A Somewhat Misleading Title
This book gives a pretty detailed description of many notorious outlaws of the time. It gives a good overview of many characters of the wild west, as well as the three main spots along the Outlaw Trail. That being said, I was a little disappointed upon reading the book.
Unfortunately it has very little to do with Butch Cassidy. He is mentioned frequently throughout the book, but never in great detail. Every now and then Cassisdy does have a chapter devoted to one of his more famous exploits, but but it feels as though Kelly really only scratches the surface of Cassidy's exploits. Unfortunately it also seems that the author portrays Cassidy as a mythical figure, as he seems bent on proving Cassidy to be a robin hoodesque hero.
That being said it was an interesting book. If not so much about Cassidy you will learn about other outlaws like the McCarty gang, Matt Warner etc. In addition Kelly does give good firsthand accounts he obtained from many people who befriended, hunted, or simply knew of the outlaws. For these reasons, i gave this book three stars.
A scholarly work full of details about a time period long past
This book was originally self-published by Kelly in the 30s and then updated and republished in the 50s. It contains a very good Introduction written by Daniel Buck and Anne Meadows which puts what follows in perspective.
There are indeed problems with the book, but it is rich in details giving a far more accurate portrayal of the Old West and the outlaws that ran from the Canadian border to Mexico (cutting through specifically Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona) than what passes for the Old West in Hollywoods version or some of the more popular western fiction writers. I'd say after reading this that the west portrayed in David Milch's DEADWOOD is closer to reality.
I've traveled much of the territory in this book and found while doing so that the book enriched my travels. Much of the Old West is gone, but traces of it can still be found if you look hard and this book helps to bring it alive.
Kelly details the history of the Outlaw Trail through the different outlaws he writes of and their escapades. The book is not particularly linear. He does skip around and has an annoying habit of mentioning someone and then saying he'll tell more about them later. At times I felt I needed a character list to keep track of all of the outlaws and how they interrelated. Still, it gave me ample background about how the Outlaw Trail "worked" and the various places where they had free reign.
It's a scholarly work in need of some serious scholarly editing. Still, I found the information useful and interesting. If you're looking for strictly Louis L'Amour this probably isn't the book for you. If instead you're looking to find out more about the true Old West add this book to your collection. It gives another perspective and once you get past some of the at times overly descriptive language/dialogue you'll walk away with a better understanding of this time in our country's history. It's the history of the men and woman who never had movies written about them but who up until a little over 50 years ago still haunted the territories they once rode through with near impunity.
Research that stands the test of time
Although Charles Kelly did not leave us with a lot of footnotes while in the course of writing this book, his research has stood the test of time, and relatively few of his facts are contested, even after more than fifty years. He was able to interview many of the old timers, participants and eye-witnesses, and come closer to capturing the feel of the time period. No wonder the book is full of intrigue and insight that the best modern researchers can not match.
The Real West
The fascinating true story of the outlaws of the late Old West, (roughly 1887-1909). This book was originally written in the 1930s, based on interviews with witnesses still living. The author skillfully weaves Butch Cassidy throughout the narrative, but the story is not the outlaw leader's alone but of Gunplay Maxwell, Big Nose Jake, Sheriff John T. Pope, Queen Ann Bassett and a host of others, of Hole-in-the-Wall and Robber's Roost, of a time when *everyone* stole cattle, of bank robberies gone awry, local juries that never convict, and posses so fearful of the men they are pursuing that fresh sign on the trail means it's a good time to stop and brew coffee.
