What the Brits are Doing for the West
Experts on Billy the Kid, Wild Bill and others are on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
By: Frederick Nolan 01/01/2007
For all the differences in our subjects and our methods of researching them, we all share one other thing in common: we love doing what we do, we all want to go on doing it—and lending a helping hand to others just as once we were ourselves helped—for as long as there’s someone out there who wants to read the truth.
As anyone who has delved into historical research knows, the desire to learn more and get the history right is a compulsion, an obsession, almost a wildness in the blood. Better still, it comes with a marvelous payoff. Radbourne probably put it best: “Pursuing Mickey Free’s trail for decades has not provided a pennyworth of financial profit, but it has led me into such fascinating areas of history and into contact with so many interesting and generous people that I am very glad I followed it to the end. Since the publication of his story, I have found myself signing books, presenting talks and watching the book receive awards from the American Association of State and Local History, the Western History Association and Westerners International. Now, how else might an Englishman from a small town, blue collar background come to enjoy such experiences?”
It’s clear to see that—with all due respect to Paul Revere—this band of British brothers is going to keep coming. As I’ve always put it, “Thanks, America. We’ll be in touch.”
Frederick Nolan’s Tascosa: Its Life and Gaudy Times will be published in 2007 by Texas Tech University Press. He is also a recipient of WOLA’s 2005 Glenn Shirley Award for his lifetime contribution to outlaw-lawman history.
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