Brothers of the Gun - by Mark Lee Gardner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A colorful and groundbreaking account of the most storied friendship of the American West: the bond between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday: Legendary gunfighters and friends who gained immortality because of a thirty-second shootout near a livery stable called the O.K. Corral. Their friendship actually began three years before that iconic 1881 gunfight, in the rollicking cattle town of Dodge City. Wyatt, an assistant city marshal, was surrounded by armed, belligerent cowboys. Doc saw Wyatt's predicament from a monte table in the Long Branch saloon and burst out the door with two leveled revolvers shouting, "Throw up your hands!" The startled cowboys did, and Wyatt and Doc led them off to jail. Wyatt credited Doc with saving his life, and thus began their lasting--and curious--friendship.

In this illuminating dual biography, the first about Earp and Holliday, the lives of these two men, one a sometime lawman and the other a sometime dentist, are chronicled in a swirling tableau of saloons, brothels, gambling dens, stage holdups, arrests, manhunts, and revenge killings. And while there's plenty of gunsmoke in this saga, hero-worshipping won't be found. Wyatt and Doc, just like anyone else then and now, had their flaws and failings, and the unsavory parts of their lives are here, too.

In Brothers of the Gun, Old West authority Mark Lee Gardner reveals fresh information about Wyatt's and Doc's early lives, their famous friendship, the O.K. Corral gunfight, and Wyatt's controversial "vendetta ride" following the assassination of his brother Morgan. Drawing upon new research into diaries, letters, court records, and contemporary newspaper reports, as well as firsthand observation at several historic sites, this is the definitive book on Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and their enduring bond. Brothers of the Gun is edge-of-your-saddle nonfiction storytelling at its best.

Review Quotes

Praise for Brothers of the Gun:

"[Brothers of the Gun] will be the hottest ticket in the West this holiday book-buying season." --True West

"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

About the Author

Mark Lee Gardner is a recipient of the Frank Waters Award for Literary Excellence. His bestselling books, many of them award winners, include The Earth Is All That Lasts, Rough Riders, Shot All To Hell, and To Hell on a Fast Horse. An authority on the American West, Mark has appeared on numerous television programs and other media, including the hit Netflix docuseries Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War. His YouTube video for WIRED's Tech Support, where Mark answers questions from the Internet about the Wild West, has received several million views. A native of Missouri, he holds an MA in American studies from the University of Wyoming and lives with his family at the foot of Pikes Peak.