The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson

The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson by D. J. Herda
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Release : 2019-06-01
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From Farmer and Sailor to Mountain Man, Crow Killer, and Town Sheriff, One man’s reputation lives past all others When it came to western mountain men, no one on earth ever matched the physical prowess or will to survive of John “Liver-Eating” Johnson. Throughout his life, John Johnston was known by several names, including “Crow Killer” and “Liver-Eating Johnson” (without the “t”), names he earned through his penchant for killing Crow Indians before cutting out and eating their livers. Born around 1824 in New Jersey, Johnston headed west after deserting from the U.S. Navy and became a well-known and infamous mountain man. His many lives would involve him working as a miner, hunter, trapper, bootlegger, woodcutter, and army scout. When his Flathead Indian wife and child were killed by Crow Indians while he was away hunting and trapping, he swore to avenge their deaths and began his next life as a man after revenge . He killed hundreds and earned his nickname because he was said to cut out and eat his victims’ livers. Twenty-five years after his wife’s death, his life would take another turn when he joined the Union Army in Missouri. And that was just the start of his second act.

Crow Killer, New Edition

Crow Killer, New Edition by Raymond W. Thorp, Jr.
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Release : 2016-01-04
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The movie Jeremiah Johnson introduced millions to the legendary mountain man, John Johnson. The real Johnson was a far cry from the Redford version. Standing 6'2" in his stocking feet and weighing nearly 250 pounds, he was a mountain man among mountain men, one of the toughest customers on the western frontier. As the story goes, one morning in 1847 Johnson returned to his Rocky Mountain trapper's cabin to find the remains of his murdered Indian wife and her unborn child. He vowed vengeance against an entire Indian tribe. Crow Killer tells of that one-man, decades-long war to avenge his beloved. Whether seen as a realistic glimpse of a long ago, fierce frontier world, or as a mythic retelling of the many tales spun around and by Johnson, Crow Killer is unforgettable. This new edition, redesigned for the first time, features an introduction by western frontier expert Nathan E. Bender and a glossary of Indian tribes.

Crow Killer

Crow Killer by Raymond W. Thorp
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Release : 1969
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A fictionalized biography of a Rocky Mountain fur trapper who single-handedly defeated a band of Crow Indians during the 1840's. Bibliogs

Etta Place

Etta Place by D. J. Herda
Publisher : TwoDot
Release : 2020-09
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A consort of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and The Wild Bunch, Etta remains shrouded in controversy. In the hands of storyteller DJ Herda, the story of her life--and her legacy of mystery--gets a fresh telling.

Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane by D. J. Herda
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Release : 2018-04-15
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Young Martha Jane Cannary began life as a camp follower and street urchin. Parentless by the age of twelve, she morphed into the mother of two who just as often took employment as a waitress, laundress, or dance hall girl as she did an Indian scout or bullwhacker. Just as likely to wear a dress as she was buckskins, she was impossible to ignore no matter what she wore, particularly after she’d had a few drinks! And she shamelessly parlayed into a legend the aura of fame that Edward L. Wheeler’s dime novels crafted around her. Perhaps most amazing of all, in an era where women had few options in life, Calamity Jane had the audacity to carve them out for herself. The gun-toting, tough-talking, hard-drinking woman was all Western America come to life. Flowing across the untamed small towns and empty spaces of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana like the wild running rivers of the American West, she helped create the legend of Calamity Jane from scratch. Part carnie barker, part actor, part sexually alluring siren, part drunken lout--she was all of these and much more.

Charles M. Russell

Charles M. Russell by Raphael James Cristy
Publisher : UNM Press
Release : 2004
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Well known for his sketches, paintings, and sculptures of the Old West, Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) was also an accomplished author in the humorous genre known as local color. Raphael Cristy sorts Russell's writings into four general categories: serious Indian stories, men encountering wildlife, cattle range characters, and nineteenth-century westerners facing twentieth-century challenges. Russell's art is often misinterpreted as mere longing for a fading open-range west, but his writings tell a different story. Cristy shows how Russell amused his peers with stories that also delivered sharp observations of Euro-American suppression of Indians and humorous treatment of wilderness and range issues plus the emergence of women and urbanization as bewildering agents of change in the modern West. A welcome departure from the usual biographies and coffee table volumes on Russell and his art. . . . [Cristy] deals with an important, yet relatively unexplored, aspect of the career of one of the most influential interpreters of the American West.--Byron Price, Director, C. M. Russell Center for the Study of Art

A Place to Lay My Head

A Place to Lay My Head by Joe A. Moreland
Publisher : Lulu.com
Release : 2011-11-14
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In the early days of his youth, Joe Moreland's family lived a nomadic lifestyle, taking possession of unattended shelter wherever they could find it. This is the tale of his life during those years as best he can recall it.

Under the Big Sky

Under the Big Sky by Jackson J. Benson
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Release : 2009-05-01
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Author of The Way West and the screenplay for the classic Shane, among many other timeless stories, icon of Western literature A. B. "Bud" Guthrie Jr. brought a blazing realism to the story of the West. That realism came out of the depth of Guthrie's historical research and an acuity that had seldom been seen in the work of Western novelists. The small Montana town that figures in several of Guthrie's books is clearly patterned after the town where he grew up, Choteau, on the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. Biographer Benson illuminates Guthrie's upbringing and education, the influence of his intellectually inclined father, his work as a newspaperman in Kentucky, and his time at Harvard University. Animated by the observations of friends, family, and fellow authors, this intimate account offers rare insight into the life and work of a remarkable writer and into the making of the literary West.--From publisher description.