Three Recommended Paperbacks: From Cochise to Geronimo, Calamity Jane, and History of a Suicide
by Larry Cox on Feb. 20, 2012, under UncategorizedCalamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend by James D. McLaird (University of Oklahoma Press, $19.95)
This excellent biography of Martha Canary, AKA Calamity Jane, was originally published in 2005, and it is one of the most truthful and researched accounts of this remarkable woman who was one of the most notorious characters of the Old West.
How an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a bigger-than-life heroine is a fascinating story and is told with verve by James D. McLaird, the Professor Emeritus of History at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. Martha Canary was more a camp follower on the northern plains than a scout and even though she did, indeed, know Wild Bill Hickok, their friendship was much more casual than legend.
What gives this book its literary legs is the compelling portrait McLaird paints of an unconventional woman who more than once turned the tables on those who sought to condemn or patronize her. One final note, Calamity Jane was nothing like Doris Day who portrayed her in the movies. She looked more like a Eleanor Roosevelt who packed heat.
History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life by Jill Bialosky (Washington Square Press, $14)
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem that often leaves emotional wreckage behind for others to face.
One spring night in 1990, Jill Bialosky’s 21-year-old sister Kim arrived home from a Cleveland bar, took her mother’s car keys, and went into the garage where she started the car and died from asphyxiation. Her death triggered guilt, questions, and confusion, especially with Jill, an acclaimed poet and novelist. In this searing book, Bialosky attempts to come to terms with her sister’s suicide as she reconstructs the inner life of Kim, and in doing so opens a window on the nature of suicide itself and our own reactions and responses to it.
This deeply moving memoir explores the lifelong impact a suicide has on family members and loved ones left behind. It is a beautifully crafted book that helps change the way we think about grief and loss.
From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches 1874-1886 by Edwain R. Sweeney (University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95)
Following the death of Cochise in 1874, the Chircahua Apaches found themselves at a crossroads. Their distrust of the U.S. government continued to deteriorate, fueled in no small part by the actions of the American military during the two decades that followed the Civil War.
Despite the forced relocations, disease epidemics, sustained warfare, and confinement, the Chiricahua tried to preserve their culture so that they survive as a people. When the U.S. government proposed moving the tribe from its ancestral homelands in New Mexico and Arizona to the San Carlos Reservation even more tension was triggered.
This fascinating book is a definitive history that covers the period between Cochise’s death and Geronimo’s surrender in 1886. This is an important work and part of The Civilization of the American Indian series.
