Lady at the O.K. Corral (45 page)

I traveled back to the early days of Nome in the company of two fine writers, popular in their own day and hardly known at all today. Rex Beach's best seller
The Spoilers
deserves yet another generation of readers, or perhaps another movie version to add to the five that have already been made, beginning with a silent film in 1914 (preceding
The Birth of a Nation
) and ending with a 1942 version starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich. I also feel privileged to have stumbled upon the work of actor, writer, and activist Elizabeth Robins. Her time in Nome in search of her brother Raymond inspired two novels and several short stories. Her journal was edited by Victoria J. Moessner and Joanne E. Gates and published as
The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900
. The original is in the Fales Library and Special Collections of New York University.

The development of the San Francisco Jewish community is an important backdrop for Josephine's life. For the Marcus family, the tale began in Europe and in the Prussian province of Posen (sometimes known as Posnan); I found Hasia Diner's
A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820–1880
an invaluable introduction, which led me to Isaac Benjamin and his fascinating account of Jewish life in America right after the Civil War,
Three Years in America: 1859–1862.
Benjamin did have a prejudice against the Emanu-El crowd, as Ava Kahn notes in her indispensable
Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush.

For excellent histories of Tombstone, see William Shillingberg,
Tombstone, A.T.: A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem,
and Lynn Bailey's
Tombstone, Arizona: “Too Tough to Die”; The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Silver Camp, 1878 to 1990.
All Tombstone historians are indebted to Lynn Bailey and Don Chaput for
Cochise County Stalwarts: A Who's Who of the Territorial Years.

And then there is Wyatt Earp and the O.K. Corral. Most roads begin with Stuart Lake's
Frontier Marshal
, Walter Noble Burns's
Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest
, and William Breakenridge's
Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite
. With a groaning bookshelf of modern Wyatt Earp biographies to choose from, the discriminating reader will start with Casey Tefertiller's
Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend
. Jeff Guinn's
Last Gunfight
is the most definitive (and most enjoyable) book about Wyatt Earp in decades. Other important sources include Allan Barra,
Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends
; Don Chaput,
The Earp Papers: In a Brother's Image
; William Shillingberg,
Dodge City: The Early Years, 1872–1886
; and Gary Roberts,
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend.

Roger Jay filled in some critical gaps—and documented the existence of Wyatt's first common-law relationship, with Sally Earp—in
Wyatt Earp's Lost Year
and
Reign of the Rough-Scuff, Law and Lucre in Wichita.
Carol Mitchell wrote one of the earliest and most important reconsiderations of Josephine in her article “Lady Sadie.” I am indebted to Anne Collier for new documentation on Josephine's early days, and to Bob Palmquist for his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Tombstone.

For the essential trio of Tombstone contemporary observers, see George Parsons's original diaries at the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. A portion of the diaries has been edited by Lynn R. Bailey in
A Tenderfoot in Tombstone: The Private Journal of George Whitwell Parsons; The Turbulent Years, 1880–82.
Endicott Peabody's observations on Tombstone are available in
A Church for Helldorado: The 1882 Tombstone Diary of Endicott Peabody and the Building of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Of the three observers, only Clara Spalding Brown wrote for the public; see Lynn R. Bailey,
Tombstone from a Woman's Point of View: The Correspondence of Clara Spalding Brown, July 7, 1880, to November 14, 1882
.

I am grateful to these people and places, especially to the heroic librarians and archivists who are a writer's best friend.

For additional sources, see ladyattheokcorral.com.

Alexander, Bob.
John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff.
Silver City, N.M.: High-Lonesome Books, 2002.

Bailey, Lynn R., and Don Chaput.
Cochise County Stalwarts: A Who's Who of the Territorial Years.
Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore Press, 2000.

Bailey, Lynn R.
Tombstone, Arizona: “Too Tough to Die”; The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Silver Camp, 1878 to 1990
. Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore Press, 2004.

Barra, Allen.
Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends
. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998.

Beach, Rex.
The Spoilers
. New York: Harper & Bros, 1906.

Benjamin, I. J.
Three Years in America, 1859–1862.
Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1956.

Berner, Richard C.
Seattle, 1900–1920: From Boom-town Urban Turbulence, to Restoration.
Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1991.

Boyer, Glenn G.
Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp
. San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor, 1967.

Breakenridge, William M.
Helldorado, Bringing the Law to the Mesquite
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.

Brooks, Alfred H., George B. Richardson, and Arthur J. Collier.
A Reconnaissance of the Cape Nome and Adjacent Gold Fields of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, in 1900.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1901.

Brown, Clara S., and Lynn R. Bailey.
Tombstone from a Woman's Point of View: The Correspondence of Clara Spalding Brown, July 7, 1880, to November 14, 1882.
Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore Press, 1998.

Burns, Walter N., and Will James.
Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1929.

Butler, Anne M.
Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865–90
. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.

Chaput, Donald.
The Earp Papers: In a Brother's Image.
Encampment, Wyo.: Affiliated Writers of America, 1994.

Cole, Terrence, and Jim Walsh.
Nome: City of the Golden Beaches.
Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 1984.

Dempsey, David, and Raymond P. Baldwin.
The Triumphs and Trials of Lotta Crabtree.
New York: Morrow, 1968.

Diner, Hasia R.
A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820–1880.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Earp, Josephine S. M., and Glenn G. Boyer.
I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1976.

Earp, Wyatt, Holliday, J. H., & Stephens, J. R.
Wyatt Earp speaks!: My side of the O.K. Corral shoot-out : plus interviews with Doc Holliday
. Cambria Pines by the Sea, California: Fern Canyon Press, 1998.

Fradkin, Philip L.
The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

French, L. H.
Nome Nuggets: Some of the Experiences of a Party of Gold Seekers in Northwestern Alaska in 1900
. New York: Montross, Clarke & Emmons, 1901.

Glasscock, Carl B.
Gold in Them Hills: The Story of the West's Last Wild Mining Days
. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1932.

Guinn, Jeff.
The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How It Changed the American West
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.

Harrison, E. S.
Nome and Seward Peninsula: A Book of Information about Northwestern Alaska
. Seattle: E. S. Harrison, 1905.

Heilbrun, Carolyn G.
Writing a Woman's Life
. New York: Norton, 1988.

Kahn, Ava F.
Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: A Documentary History, 1849–1880
. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002.

Kintop, Jeffrey, and Guy L. Rocha.
The Earps' Last Frontier: Wyatt and Virgil Earp in the Nevada Mining Camps, 1902–1905
. Reno, Nev.: Great Basin Press, 1989.

Lake, Stuart N.
Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931.

Levy, Harriet L., with Mallette Dean.
920 O'Farrell Street
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1947.

Lockley, Fred.
History of the First Free Delivery Service of Mail in Alaska at Nome, Alaska, in 1900
. Seattle: Shorey Book Store, 1966.

Marks, Paula M.
Precious Dust: The American Gold Rush Era, 1848–1900
. New York: Morrow, 1994.

———.
And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight
. New York: Morrow, 1989.

McBride, Joseph.
Searching for John Ford: A Life.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

Palenske, Garner A., and Ben T. Traywick.
Wyatt Earp in San Diego: Life after Tombstone.
Santa Ana, Calif.: Graphic, 2011.

Parsons, George W., and Lynn R. Bailey.
A Tenderfoot in Tombstone: The Private Journal of George Whitwell Parsons; The Turbulent Years, 1880–82.
Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore Press, 1996.

Pogrebin, Abigail.
Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish
. New York: Broadway Books, 2005.

Pourade, Richard F.
The History of San Diego
. San Diego, Calif.: Union-Tribune, 1960.

Reidhead, S. J.
A Church for Helldorado: The 1882 Tombstone Diary of Endicott Peabody and the Building of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
. Roswell, N.M.: Jinglebob Press, 2006.

Rischin, Moses, and John Livingston.
Jews of the American West.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991.

Roberts, Gary L.
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend.
Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

———.
Trailing an American Mythmaker: History and Glenn G. Boyer's “Tombstone Vendetta.”
Hamilton, Mont.: Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association, 1998.

Robins, Elizabeth, Victoria J. Moessner, and Joanne E. Gates.
The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900.
Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1999.

Schlissel, Lillian.
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
. New York: Schocken, 1982.

Seagraves, Anne.
Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West
. Hayden, Idaho: Wesanne, 1994.

Shillingberg, William B.
Dodge City: The Early Years, 1872–1886
. Norman, Okla.: Arthur H. Clark, 2009.

———.
Tombstone, A.T.: A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem
. Spokane, Wash.: Arthur H. Clark, 1999.

Stegner, Wallace.
Angle of Repose
. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1971.

Tanner, Karen H., and Robert K. DeArment.
Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait
. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

Tefertiller, Casey.
Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend
. New York: J. Wiley, 1997.

Traywick, Ben T.
Behind the Red Lights.
Tombstone, Ariz.: Red Marie's, 1993.

Turner, Frederick J., Everett E. Edwards, and Fulmer Mood.
The Early Writings of Frederick Jackson Turner: With a List of All His Works.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1938.

Turner, Frederick J., and John M. Faragher.
Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History, and Other Essays
. New York, N.Y.: H. Holt, 1994.

Walsh, Raoul.
Each Man in His Time: The Life Story of a Director.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.

Waters, Frank.
The Earp Brothers of Tombstone: The Story of Mrs. Virgil Earp
. New York: C. N. Potter, 1960.

Wells, E. H., and Randall M. Dodd.
Magnificence and Misery: A Firsthand Account of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984.

Carlson, T. H. “The Discovery of Gold at Nome, Alaska.”
Pacific Historical Review
15, no. 3 (1946): 259–78.

Chandler, Robert J. “A Smoking Gun? Did Wells Fargo Pay Wyatt Earp to Kill Curly Bill and Frank Stilwell? New Evidence Seems to Indicate Yes.”
True West,
July 2001.

———. “Under Cover for Wells Fargo: A Review Essay.”
Journal of Arizona History
41 (Spring 2000).

———. “Wells Fargo and the Earp Brothers: The Cash Books Talk.”
California Historical Quarterly
, no. 78 (Summer 2009).

Collier, Anne E. “Harriet ‘Hattie' Catchim: A Controversial Earp Family Member.”
Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association (WOLA) Journal
16, no. 2 (Summer 2007).

———. “Stuart N. Lake's Wyatt Earp and the Great Depression.” B.A. thesis, University of La Verne, 2011.

Dworkin, Mark. “Wyatt Earp's 1897 Yuma and Cibola Sojourns: Wyatt Earp Returned to Arizona Numerous Times after 1882 Despite Stillwell and Cruz Murder Warrants.”
Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association (WOLA) Journal
14, no. 1 (Summer 2005).

———. “Henry Jaffa and Wyatt Earp: Wyatt Earp's Jewish Connection; A Portrait of Henry Jaffa, Albuquerque's First Mayor.”
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society
19, no. 4 (December 2005).

Earl, Phillip I. “Tex Rickard—The Most Dynamic Fight Promoter in History.”
Boxing Insider
, April 15, 2008. http://www.boxinginsider.com/history/tex-rickard-the-most-dynamic-fight-promoter-in-history.

Gatto, Steve. “Wyatt Earp Was a Pimp.”
True West
, July 2003.

Hutton, Paul Andrew. “Showdown at the Hollywood Corral: Wyatt Earp and the Movies,”
Montana: The Magazine of Western History,
Vol. 45, No. 3 (Summer, 1995), 2-31.

Isenberg, Andrew C. “The Code of the West: Sexuality, Homosociality, and Wyatt Earp.”
Western Historical Quarterly
40, no. 2 (2009): 139.