Tuesday, February 26, 2019

The Wild West 365 by Michael Wallis


This gorgeous book of Wild West history is arranged in 365 entries, one for each day of the year. But where other such books merely tie a “fact to a day” this volume seeks to be something more.
Each daily entry does indeed provide an event tied to the date, as a matter of fact the entry for today’s posting is “William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody is born in Leclaire, Iowa Territory. 1846.”
And that single line is all you get about the day.
The remainder of the page takes on mini-essay form so that the author can tell a chronological story of the Wild West that starts roughly around 1830 in the January entries and progresses to the 1930s for the December entries.
The mini-essay for February 26, tells the story of “The Rogue of the Rio Grande” Juan Nepomuceno Cortina.
His story of a bit of frontier justice that led to Texas Ranger interaction and the spawning of “Cortina’s War” was one I was unfamiliar with. Such entries leave you hungry for more.
Robert G. McCubbin, as photo-editor, also deserves equal credit for the astounding array of photographs and art in this gorgeous text.
A simply beautiful volume.

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