Buffalo Bill's America

William F. "Buffalo Bill” Cody was the most famous American of his age. He claimed to have worked for the Pony Express when only a boy and to have scouted for General George Custer. But what was his real story? And how did a frontiersman become a worldwide celebrity? In this prize-winning biography, acclaimed author Louis S. Warren explains not only how Cody exaggerated his real experience as an army scout and buffalo hunter, but also how that experience inspired him to create the gigantic, traveling spectacle known as Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A dazzling mix of Indians, cowboys, and vaqueros, they performed on two continents for three decades, offering a surprisingly modern view of the United States and a remarkably democratic version of its history. This definitive biography reveals the genius of America's greatest showman, and the startling history of the American West that drove him and his performers to the world stage.

Introduction

PART ONE
One: Pony Express
Two: The Attack on the Settler’s Cabin
Three: The Village . . . The Cyclone
Four: With the Prince of Pistoleers
Five: Guide and Scout
Six: Buffalo Hunt

PART TWO
Seven: Theater Star
Eight: Indians, Horses
Nine: Domesticating the Wild West
Ten: The Drama of Civilization: Visual Play and Moral Ambiguity
Eleven: Wild West London
Interlude: Broncho Charlie Miller
Twelve: Wild West Europe
Thirteen: Ghost Dance
Interlude: Standing Bear
Fourteen: Cowboys, Indians, and the Artful Deceptions of Race
Fifteen: Buffalo Bill’s America
Interlude: The Johnson Brothers

PART THREE
Sixteen: Empire of the Home
Seventeen: Showdown in Cheyenne
Interlude: Adele Von Ohl Parker
Eighteen: End of the Trail

Notes
Acknowledgments
Index