The Last Gunfight
The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West
On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, in a vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona, a confrontation between eight armed men erupted in a deadly shootout. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral would shape how future generations came to view the Old West. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons became the stuff of legends, symbolic of a frontier populated by good guys in white hats and villains in black ones. It’s a colorful story—but the truth is even better.
Drawing on new material from private collections—including diaries, letters, and Wyatt Earp’s own hand-drawn sketch of the shootout’s conclusion—as well as archival research, Jeff Guinn gives us a startlingly different and far more fascinating picture of what actually happened that day in Tombstone and why.
Drawing on new material from private collections—including diaries, letters, and Wyatt Earp’s own hand-drawn sketch of the shootout’s conclusion—as well as archival research, Jeff Guinn gives us a startlingly different and far more fascinating picture of what actually happened that day in Tombstone and why.
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Buy from us:
- Simon & Schuster |
- 416 pages |
- ISBN 9781439154250 |
- May 2012
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Praise
“Scrupulously details how this isolated act of violence attained such heroic status. . . . A deeply researched and colorfully written history of one of those dramatic oddments of Americana that never fails to captivate us.”
– Dale L. Walker, Dallas Morning News
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“Scrupulously details how this isolated act of violence attained such heroic status. . . . A deeply researched and colorfully written history of one of those dramatic oddments of Americana that never fails to captivate us.”– Dale L. Walker, Dallas Morning News
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“A gripping revisionist account of the famed 1881 showdown. . . . Exhaustively researched, stylishly written. . . . As grimly compelling as a Greek tragedy.”– Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
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“The most thorough account of the gunfight and its circumstances ever published.”– The Wall Street Journal
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“Jeff Guinn took readers down the back roads of Louisiana in his book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. He’s back in The Last Gunfight, displaying the impeccable research that is his trademark. . . . Guinn’s story is what really happened. . . . A terrific read. Craig Wilson, USA TODAY”
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“Guinn . . . delivers another double-barrel blast of history and true crime. . . . Superbly detailed . . . . A thorough, thrilling account of the crime and its influence on the history of the West. . . . Absolutely buy this dazzler.”– Library Journal Express (Starred Review)
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“An absorbing, meticulous account of the famous O.K. Corral gunfight as it really happened. . . . Guinn places his complex and nuanced story firmly within the context of the evolving Western frontier. . . . A great story.”– Kirkus Reviews
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“Jeff Guinn is a straight shooter when it comes to facts. He investigated the story from every imaginable angle, separating truth from tall tale, and now he delivers a factual account of what happened--and why--that’s every bit as riveting as the fantasy.”– David Martindale, Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX)
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“Advance Praise for The Last Gunfight Jeff Guinn gives us not only the clashing egos and the mythic gunslingers, but also the larger social forces that converged on a roistering mining town in southeastern Arizona that fateful day in 1881. The result is a kind of anti-Western: The cliches are stripped away, the black hats removed, the ‘rugged individualists’ unmasked, leaving us with real human beings who are swayed and shaped by the forces of history, and trapped in time. ”– Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder
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“Jeff Guinn has come up with a new angle and approach to the events of that bloody day in Tombstone. Without that gunfight, Wyatt Earp would have never become a household name a hundred years later. Guinn delves into the myth and separates it from the facts. A terrific read about the West’s most famous lawman.”– Clive Cussler
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“The Last Gunfight is a portrayal of criminality, greed, ambition, rivalry, fidelity, and law enforcement gone awry. Add in the aspects of vengeance, lust, and enduring love, and you have a riveting book every bit as good as, if not better than, Go Down Together, Jeff Guinn's much-lauded book about Bonnie and Clyde.”– Lynn R. Bailey, Tombstone historian and author of Too Tough to Die
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“Welcome to a new OK Corral. Jeff Guinn’s The Last Gunfight blows away more than a century of smoke and myth to reveal the real men and women who walked the streets of Tombstone. And here’s a new portrait of Wyatt Earp in all his complex glory: ambitious and deadly, lawman and lover. Guinn serves up a fresh and fast-paced account of the gunfight that has never lost its deep hold on the American psyche. Meticulously researched, bold in its conclusions, The Last Gunfight deserves a place of honor among the most memorable accounts of western history. ”– Ann Kirschner, author of Sala’s Gift
Read an Excerpt
Prologue
TOMBSTONE THAT MORNING
Virgil Earp was determined to sleep in on Wednesday, October 26, 1881. The Tombstone police chief tumbled into bed around 6 A.M. after participating in an all-night poker game at the Occidental Saloon. Among others, he’d played against Johnny Behan, the county sheriff, and local ranchers Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury. Before sitting down to play cards, Clanton had spent much of the night threatening the chief’s brother Wyatt and Wyatt’s gambler pal, Doc Holliday. At one point he and Holliday had to be separated. Holliday eventually headed home to his room in a... see more
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Jeff Guinn's The Last Gunfight
Jeff Guinn's definitive, myth-busting account of the famous gunfight at Tombstone's OK Corral.
Jeff Guinn's The Last Gunfight
