Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life
by Robert Utley
By the time Utley first published his comprehensive Billy the Kid biography he had already written two books about the world surrounding The Kid. As he once told it, someone gave him the bright idea to write a book actually about Billy Bonney, since that’s what people really wanted. The result was the up-to-then most informative and most accurate account we had been given.
Utley’s book is a great starting point. Technically I have it as the number two book in a small list of Billy book’s one should read when giving themselves an education on the boy. Utley’s research is impressive to say the least. He was privy, through relationships, to some great information and documents that he is faithful to share with the reader, and this is how we get such a complete final product on Billy’s life.
One of the things about Utley’s writing that I love so much is that when it comes to points where it becomes incumbent upon the author to offer speculation he does so with explanation and alternate ideas. While he makes the case for what he feels is correct, he is essentially giving the reader the chance to disagree with him. This, to me, is one of the most underperformed acts of humility in the arena of western research and writing.
I fail to see why, if you believe your case is strong, and subsequently correct, you would not include the full picture with both sides of an argument for an intelligent person to discern for themselves if they agree with you or not. For to seldom does this happen in western biographies, and an author will often say something to the tune of “Some people say so-and-so got in a gunfight in this town…but we know that can’t be.” So why can’t it? Fortunately, Utley never utilizes this lazy form of argument, and I believe it to be one of the greatest strengths of his book.
On the flip side, one of the things that left me wanting more, was that after a step-by-step walkthrough of Billy’s life from his final Silver City departure up to the end of the Lincoln County War, he just breezes through most of 1879 and ’80. It could very well be that his research hadn’t yet turned up much for that time, or it could also be that he didn’t want to put out a four-hundred plus page biography, and wanted to put the full dissection on the years that defined The Kid; or that thought could even have belonged to the publisher.
Regardless, Utley’s trusted depth of detail returns for Billy’s final days as it picks up again around the time Garrett comes on the scene. Once again we have a relatively movement-precise tracking of what Billy Bonney was up to as he and Garrett played cat and mouse.
Utley is one of the paragons of Henry McCarty research and this book has to be read if you want to be taken serious, or if you seriously want to know about him.
Handy With A Gun...! 