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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 1, 2008
(605) 773-8161
New book from State Historical Society considers two Deadwood legends
PIERRE, S.D.—Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are two Deadwood legends. A new book from the South Dakota State Historical Society looks at just how many of the stories surrounding the Wild West pair are true and how much has been made up since their deaths. How well did they even know each other asks author James D. McLaird in Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends.
Contemporary novelists and journalists created an astonishingly strong legacy for both Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, accounting for much of their notoriety. Gun fights, scouting missions, and daring escapes from enemies filled stories about the dashing pair; even their day-to-day existence seems to have been fraught with danger and excitement, teetering on the brink between lawful and unlawful.
McLaird traces the role that writers and the city of Deadwood itself played in the creation of the legacies of the infamous couple. Fact and fiction have become so woven together that a definitive picture of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill is almost impossible. Their brief friendship and subsequent burial next to each other in MountMoriahCemetery simply added to their legendary status and made them stalwarts of Wild West pop culture and Deadwood mythology.
Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends is the second book in the South Dakota Biography Series, which highlights some of the state’s most famous residents. The award-winning Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life, by Pamela Smith Hill, was the first book in the series. Future subjects in the series include Seth Bullock, Spotted Tail and Crazy Horse.
McLaird is professor emeritus of history at DakotaWesleyanUniversity in Mitchell. He is the author of numerous articles and books focusing on the Black Hills and the American West.
Available for $12.95 plus shipping and tax, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends can be purchased from most bookstores, or ordered directly from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. Visit www.sdshspress.com or call (605) 773-6009.
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The South Dakota State Historical Society is a division of the Department of Tourism and State Development and strives to help the state meet the goals of the 2010 Initiative by enhancing history as a tool for economic development and cultural tourism. The society is headquartered at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. The center houses the society’s world-class museum, the archives, and the historic preservation, publishing and administrative/development offices. Call (605) 773-3458 or visit www.sdhistory.org for more information. The society also has an archaeology office in Rapid City; call (605) 394-1936 for more information.