The Doctor and the Rough Rider (23 page)

T
HERE HAS BEEN QUITE A LOT
written about Doc Holliday, Theodore Roosevelt, Geronimo, John Wesley Hardin, and
the so-called Wild West. Surprisingly, a large amount takes place in an alternate
reality in which (hard as this is to believe) the United States did not stop at the
Mississippi River, but crossed the continent from one ocean to the other.

For those of you who are interested in this “alternate history,” here is a bibliography
of some of the more interesting books:

L. F. Abbott,
Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt
, Doubleday, Page (1919)

Alexander B. Adams,
Geronimo: A Biography
, Da Capo Press (1990)

C. E. Banks and R. A. Armstrong,
Theodore Roosevelt: A Typical American
, S. Stone (1901)

Stephen Melvil Barrett and Frederick W. Turner,
Geronimo: His Own Story
, Penguin (1996)

Bob Boze Bell,
The Illustrated Life and Times of Doc Holliday
, Tri Star-Boze (1995)

Glenn G. Boyer,
Who Was Big Nose Kate?
Glenn G. Boyer (1997)

H. W. Brands,
T. R.—The Last Romantic
, Basic Books (1997)

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

E. Richard Churchill,
Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, & Wyatt Earp: Their Colorado Careers
, Western Reflections (2001)

Michael L. Collins,
That Damned Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and the American West, 1883–1898
, Peter Lang (1989)

O. Cushing,
The Teddysey
, Life Publishing (1907)

Paul Russell Cutright,
Theodore Roosevelt—The Making of a Conservationist
, University of Illinois Press (1985)

Jack DeMattos,
Masterson and Roosevelt
, Creative Publishing (1984)

Mike Donovan,
The Roosevelt That I Know: Ten Years of Boxing with the President
, B. W. Dodge (1909)

G. W. Douglas,
The Many-Sided Roosevelt: An Anecdotal Biography
, Dodd, Mead (1907)

E. S. Ellis,
From the Ranch to the White House: Life of Theodore Roosevelt
, Hurst (1906)

T. T. Handford,
Theodore Roosevelt, the Pride of the Rough Riders
, M. A. Donohue (1897)

John Wesley Hardin,
The Life of John Wesley Hardin, as Written by Himself
, Smith & Moore (1896)

Albert Bushnbell Hart and Herbert Ronald Ferleger, eds.,
Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia
, Theodore Roosevelt Association and Meckler Corporation (1989)

Pat Jahns,
The Frontier World of Doc Holliday
, Hastings House (1957)

Sylvia D. Lynch,
Aristocracy's Outlaw—The Doc Holliday Story
, Iris Press (1994)

Paula Mitchell Marks,
And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight
, William Morrow (1989)

Leon Metz,
John Wesley Hardin: Dark Angel of Texas
, Mangam Books (1996)

Edmond Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan (1979)

Edmond Morris,
Theodore Rex
, Random House, 2001

John Myers Myers,
Doc Holliday
, Little, Brown (1955)

Frederick Nolan,
The Lincoln County War, Revised Edition
, Sunstone Press (2009)

Fred E. Pond,
Life and Adventures of Ned Buntline
, Camdus Book Shop (1919)

Gary Roberts,
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend
, John Wiley & Sons (2006)

Theodore Roosevelt,
An Autobiography
, MacMillan (1913)

Theodore Roosevelt,
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
, Putnam's (1885)

Theodore Roosevelt,
Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail
, Century (1888)

Theodore Roosevelt,
The Rough Riders
, Scribner's (1899)

Theodore Roosevelt,
The Strenuous Life
, Century (1900)

Theodore Roosevelt,
The Winning of the West
, 4 vols., Putnam's, (1888–1894)

Karen Holliday Tanner,
Doc Holliday—A Family Portrait
, University of Oklahoma Press (1998)

Paul Trachman,
The Old West: The Gunfighters
, Time-Life Books (1974)

Ben T. Traywick,
John Henry: The Doc Holliday Story
, Red Marie's (1996)

Ben T. Traywick,
Tombstone's Deadliest Gun: John Henry Holliday
, Red Marie's (1984)

R. L. Wildon,
Theodore Roosevelt—Outdoorsman
, Trophy Room Books (1994)

I
N THAT “ALTERNATE HISTORY”
in which the United States extended all the way to the Pacific, there are also a
number of films made about the principals in this book, and a number of very popular
actors portrayed them. Here's a list of them:

S
OME
M
OVIE
D
OC
H
OLLIDAYS
:

Victor Mature

Kirk Douglas

Jason Robards Jr.

Cesar Romero

Stacey Keach

Dennis Quaid

Val Kilmer

Walter Huston

Arthur Kennedy

Randy Quaid (TV)

Douglas Fowley (TV)

Gerald Mohr (TV)

S
OME
M
OVIE
T
HEODORE
R
OOSEVELTS
:

Brian Keith

Tom Berenger

Karl Swenson

Robin Williams

Frank Albertson (TV)

Peter Breck (TV)

Len Cariou (Broadway musical)

S
OME
M
OVIE
T
HOMAS
A
LVA
E
DISONS
:

Spencer Tracy

Mickey Rooney

S
OME
M
OVIE
N
ED
B
UNTLINES
:

Lloyd Corrigan

Thomas Mitchell

S
OME
M
OVIE
G
ERONIMOS
:

Chuck Conners

Wes Studi

Jay Silverheels (four times)

Monte Blue

S
OME
M
OVIE
J
OHN
W
ESLEY
H
ARDINS
:

Rock Hudson

John Denher

Jack Elam

Max Perlich

Randy Quaid (TV)

S
OME
M
OVIE
B
AT
M
ASTERSONS
:

Albert Dekker

Randolph Scott

George Montgomery

Joel McCrea

Tom Sizemore

Gene Barry (TV)

T
HIS IS A “WHO'S WHO”
of the book's participants in that fictional alternate reality where the United States
extended to the West Coast.

D
OC
H
OLLIDAY

He was born John Henry Holliday in 1851, and grew up in Georgia. His mother died of
tuberculosis when he was fourteen, and that is almost certainly where he contracted
the disease. He was college-educated, with a minor in the classics, and became a licensed
dentist. Because of his disease, he went out West to drier climates. The disease cost
him most of his clientele, so he supplemented his dental income by gambling, and he
defended his winnings in the untamed cities of the West by becoming a gunslinger as
well.

He saved Wyatt Earp when the latter was surrounded by gunmen in
Dodge City, and the two became close friends. Somewhere along the way he met and had
a stormy on-and-off relationship with Big Nose Kate Elder. He was involved in the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and is generally considered to have delivered the fatal
shots to both Tom and Frank McLaury. He rode with Wyatt Earp on the latter's vendetta
against the Cowboys after the shootings of Virgil and Morgan Earp, then moved to Colorado.
He died, in bed, of tuberculosis, in 1887. His last words were: “Well, I'll be damned—this
is funny.” No accurate records were kept in the case of most shootists; depending
on which historians you believe, Doc killed anywhere from two to twenty-seven men.

T
HEODORE
R
OOSEVELT

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City in 1858. A sickly child, suffering from
extreme asthma, he worked at strengthening his body through exercise and swimming,
and by the time he attended Harvard he was fit enough to become the college's lightweight
boxing champion. Even prior to that he was a devoted naturalist, and was acknowledged—even
as a teen—as one of America's leading ornithologists and taxidermists.

His
The Naval War of 1812
was (and is) considered the definitive book on that battle. Shortly thereafter he
developed an interest in politics and became the youngest-ever minority leader of
the New York State Assembly. His wife and mother died eight hours apart in the same
house in 1884, and he quit politics, headed out to the Dakota Badlands, and bought
two ranches. He signed a contract to write the four-volume
The Winning of the West
, became a lawman, and caught and captured three armed killers during “the Winter
of the Blue Snow.”

Coming back East, he married again, served as police commissioner
of New York City, later was secretary of the navy, assembled the Rough Riders and
took San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, became governor of New York, was
elected vice president in 1900, and became president less than a year later with the
assassination of President McKinley.

As president, Roosevelt fought the trusts, created the National Park System, won the
Nobel Peace Prize, and turned the United States into a world power. When he left office
in 1908 he embarked on a year-long African safari. He ran for president in 1912, was
wounded by a would-be assassin, lost, and spent a year exploring and mapping the River
of Doubt (later renamed the Rio Teodoro) for the Brazilian government. He was a strong
advocate for our entry into World War I, and it was assumed the presidency was his
for the asking in 1920, but he died a year before the election.

During his life, he wrote more than twenty books—many of them still in print—and over
150,000 letters.

T
HOMAS
A
LVA
E
DISON

Born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847, Edison is considered the greatest inventor of his era.
He is responsible for the electric light, the motion picture, the carbon telephone
transmitter, the fluoroscope, and a host of other inventions. He died in 1931.

N
ED
B
UNTLINE

Buntline was born Edward Z. C. Judson in 1813, and gained fame as a publisher, editor,
writer (especially of dime novels about the West),
and for commissioning Colt's Manufacturing Company to create the Buntline Special.
He tried to bring Wild Bill Hickok back East, failed, and then discovered Buffalo
Bill Cody, who
did
come East and perform in a play that Buntline wrote.

B
AT
M
ASTERSON

William “Bat” Masterson was born in 1853. In his late teens, he and brothers Ed and
James left their family home to go out west as buffalo hunters. He spent some time
as an army scout, seeing action against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. He moved to
Dodge City, Kansas, in 1877, and shortly afterward became Wyatt Earp's deputy, after
which he was elected sheriff of Ford County.

Brother Ed was also a lawman. Masterson saw him murdered and instantly responded with
deadly force, killing his killer. He then became a gambler, and was in Tombstone just
before the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After a few more gunfights, always on the
side of the law (or
as
the law), he became a writer, wound up in New York, and became friends with Theodore
Roosevelt, who appointed him marshal of New York from 1905 to 1909. He died at his
typewriter in 1921.

J
OHN
W
ESLEY
H
ARDIN

John Wesley Hardin, like Bat Masterson, was born in 1853. He was a killer from a very
early age, had at least one encounter with Wild Bill Hickcock, and when he was finally
apprehended and tried in 1878, he was convicted of killing forty-two men. He wrote
his autobiography and obtained his law degree while in jail, was released in August
of
1895, set up a law practice, and was killed shortly thereafter by John Selman Sr.

T
EXAS
J
ACK
V
ERMILLION

A friend of both Holliday and Wyatt Earp, Texas Jack Vermillion (later known as Shoot-Your-Eye-Out
Vermillion) participated in Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride, and was saved in at least
one shoot-out by Holliday.

G
ERONIMO

Born Goyathlay in 1829, he was a Chiricahua Apache medicine man who fought against
both the Americans and the Mexicans who tried to grab Apache territory. He was never
a chief, but he
was
a military leader, and a very successful one. He finally surrendered in 1886, and
was incarcerated—but by 1904 he had become such a celebrity that he actually appeared
at the World's Fair, and in 1905 he proudly rode in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural
parade in Washington, DC. He died in 1909 at the age of eighty.