Charlie Siringos West

Download or read book Charlie Siringo's West written by Howard R. Lamar and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlie Siringo (1855–1928) lived the quintessential life of adventure on the American frontier as a cowboy, Pinkerton detective, writer, and later as a consultant for early western films. Siringo was one of the most attractive, bold, and original characters to live and flourish in the final decades of the Wild West. His love of the cattle business and of cowboy life was so great that in 1885 he published A Texas Cowboy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony—Taken From Real Life, which Will Rogers dubbed the “Cowboy’s Bible.” Howard R. Lamar’s biography deftly shares Siringo’s story within seventy-five pivotal years of western history. Siringo was not a mere observer but a participant in major historical events including the Coeur d’Alene mining strikes of the 1890s and Big Bill Haywood’s trial in 1907. Lamar focuses on Siringo’s youthful struggles to employ his abundant athleticism and ambitions and how Siringo’s varied experiences helped develop the compelling national myth of the cowboy.