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(More customer reviews)DeArment's "Bat Masterson" is a fantastic book if you're looking for an exciting account of this famous western lawman, gambler and journalist. While debunking the myth of Masterson as a killer, the author weaves a well researched and exciting tale of Bat Masterson, the crack shot, utterly fearless and justifiably famous Western lawman. Although the book is somewhat scholarly in its approach in the sense that it is well researched, it nevertheless reads like a fast-paced novel. DeArment traces Bat's life from his days as a buffalo hunter as a young man through his career as a lawman during which he served in various law enforcement posts including elected sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, city marshal of Dodge City and deputy United States marshal. Dearment also does an excellent job of illustrating the sometimes fine line between the lawmen and the criminal element in the Old West. If you're a fan of the Old West gunfighter genre it is particularly interesting to compare the various accounts of a single incident as explained by multiple authors such as the excellent account of Wyatt Earp's escapades written by Tefertiller. Even Bat's later career as a sports journalist is fascinating as presented by Dearment. You've got to love this book if you want an exciting "you are there" approach to the fascination of free-wheeling Dodge City and the other frontier towns frequented by Bat Masterson. Thanks are in order for Mr. DeArment from any Old West gunfighter afficionado.
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The colorful figures of the western American frontier, the Indian fighters, the mountain men, the outlaws, and the lawmen, have been romanticized for more than a hundred years by writers who found it easier to invent history than the research it. "Bat" Masterson was one such character who cast a long shadow across the pages of western history as it has been routinely depicted.
"A legend in his own time," he was called in a television series produced in the 1960's. A legend he has become-one firmly fixed in the popular imagination. But in his own time W.B. Masterson was a man, a less-than-perfect creature subject to the same temptations and vices as his fellows, albeit one who, through circumstance and inclination, led an exciting life in an exciting time and place. As buffalo hunter, army scout, peace officer, professional gambler, sportsman, promoter, and newspaperman, Masterson's career was stormy and eventful.
Surprising to many readers will be the account of Masterson's career after his peace officer days, during his employment as a sports writer and columnist. The gun-toting western peace officer reputed to have killed more men than Billy the Kid (not so, says DeArment) spent his last years happily in New York City, writing for a nationally known newspaper.
This book, the product of more than twenty years of research, separates fact from fiction to extricate the story of his life from the legend that has enmeshed it. It is the most complete biography of Bat Masterson ever written.
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