Brothers of the Gun

Praise for Brothers of the Gun:

“Brothers of the Gun illustrates this fascinating aspect of the old west: friction between law and lawlessness, authorities trying to exert control over newly forming societies, or those societies attempting to rule themselves. The amount of bureaucracy that follows a gunfight – hearings, affidavits, orders for compensation – might be surprising, at least to a reader raised on Clint Eastwood movies, men with no names brooding in vast and terrible lands.” —The Guardian

“Gardner brings his charismatic, fact-filled prose to the forefront in Brothers of the Gun, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of these complicated characters and the significance of their lives to American Western history.” —True West

“The author has done extensive research, painting a picture of Tombstone in its heyday, with its saloons, prostitution and gunfights.” —Denver Post

“The book shows us an Earp and Holliday we haven’t seen before: not bigger-than-life legends, but real men who lived in a real, vividly realized time period…. Their story in the years leading up to the brief shoot-out that catapulted them into legend is a Wild West saga as exciting as anything you’ll read in the pages of a novel or see on-screen. A must-read for fans of the history of the American West.” —Booklist

“Gardner’s retelling of this famous incident paints a colorful, atmospheric panorama of the Wild West as an archipelago of saloons, gambling dens, and whorehouses where brutal violence was status quo. Gardner conveys it all in two-fisted prose that smacks of a Hollywood western; while he brings some nuance to the tale…he still finds a lot to admire about the duo. The result is a raucous and entertaining slice of Americana.” —Publishers Weekly

“A revealing account that adds shades of gray to black-and-white legends of the Wild West.” —Kirkus

“The gunfight at the OK Corral stands as one of the most iconic moments in the annals of the West, and participants Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday have become legendary figures. In Brothers of the Gun, renowned Western historian Mark Gardner has produced not only a riveting and nuanced portrayal of the enigmatic friendship between Earp and Holliday but also the clearest and most compelling account of the OK Corral yet written. Thanks to Gardner’s wonderful narrative skills and superb research, fact replaces legend in this essential Western work.” —Peter Cozzens, author of Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

“Mark Lee Gardner has emerged as one of our leading western historians, and this crisply written, well-researched book only adds to his sterling reputation. Here is the story of the Damon and Pythias of the Old West—Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday—told from an entirely fresh perspective. Gardner brings history alive in a way few authors can—you can almost smell the gun smoke as he corrects long-held myths about the events surrounding these two frontier legends, Tombstone and the O.K. Corral —a must read that makes it clear why the West was Wild!” —Paul Andrew Hutton, New York Times bestselling author of The Undiscovered Country

“These are familiar stories made fascinating and new with fresh insights, deft storytelling, and diligent, curated research. I loved it. Simply put: as a historian of the Old West, Mark Lee Gardner is without parallel.” —Ron Hansen, author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford