![]() Having distinguished the facts of Cody’s glamorous life (fodder for something like 1,700 dime novels), McMurtry moves into his work as a showman. Cody’s scouting for the Army allows McMurtry free reign on the subtleties of the Indian Wars, a subject he evidently relishes. ![]() These included his first killing of an Indian when he was 11 and his scalping of Yellow Hair in 1876. But the facts of Cody’s romantic story keep pulling him in, especially the “tropes,” as McMurtry calls the legendary set pieces by which Cody defined himself. He does not purport to give a biography of Cody, who grew up in “bleeding” Kansas and worked briefly as a Pony Express guide, Army scout and buffalo hunter before embarking on a 30-year show-biz career that ended with his death in 1917. McMurtry ( Loop Group, 2004, etc.) knows his territory, and though he takes some time here working up a thesis separating Buffalo Bill Cody’s and Annie Oakley’s legends from the facts, the author of the Pulitzer-winning Lonesome Dove is ever fascinating and knowledgeable. ![]() ![]() A slapdash, repetitious but nonetheless compelling look at two phenoms of the late-19th-century, by Mr. ![]()
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