Belle Starr: The Truth Behind the Wild West Legend [Hardcover]

In the annals of legendary Wild West desperadoes, Belle Starr is remembered to this day as the Bandit Queen. Shortly after her murder in 1889, a highly romanticized, sensational book titled Well-researched and compelling . . . Beyond his portrait of Starrs life, Wallis does an excellent job of sorting through and correcting myths and legends about her. The lurid reputation of a famed outlaw is energetically fact-checked by historian Wallis ( A measured but fascinating account of a mythical outlaw. A dazzlingly written and copiously researched biography of that flamboyant outlaw from Missouri.... Stealing horses, befriending rogues, and mastering firearms, the real Belle Starr, as documented by Michael Wallis, is far more beguiling than the pulp Westerns, Woody Guthrie folksongs, and Hollywood portrayals anchored around her notorious high-stakes antics.... Highly recommended! A wild romp where we ride shotgun with the Wests most fascinating and mythologized outlaw heroine. It may be the sizzle that sells the steak, but this new biography is just as good as it sounds. Thoroughly researched, vibrant, and well written so as to keep ones attention, at the same time dispelling and correcting previously believed facts that were little more than legend. Definitive is the word for this new book! An annoyance of history is our tendency to accept myth more readily than documented fact. Michael Walliss excellent and thorough analysis of the legend of Belle Starr explores this theme with rare insight into the lawless West of the nineteenth century. Exhaustive research and much-needed context make Michael Walliss