With few notable exceptions, most of the men who gained fame in the post-civil war American West, once stripped of the fanciful myths that made up their public persona, have little left to justify that fame and regard. James Butler Hickok was one of the notable exceptions. He excelled in almost everything he did, and his precocious proclivities were evident very early. He fell in love with a half-Indian girl, was a bodyguard for a U.S. Senator, took part in two battles in the border war skirmishes leading up to the Civil War, rode in the saddle day and night as a scout and spy in the border war in Missouri and Kansas, and worked his first assignment as a frontier lawman… all before his 21st birthday. He was not even known yet as Wild Bill! After stripping away the myths and legends, the reader of this book will see that the real life of James Butler Hickok, aka Wild Bill Hickok was every bit as exciting and unique, compelling and dramatic as any myth or legend. It’s no wonder that his real life was such fertile ground for the mythmakers. His real life spoke of infinite possibilities, and the mythmakers seized upon that in describing the exploits and life of Wild Bill Hickok. Historian Craig Crease knows Hickok. He knows the mythological Hickok and he knows the real man too. Or, at least as well as someone who could know a person who has been dead since 1876. In Crease's new book, the author strips away the many years of mythmaking that fostered a bloodthirsty gunman and revealed a calm, calculating, and friendly man. However, Crease also reveals that Hickok was not one to shy away from conflict when he felt it was necessary. The author admits many books about Hickok have been written in the past, but most of these are over 50 years old. and therefore have not had the advantage of using newly discovered material which Crease carefully curated for this new biography. The Wanderer stands on the shoulders of the monumental work by the late Joseph G. Rosa, but at the same time adds valuable and critical contributions to the study of one of the most symbolic figures of the Wild West - a deadly gunfighter, honorable lawman, and doting husband who hated the spotlight but could never escape its brightness even in death. Erik J. Wright Assistant Editor / The Tombstone Epitaph Library Bookwatch: August 2024 James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review Critique: A seminal and ground-breaking biography of one of the most iconic figures of the American West, "The Wanderer: James Butler Hickok and the American West" by Craig Crease is an inherently fascinating and informative read from cover to cover. Informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of 3 Appendices, twenty pages of Notes, a ten page Bibliography, and a twenty-four page Index, this hard cover edition of "The Wanderer" from Caxton Press is a solid and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Western History/Biography collections. Editorial Note: Craig Crease is an investigative historian and award-winning writer on the historic frontier trails and the American West. His historical research and articles have appeared in many publications including the Kansas City Star, The Kansas Anthropologist, Wagon Tracks, and the Overland Journal. His research has appeared in several books on the American West. A popular speaker, Crease has appeared many times giving presentations on frontier America. For over thirty years he was an independent historical consultant for the National Park Service. Roy B. Young, Editor Emeritus of the Wild West History Association Journal Have you ever seen a reviewer state, "This is a book you just can't put down?" Well, this book is it! Craig Crease's superb new biography of "Wild Bill" Hickok will supplant those of eminent English historian and scholar Joseph Rosa, and that is saying a lot based on this reviewer's cherished memories of Rosa, both as a friend and as one of his last volunteer researchers, this side of "the pond." Rosa's work has been the standard for so many years that historians/authors who would have otherwise written books on Hickok could see that Rosa's work had stood the test of time-until now. One reason for Crease's book to be so acclaimed by this reviewer is that he has wisely and prudently used tools that Rosa did not have from his early research on Hickok in the 1960s through his final published book work in the 1990s. Crease, who is an admirer of Rosa's work, makes extensive, warranted use of online newspaper archives that give the reader so much more of what could not otherwise be found in printed sources to expound and elucidate on his interpretation of Hickok the man and Hickok the legend. While telling the truth of a multitude of incidents in Hickok's life, Crease also puts to rest a good many legends, myths, and outright lies about the man, repeatedly throwing them in the "ash bin of history" as he refers to the