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Buffalo Bill, The King of the Border Men
Tammy Wurtherington read this book to Cedric, Zeke, and Polly in book six and seven of the Wurtherington Diary series. History suggests that this may well have been the most influential dime novel in the 1800's. It was first published in the New York Weekly beginning December 23, 1869 as a serialized story. The story was reprinted many times such that Buffalo Bill became one of the most recognizable names of the era. William F. Cody capitalized upon the fame and produced Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. It quickly became a sensation that played throughout the world. The beginning part of the novel dealt with William F. Cody's life in the West and is reprinted here from a copy found in Tammy's shed."
108 pages, Paperback
Published August 5, 2015
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About the author
Ned Buntline
98 books1 followerEdward Zane Carroll Judson Sr. (March 20, 1821 – July 16, 1886), known by his pseudonym Ned Buntline, was an American publisher, journalist, writer, and publicist.
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May 4, 2019
Quite an adventure. Buffalo Bill with Wild Bill Hickok as his side-kick were kept very busy rescuing one or another of Buff Bills female relatives from a variety of bad men (and some of them were very bad men).
The preface suggests that this book was the most influential novel of the 19th century. It fascinated people in the east to read about these western heroes, buying into the personas created for them by Buntline. No idea how much of this stuff the Easterners actually believed, but they loved it!
Buffalo Bill capitalized on his reputation that Buntline created by putting on stage plays (also written by Buntline) and graduating to his Wild West shows. Must have been fascinating!
The history above is what made me want to read the novel & I did read every word of it! I saw it in my head as a melodrama on stage with the audience sighing for the damsels in distress, booing the villains & cheering for the heros. There is even a vamp-ish character played by the wife of the Indian chief who was foolish enough to be an ally of the bad guys rather than the good guys. From this melodrama point of view, the novel is rollicking good fun. No idea how much of this Eastern audiences actually believed! (If any)
But be ready to decipher as you read. I haven’t investigated the Gutenberg process of turning an old book into a digital format, so I don’t know if the countless errors were present in the original pulp fiction or if they were somehow introduced by some scanning process. Mostly, I could guess what words were supposed to be there. Sometimes I just gave up & didn’t know what the sentence was trying to convey. There was one odd section that seemed to start over again a few pages later. I wish these hundreds of errors weren’t there, because they did impact my ability to enjoy the story & they slowed me down a lot.
The preface suggests that this book was the most influential novel of the 19th century. It fascinated people in the east to read about these western heroes, buying into the personas created for them by Buntline. No idea how much of this stuff the Easterners actually believed, but they loved it!
Buffalo Bill capitalized on his reputation that Buntline created by putting on stage plays (also written by Buntline) and graduating to his Wild West shows. Must have been fascinating!
The history above is what made me want to read the novel & I did read every word of it! I saw it in my head as a melodrama on stage with the audience sighing for the damsels in distress, booing the villains & cheering for the heros. There is even a vamp-ish character played by the wife of the Indian chief who was foolish enough to be an ally of the bad guys rather than the good guys. From this melodrama point of view, the novel is rollicking good fun. No idea how much of this Eastern audiences actually believed! (If any)
But be ready to decipher as you read. I haven’t investigated the Gutenberg process of turning an old book into a digital format, so I don’t know if the countless errors were present in the original pulp fiction or if they were somehow introduced by some scanning process. Mostly, I could guess what words were supposed to be there. Sometimes I just gave up & didn’t know what the sentence was trying to convey. There was one odd section that seemed to start over again a few pages later. I wish these hundreds of errors weren’t there, because they did impact my ability to enjoy the story & they slowed me down a lot.
Displaying 1 of 1 review