In 1993 when I saw the movie "Tombstone" with Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer and other amazing actors, there was something oddly familiar about it. So, I visited Tombstone, Arizona and when I got there in 1994 somehow I knew where things were located (this is before cell phones, internet look-ups, etc.). Turns out I had a past-life experience there, but I digress. I became fascinated with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and traveled all around the U.S. in the years following making notes and cataloging their lives and travels in hopes to write a book. Well, author Tom Clavin recently published his book called "Tombstone" - and it's truly the BEST BOOK I've ever read about the famous history of that old western town that was the site of the shootout near the O.K. Corral.
The author provides great information, that is easy to read. He delves into the backgrounds of the key players in Tombstone from its founding in 1879 to 1882 when the Earps left the town. Even the last chapter where the author provides a short look at what happened to every character was so, so well done.
This is an AWESOME BOOK!! 5 of 5 stars. READ IT!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell (Frontier Lawmen) by Tom Clavin
The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times bestselling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill.
On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, eight men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in thirty seconds, killing three men and wounding three others.
The fight sprang forth from a tense, hot summer. Cattle rustlers had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico and selling the livestock they stole to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to try to thwart American outlaws, while Arizona citizens became increasingly agitated. Rustlers, who became known as the cow-boys, began to kill each other as well as innocent citizens. That October, tensions boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronting the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, and the suddenly deputized Wyatt and Morgan Earp and shotgun-toting Doc Holliday.
Bestselling author Tom Clavin peers behind decades of legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story of the drama and violence that made it famous. Tombstone also digs deep into the vendetta ride that followed the tragic gunfight, when Wyatt and Warren Earp and Holliday went vigilante to track down the likes of Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius, and other cowboys who had cowardly gunned down his brothers. That "vendetta ride" would make the myth of Wyatt Earp complete and punctuate the struggle for power in the American frontier's last boom town.
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