The Frontier World of Doc Holliday Paperback – May 1, 1979

If you're interested in the life of Doc Holliday, than you will probably want to read this book.It is definitely filled with some historical truths, but at the same time the author tries to tell the reader what Doc might have been feeling when relating things that happened to him. I found that to be slightly annoying, because it's just based on pure conjecture. Sometimes it seems more like a fictional story rather than factual information.It also seems like more information could have been put into the book regarding the relationships between him and Kate and him and Wyatt Earp.All in all a worthwile book, but one not too put too much credence into. "Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait," by Karen Holliday Tanner is a better choice for the Doc Holliday fan. It has a good deal more factual information information about Doc, and much of it is based on family records, letters, etc.

Good prose, but more about the western atmosphere than about the man Doc Holliday

Nice book fast servic

Has a lot of info on everything but i was looking for more of a story line. Good info for a biography though.

I have mixed thoughts on this book. I hoped for a historical presentation of John 'Doc' Holliday, but instead got a so-called, funny tongue-in-cheek presentation from an author who considers himself a stand-up comedian. After about 75 pages this got a bit irritating, and there were still over 200 pages to go.When the author finally gets to the famous gunfight of the "O.K. Corral," he covers it using only newspaper articles of the times and the testimony of the witnesses. Since there were two sides to this fight, with two bitterly opposed, politically motivated factions, the lies abounded, depending on who was testifying. So we learn nothing new here.For whatever reason, the author then put his humor aside and told the rest of the story as straight history. I find it interesting that Holliday's official obituary was as full of lies as the rest of his life. For example, it had him coming West at the age of eleven, instead of in his early twenties.

While this book is certainly an entertaining read, and covers Holliday's life quite fully, I consider the scholarship somewhat suspect.The problem is that, rather than confine her account to the facts, the author often states how Doc felt, or what he thought about various things, people, events, etc. throughout the book. There is just no way she could possibly have such detailed and complete knowledge about such things, since Holliday never kept a diary, and indeed the only written accounts directly attributable to him were some letters written to his cousin, a Catholic nun - none of which go into the level of detail that would be required for Ms. Johns to know all of the things she appears to know. Most of what we know about Holliday comes from what others (many of whom disliked him cordially) said or wrote about him. Yet Ms. Jahns writes as though she has an inside track on his innermost thoughts.If she actually qualified such statements with words like "It seems probable that...", "it is very likely that...", or "the evidence clearly indicates that..." this would solve the problem; after all, it is a historian's job to present possible explanations for things the bare facts may not explain sufficiently, and to try and see past events to the causes and motivations behind them. But speculation and supposition MUST be labelled as such. To present it as though it were incontrovertible fact is poor scholarship. As a historian myself, I know this would never fly if the author were presenting this as a graduate thesis.Ms. Jahns is also inclined to make some pretty wild claims, such as Wyatt Earp's and Doc Holliday's "...friendship, may have caused many deaths, even Doc's own."(p.134) How Holliday's death from tuberculosis, several years after he parted company with Wyatt could, in any way, be attributable to Earp is a complete mystery to me. And this is only one example of some of the author's questionable assertions.If your looking for entertainment, you'll enjoy this book. But I consider much of the information contained herein to be highly suspect, given that the author's scholarship is often very sloppy.

there are People who" Hate the Truth" try to change this Book to "Fiction" its not! in my Opinion Great "Creative Historical writing"! something different on Doc Story's..I am thrilled to read Pat Jahns Psycho Analysis!This show The Hero of the OK corral shooting in a more "True" light! He was for sure an dangerous Alcoholic later Opiate (Laudanum) Addict..who most likely hit Kate Horony his Companion! Juergen Fritz Member of "Doc Holliday Group" & Doc & Kate Holliday Group feel free to join?

Got exactly what i wanted,no problems