The Business of Being Buffalo Bill: Selected Letters, 1879-1917

by William F. Cody, Sarah J. Blackstone (Editor)

The Business of Being Buffalo Bill provides new insight into a colorful figure in American history. William F. Cody was interested in developing the American West through irrigation, transportation, and settlement. He invested heavily in development projects such as mining, newspapers, and an entire town, Cody, Wyoming. In his correspondence, Cody discussed his various failures and successes, talked of personal problems, and spoke of his longing to end his show business career and retire to the West he loved. These candid letters present a unique view of Buffalo Bill as a man of many interests and enthusiasms. Containing previously unpublished correspondence between Cody and his business partners, relations, and friends, this volume examines Cody's business endeavors and his personal relationships.

143 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 1988

About the author

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), in Le Claire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes, which he toured in Great Britain and Europe as well as the United States.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful collection showing William F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") to be an ambitious Western businessman and an indefatigable international showman. It proves that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American West was not far removed from the East -- or even from Europe. Trains, ships, and telegraph lines connected them tightly, and it was not difficult for Cody to make a long public career out of bridging them. He stayed at New York hotels as comfortably (and about as often) as he lived at his ranch in Wyoming, and his wild west show played in Marseilles and Rome as well as North Platte, Nebraska.