[Gutenberg 21113] • Wild Bill's Last Trail

Ned Buntline (c. 1821-1886), was a pseudonym of Edward Zane Carroll Judson (E. Z. C. Judson), an American publisher, journalist, writer and publicist best known for his dime novels and the Colt Buntline Special he commissioned from Colt's Manufacturing Company. As a seaman, he fought in the Seminole Wars, though he saw little combat. After four years he resigned, having reached the rank of midshipman. An early success that helped launch his fame was a gritty serial story of the Bowery and slums of New York City titled The Mysteries and Miseries of New York (1851). An opinionated man, he strongly advocated nativism and temperance. Through his writing and his association with New York City's notorious gangs of the early 1800s, he was one of the instigators of the Astor Place Riot which left 23 people dead. He travelled around the country giving lectures about temperance. It was on one of these lecture tours that he encountered Buffalo Bill. His works include: The Beautiful Nun (1866) and The Scouts of the Plains (1873).