Love Untamed: Romances of the Old West

by Joann Chartier, Chris Enss

Overview

From Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate to Frank Butler and Annie Oakley and the lesser-known Mollie Walsh and Packer Jack Newman, this book reveals the stories behind some of the West's most famous, passionate, and tempestuous romances.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762711420
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

JoAnn Chartier is an artist and writer living in California's historic Gold Rush Country. She has worked as both a print and broadcast journalist and as a talk show host, devoting many programs to historical themes.

Chris Enss is a standup comic and comedy writer with an extensive background in radio and television. Her educational background includes studies in journalism and cinematography. Her hobbies are historical research and writing about the Old West.

Read an Excerpt

"What fools we mortals be! My admiration for Frank Butler's poodle led me into signing some sort of alliance papers with him that tied a knot so hard it lasted some fifty years."
-Annie Oakley, 1925

Frank Butler eased his lanky frame up a mossy bluff to Shooter's Hill. A small crowd had gathered on the wide porches of the shooting club, and the people applauded as Frank passed by. He tipped his green hat with a jaunty feather sticking out of the band to the cheering audience. He was an imposing figure with dark features and a tall build; he wore a belted hunting jacket and stylish trousers. Frank Butler was a professional sharpshooter-one of the best shots in the United States-and looked the part. He studied his surroundings like a chariot racer would study the track.

Table of Contents

(1) Introduction (2) The Trapper and the Girl He Left Behind, La Bonté and Mary Brand (3) The Outlaw and the Parson's Daughter, Jim Nugent and Isabella Bird (4) The Bartender and the Soiled Dove, Earnest Marks and Rosa May (5) The Journalist "Yellow Bird" and His Devoted Muse®. (15) The Sharpshooter and the Sure Shot, Frank Butler and Annie Oakley; Afterword; Bibliography; Index

Editorial Reviews

Given the hardscrabble lives, isolation, and lopsided ratio of men to women (especially the "respectable" kind) in the old West, it is no wonder that even mildly talented female entertainers were lionized. They were also richly rewarded, often being honored with bags of gold dust and pelted with silver coins. Enss and Chartier, authors of With Great Hope and Love Untamed, present the stories of 15 of these enterprising women. Several were already famous, or became so afterward, in more legitimate venues, among them Maude Adams, Sarah Bernhardt, Adah Menken, Lillie Langtry, Helena Modjeska, and Lillian Russell. But most are far less known, if not totally obscure. The authors have done a good job of discovering a few of these "gilded girls" through accounts in contemporaneous Wild West newspapers, from which they copiously quote, but it is unfortunate that they omit Lotta Crabtree and Lola Montez. Although the subject should be inherently interesting, the choppy and prosaic writing dilutes the impact. In addition, the text seems to be aimed at a very young audience. Therefore, this is recommended for juvenile readers in public libraries.-Roy Liebman, California State Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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