An Endless Attraction to Billy
Garrett's book is bunk, Burns’ revived the Kid and Wallis' latest bio tells the whole truth.
By: Allen Barra 04/01/2007
Michael Wallis’ first outlaw biography was on Oklahoma’s social bandit Pretty Boy Floyd, published in 1992. Now he’s written Billy the Kid:
The Endless Ride (W.W. Norton), which brings into focus the legend of the frontier’s more enigmatic figure.
TW: What attracted you to writing a biography of someone about whom so little is actually known?
MW: That is not necessarily the public perception [of the Kid] due to the countless books, articles and motion pictures devoted to the illusive young man. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the Kid is difficult to find and twice as hard to prove—he is like quicksilver. For that reason, I was drawn to this deeply mythologized young man who will be 21 years old forever and remains an enigma to this day. I do believe, however, that the Kid will continue to attract writers and researchers. Perhaps some lost correspondence, a hidden diary or photograph will emerge. I only hope that my book helps shed some light on the life and times of the Kid, and helps explain how this cultural icon could ever exist.
Larry McMurtry has said factual information on Crazy Horse would scarcely fill a page. Billy has left us a little more than that, but not a great deal more. What were your basic source materials for The Endless Ride?
Despite the fact that so much has been written about the Kid, most people would be astonished to learn just how much of it is pure conjecture and often outright lies. I realized the daunting task I faced based in part on my experiences when writing the biography of another American outlaw—Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Like the Kid, Floyd was also greatly mythologized and, depending on the circumstances and the source, was either described as the devil incarnate or a sagebrush Robin Hood. In the case of both of these young men, the true stories of their brief and violent lives lie somewhere between heaven and hell on human terra firma.
I read as much about the Kid as I could get my hands on but was careful to filter out the obvious distortions and exaggerations. Instead I turned to the careful work of a few diligent authors and researchers before me, such as Robert Utley, Jerry Weddle, Frederick Nolan, John Wilson, William Keleher and Bob Boze Bell. I scoured many of the archives, collections and libraries as the more credible primary sources had done and also probed new material that has more recently surfaced. I also looked into areas of the Kid’s life and particularly his times that have not been fully pursued in the past, such as aspects of his boyhood, his close association with the Hispanic population and the influence of the Masonic order on the Lincoln County War.
I considered many of the earlier written works about the Kid—including some purported biographies—to be mostly works of fiction. That includes Pat Garrett’s ghostwritten tome about Billy the Kid that was published shortly after Garrett’s deadly meeting with the Kid in Pete Maxwell’s bedroom at Fort Sumner. Garrett’s sensationalistic book about the young outlaw is not only self-serving but unfortunately became a primary reference for a slew of others who penned their own tales and accounts of the Kid. I look at the Garrett book as a piece of literary history but not at all trustworthy as a source of fact.
Post A Comment