The Wild West: 365 Days
by Michael Wallis with Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis, picture editor Robert G. McCubbin, Abrams, New York, 2011, $32.50.
This book has a lot going against it. At 744 pages and 4.4 pounds, it’s as clunky as an adobe brick and heavy as a Colt Walker. Even its calendar-year conceit is flawed, as the date on each spread has nothing to do with the featured subject but ties only to a random event blurb atop the page. Flip through a few pages, however, and you’ll discover a treasure box of Western images and lore.
Husband-and-wife authors Michael and Suzanne Wallis have teamed with picture editor Bob McCubbin—owner of one of the world’s premier collections of Western photography—to produce a book that presents history without being stuffy or pretentious. The result is a zipbang Wild West primer for the dude (or dudette) in your life. Content spans from the fur trapper days of the 1830s through the fading notes of the 20th-century frontier, opening on a George Catlin painting and closing with shots of widow Apolinaria Garrett and the gun her Pat used to kill the Kid. McCubbin depicts all the major players—Houston and Hickok, Cochise and Custer, Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, Goodnight, Calamity, Jesse, Geronimo, and the list goes on—from the good guys to the very worst (scalp hunter James Kirker truly is the stuff of nightmares). His photo selection also gives the Western everyman his due, from sodbusters to cow-town wranglers.
While the event blurbs are hit and miss, the main text is lively and chock-full of Western truths, tales and tidbits. And the Wallises smartly circle back to key figures, tracing their trajectory through the years. Kit Carson ages quickly from young scout to brokenhearted widower. Wild Bill also fades fast, from baby-faced Free Stater to ill-fated Deadwood cardsharp. Meanwhile, Wyatt Earp beats the odds to age gracefully. And you’ll soon find yourself skipping ahead to see what happened next.
Originally published in the October 2011 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
