Publisher's Synopsis
*New Introduction and Afterword including new information on the 1881 author with newspaper articles, census data, death certificates, and more. THE VERY FIRST BOOK ON BILLY THE KID! A RARE TREASURE! ******William H. Bonney died at about 12:30am July 15, 1881. In the early 1950's at the Library of Congress, Jeffrey C. Dykes discovered a copyright application for the title The True Life of Billy the Kid which was recorded September 7, 1881―less than two months after the Kid's demise. However, a copy of the actual publication could not be found. Later, Ramon Adams, following up on Dykes's information was able to locate an original copy at the Boston Anthenaeum which was bound together with some religious pamphlets. A photostat copy of it can now be viewed at the Denver Public Library, as well. The story was originally published as Billy the Kid, the New Mexican Outlaw; or, The Bold Bandit of the West. ---Publisher 2019 *********** "Billy the Kid" has been written up for eastern journals in all sorts of styles. He has been given an impregnable castle, elegant clothes, fine manners and great generosity. In short the accounts of him have been made up of whole cloth, and if eastern people credit them they have about as good an idea of what Billy really was, as a burro has of the beauties of Milton. Whatever merit this volume may possess, attaches, in the estimation of its author, altogether to the accuracy of the incidents narrated and the correctness of the details connected with the career of "Billy the Kid." There has been no necessity to draw upon a vivid imagination to enhance its interest, for without any of the blazonry of humbug or the embroidery of fiction, the true story of "Billy the Kid" eclipses any border romance, and dims by comparison the tales woven from the realms of fiction. It deals with the characters and events which are matters of State history with the people of New Mexico to-day, and aims to give, in a connected form, the events in the life of an outlaw who was the very incarnation of border civilization, at a period when it was the civilization of the knife and the rifle, with the number of their victims cut on the stock; of savage Indian raids and massacres; of ruthless vendettas and assassinations; of wars among stock kings and cattle thieves, and of lawlessness in every form. If, in its recital, the "The True History of Billy the Kid" has been made interesting enough to please the public, no one has more reason to be grateful than THE AUTHOR (Edmund Fable Jr.) Denver, Colorado, July 15, 1881.
