Deadwood

“The bloody, muddy true story of the real Deadwood. . . . If you thought HBO’s television series of the same name, created by the manically brilliant David Milch, was hyperbolic, buckle in. . . . The TV characters were all real and they’re all here. . . . Milch’s Deadwood is Shakespearean; Cozzens’s is all verifiable fact, yet it loses nothing in the straighter telling. . . . [A] fast-paced and unbelievable-if-it-weren’t-true story.” —Carl Hoffman, The Washington Post

“How did such a small, remote speck of a place come to loom so large in American lore and myth? With Peter Cozzens’ artful book, we get the answer. In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals. And you start to see Deadwood as something more, as a node of raw avarice and frank ambition reflecting larger American impulses that are still alive today. Deadwood isn’t dead. It lives on in legend, in pulp Westerns, films, and television shows, and now, in the pages of a fine non-fiction narrative that’s as alluring as its subject.” —Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and The Wide Wide Sea

“In his rollicking yet nuanced book, Peter Cozzens pans the gold-mining boomtown’s history while sifting out some popular misconceptions. . . . Cozzens’ deeply researched account follows some of the colorful characters associated with the town, [including] the villainous saloon owner Al Swearingen, whose main talent, Mr. Cozzens writes, was ‘exploiting depravity for dollars.’” —Gerard Helferich, The Wall Street Journal

“A rip-roaring read about that most iconic frontier town. . . . Immersive and sensory-rich. . . . Cozzens crafts an enchanting cradle-to-grave biography of his ‘city-protagonist’ that offers fresh interpretations of its celebrities as well as introduces a slew of lesser-known but just as splashy denizens.” —Peggy Kurkowski, Washington Independent Review of Books

“An often-fascinating account of the early years of this iconic frontier town [that] busts myths about the town’s colorful characters. . . . Deadwood, like Cozzens’s book, illustrates a postmodern paradox: Busting myths can enhance our enjoyment of them.” —Glenn C. Altschuler, Minnesota Star Tribune

“Deadwood is a serious, well-researched history of a fascinating town. . . . Anyone who loved that show will enjoy Peter Cozzens’ detailed, enlightening history.” —The Independent (“Non-fiction Book of the Month”)

“What a perfect marriage—one of the most exquisite chroniclers of America’s Wild West exploring the most notorious town of the era. Throughout Deadwood, Cozzens brings fresh drama and absorbing detail to paint a vivid portrait of the colorful characters who in just three short years etched this tiny if hellraising South Dakota mining community into the lore of our collective history. Exemplary in all respects, thanks to the author’s storytelling skills, Deadwood lives again.” —Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure and Throne of Grace

“There is no western town more steeped in myth, legend, and fairy tale than Deadwood, South Dakota—not even Tombstone, Leadville, or Dodge City. It was the Wild West of dime novels, of breathless, not-quite-exactly-true accounts in the newspapers. What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth.” —S. C. Gwynne, author of NYT Bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon

“A master historian confronts the mystique of the wildest of the Wild West towns and the result is a fast-paced, superbly written narrative marked with all the usual Peter Cozzens graceful touches. A dream team of fabulous characters—Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Crazy Horse, Seth Bullock, George Hearst, Al Swearingen—helps the author to craft a marvelous true tale of deception, greed, and violence far stranger than any fiction. Here is Western history with the bark on!” —Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Undiscovered Country

“Peter Cozzens’ Deadwood is a sweeping saga of greed, stolen Indigenous land, and legendary westerners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Lakota leader Crazy Horse. With the in-depth research Cozzens is known for, thought-provoking new insights, and a narrative that moves along at a fast clip, readers of Deadwood are guaranteed to hit pay dirt on every page.” —Mark Lee Gardner, author of Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone

“Cozzens brings the town to life, but he doesn’t just focus on Deadwood’s heyday: his story spans seven decades, beginning in the pre-Deadwood years and running deep into the 20th century. Although the book will certainly catch the eye of readers who enjoyed the HBO series Deadwood (many of the show’s characters, like Bullock and Swearengen, were based on real people), its broader focus makes it perfect for anyone who enjoys learning about the exciting history of the American West.” —Booklist

“Vivid . . . A rootin’-tootin’ history of the famed Western town.” —Kirkus Reviews