While working on this book, many kind and generous people stepped forward to provide assistance with the research, fact-checking, and double-checking, along with support and encouragement. The concept of telling the stories of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson when they were young and serving as lawmen in Dodge City, plus their impact on frontier justice in its formative years and the colorful characters whom they came in contact with, was greeted with enthusiasm, much to my benefit.
To me, reference librarians and curators at historical collections are the people who truly keep nonfiction writers in business. No wonder, then, that in previous books, I’ve placed them at or near the top of the list of people and others in similar positions who hold the keys to their collections of fascinating material and are available to help just for the asking. I will certainly not stray from that token of gratitude here. Arizona Historical Society, Boot Hill Museum, Denver Public Library, Dodge City Public Library, Kansas Heritage Center, and Kansas State Historical Society (especially Nancy Sherbert) are simply wonderful repositories of information. Dodge City would not exist without them and their staffs. On the local level, doing the heavy lifting for me after I cast a wide research net was the John Jermain Memorial Library, especially Sue Mullin.
Invaluable contemporary information was provided by several of the daily and weekly newspapers of the time. At the top of that list were the Dodge City Times and the Ford County Globe, but also providing eyewitness and sometimes amusing descriptions of events and people were the Atchison Patriot, Atwood Pioneer, Barbour County Mail, Daily Kansas City Journal, The Eureka Herald, The Girard Press, The Hutchinson News, Inland Tribune, Junction City Statesman, The Kansas City Evening Star, The Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Leavenworth Daily Commercial, The New York Times, St. Louis Western Journal of Commerce, Stillwater News Press, The Tombstone Epitaph, The Topeka Daily Capital, and The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). I am grateful for their editors and reporters for their efforts in the evolution of journalism in the United States—and for having some fun while they were at it.
I want to express my appreciation to the members of the Western Writers of America for being champions of the truth about the American West. Some of them write for such enjoyable and reliable publications as True West, Wild West, and various state and regional publications, and the effort to combine smart and thorough scholarship with telling darn good tales is truly inspiring.
A big thank-you goes to Nancy Jo Trauer of Dodge City. When I “asked around” for someone who would be able to read an early draft of the manuscript and give me incisive feedback, Nancy Jo was the one recommended. I am very glad I followed that advice. Also, the supportive Sally McKee of Brighton, Michigan, was an early reader and was generous in her comments.
My editor, Marc Resnick, was a joy to work with, always supportive and encouraging and available for any necessary hand-holding. Sally Richardson, Tracy Guest, Rebecca Lang, Jaime Coyne, and the rest of the team at St. Martin’s Press have been generous with their time and I am grateful for their efforts on behalf of this book. Hand-holding has also been a specialty for quite a few years now of Scott Gould of RLR Associates. Most of all, the embrace of family and friends—you know who you are—makes all the difference in any writer’s life, especially mine.