers will find much new material on many well-known figures and episodes, and this reviewer found the bringing of Doc's sometime paramour Big Nose Kate to life particularly poignant. Kate is a real human being for perhaps the first time in western letters. Yet the author does not claim to have the final word on the intriguing figure of John Henry Holliday; true historian that he is, he understands historical writing as part of an ongoing dialogue. To that end he has used a prodigious amount of modern research, seemingly leaving no stone unturned, and has listed his sources in a detailed and admirable section of annotated endnotes that scholars will be using for years to come. The photographs sprinkled throughout the text will add to the reader's experience. Readers interested in the sagas of Dodge City, Tombstone, and the single most famous stand-up and face each other gunfight in the history of the American West, The Gunfight at the OK Corral, and yet who want more than their Hollywood versions, will want to read this book. Doc Holliday, The Life and Legend, makes a fine companion to the 1997 biography Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend by Roberts's research colleague Casey Tefertiller. It is unlikely an accident that the title