Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest

1929. Illustrations by Will James and photographs supplied through the courtesy of N.H. Rose of San Antonio, Texas. Tombstone defined the legend of lawman-gunfighter Wyatt Earp. A mixture of fact and fiction, Walter Noble Burns's portrayal of Earp has profoundly influenced subsequent generations of historians, novelists, and screen writers. In Burns's narrative, the Earp clan represents law and order in the lawless, chaotic Old West. The collision between civilization and frontier explodes in the bloody and legendary shootout at the OK Corral between the Earps and the Clanton-McLowery gang. The Earps prevailed, but the subsequent shootings of two Earp brothers drove the calm, courageous, and somewhat emotionless Wyatt to take the law into his own hands. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.