Some of the West's grandest legends are not about the good guys, but about those who broke the law, the ones who robbed and killed. How did the fame of these remorseless outlaws persist? What has inspired the publishing, movie, and television industries to recreate their fictionalized careers over and over again? Why did America's criminals become at the same time its heroes?The great American frontier attracted stalwart folks who accepted the hardships of the unknown and headed into the distant west. Those left behind to work for paltry wages in the crowded cities and for long, backbreaking hours on farms found escape in the dime novel. These thrillers, nothing more than fictional hype, glorified the lives of not only the frontiersmen, but also the notorious bandits and gunmen of the West. Newspaper editors fanned the flames, elevating the criminals of the American West to the status of folk heroes.In The Making of Legends, however, Mark Dugan brings reality to the forefront. His biographies of David Lewis, the Robin Hood of the Cumberland; of Wyatt Earp and the Coeur d'Alene gold rush; of Malinda Blaylock, who passed as a man to join her husband in the Confederate army; of bushwhackers and bandits, counterfeiters, gamblers, and vigilantes, rely on his personal research in countless archives across the country.Like his previous collection, Tales Never Told Around the Campfire: True Stories of Frontier America (Swallow Press, 1992) Mark Dugan's The Making of Legends proves once again that fact, like fiction, can be exciting, moving, and intriguing."By dragging out these stories of little-known 19th-century personalities, Dugan has performed a valuable service for readers whowish to better know our American past". -- History West Newsletter
