{"product_id":"9780802162083","title":"Son of the Old West","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn epic narrative of\nthe Old West told through the vivid, outsized life of cowboy, detective,\nand chronicler Charlie Siringo\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNo figure in the Old West lived or\nshaped its history more fully than Charlie Siringo\u003c\/span\u003e, as Nathan Ward reveals in his colorful portrait of this epic era and one of its primary protagonists\u003cspan\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBorn in Matagorda, Texas\nin 1855, Charlie went on his first cattle drive at age twelve and spent two decades\nliving his boyhood dream as a cowboy. As the dangerous, lucrative “beeves”\nbusiness boomed, Siringo drove longhorn steers north to the burgeoning Midwest\nPlains states’ cattle and railroad towns, inevitably crossing paths with such\nlegendary figures as Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, and Shanghai Pierce. In his\nearly thirties he joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s Denver office, using\na variety of aliases to investigate violent labor disputes and infiltrate\noutlaw gangs such as Butch Cassidy’s train robbing Wild Bunch. As brave as he\nwas clever, he was often saved by his cowboy training as he traveled to places\nthe law had not yet reached.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSiringo’s\nbestselling, landmark 1885 autobiography, \u003ci\u003eA Texas Cowboy\u003c\/i\u003e, helped\nmake the lowly cowboy a heroic symbol of the American West. His later\nmemoir, \u003ci\u003eA Cowboy Detective\u003c\/i\u003e, influenced early hard-boiled crime\nnovelists for whom the detective story was really the cowboy story in an urban\nsetting. Sadly sued into debt by the Pinkertons determined to prevent their\nsources and methods from being revealed, Siringo eventually sold his beloved New Mexico\nranch and moved to Los Angeles, where he advised Hollywood filmmakers, and\nespecially actor William S. Hart, on their early 1920s Westerns, watching the\nfrontier history he had known first-hand turned into romantic legend on the\nscreen.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn old age,\nCharlie Siringo was called “Ulysses of the Wild West” for the long journey he\ntook across the western frontier. \u003ci\u003eSon of the Old West\u003c\/i\u003e brings\nhim and his legendary world vividly to life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nathan Ward","offers":[{"title":"Grove\/Atlantic |  Hardback | With dust jacket |  2023-09-15","offer_id":44230061949183,"sku":"9780802162083","price":41.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_b4e00ece-a0fd-4b47-b6fb-26415eec14c5.jpg?v=1692997109","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780802162083","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}