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Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

Who was Billy the Kid? Was he Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim or William H. Bonny? Was he a Robin Hood or a cold-blooded outlaw? History says he was a little of both but in this book Donald Cline exposes Billy the Kid as a cowardly crook who did not hesitate to kill for money. Cline explodes all the popular myths and misrepresentations to bring us an authentic Billy the Kid, a cattle rustler, horse thief and murderer. Illustrated with historical photographs, Booklist has said that “…Cline’s book nicely balances the legend for both scholars and lay readers.” This book is based on solid research and depicts the man behind the legend.

Donald Cline as a historian spent more than thirty-five years studying the life and times of Billy the Kid. He assigned himself the task of separating fact from fiction.

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Softcover:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-080-0
146 pp.,$18.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-245-6
146 pp.,$4.99

Voted one of the 100 Best New Mexico Books.

New Foreword by Marc Simmons

When Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett ended Billy the Kid's life on the night of July 14, 1881 with a shot in the dark, he was catapulted at once into stardom in the annals of Western history. The killing occurred at old Fort Sumner, New Mexico on the Pecos River. Garrett by pure chance had encountered the Kid in a darkened room of the Pete Maxwell house. As the unsuspecting Billy entered, he was cut down without warning.

But the Kid had his share of friends and many of them stepped forward to level some harsh criticism against the lawman. It soon became clear that while Pat Garrett was an instant celebrity, he had also come away, at least in some quarters, with a negative image. To address that problem, he began thinking about a book to give the public his side of the story. The editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican, Charles Greene, offered to publish a Garrett volume if the sheriff could find someone to ghost write it for him. Pat enlisted his good friend Marshall Ashmun (Ash) Upson, a journalist, to do the job. Upson cranked out a manuscript and it was published in 1882 under the title The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Sunstone’s edition is a facsimile of the 1927 edition.

Before that fateful night in 1881, there was not much in Pat Garrett's career to suggest he was headed for a place in the history books. Alabama-born in 1850, he worked as a cowboy and buffalo hunter in Texas. By 1878 he had drifted to the Pecos in eastern New Mexico. Perhaps craving excitement, Pat Garrett ran for sheriff of wild Lincoln County in the fall of 1880. He was elected. Winning the office put him on a collision course with the outlaw Billy and the incident that catapulted the Kid into literary immortality.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-525-0
312 pp.,$38.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-572-0
312 pp.,$26.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-118-3
312 pp.,$5.99

Includes Readers Guide

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

Precocious, spirited, bored, and outspoken, sixteen year old Elucia (Lucy) Grey Alexis Howard, is both out-of-place in and a prisoner of her wealthy life amongst the highest of New York’s social elite and her father’s ambitious pursuit of greater prosperity.

Sent out west in 1877 to Lincoln County, New Mexico, to marry her pre-contracted fiancé, John H. Tunstall, Lucy is inconsolable at the prospect of a loveless marriage when she meets and falls in love with pistoleer, Billy Bonney, a young, vivacious firebrand hired by John to work his land and provide protection from the dangers posed by John’s nefarious competitor, J. J. Dolan and the entire Santa Fe Ring.

When John pays the ultimate price and is murdered, refusing to succumb to the opposition and intimidation of his rivals, Lucy’s own life is then in jeopardy. As a result of John’s death, Billy and the other men working in John’s employment are deputized to combat the tyranny of Dolan and the Ring. Fearing for Lucy, the newly deputized Lincoln County Regulators take her into their protective guard and into the hellfire of what becomes known as the Lincoln County War, the catalyst that inspires Lucy to wage her own personal war for freedom from her oppressive life and a desperate attempt to stay close to the man she loves, the boy about to become known to history as the incendiary notorious outlaw, Billy the Kid.

Nicole Dixon was born in Philadelphia and raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband, Wallace.

“Picking up shortly after the end of the Lincoln County War, Nicole Maddalo Dixon’s sequel to Bandita Bonita: Romancing Billy the Kid continues the story of Lucy Howard, the fictional female member of the Regulators and her complicated romance with Billy the Kid. Though Bandita Bonita and Billy the Kid: The Scourge of New Mexico will appeal to women more than men, the attention to historical detail is impressive. From appearances by Jesse Evans to Dr. Henry Hoyt, historical purists should be immensely entertained by the number of real characters the author manages to weave into the narrative, itself written in the flowery and somewhat verbose prose of the 1880s.” —John LeMay, author of Tall Tales and Half Truths of Billy the Kid, True West magazine

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Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-973-5
274 pp.,$24.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-211-1
274 pp.,$3.99

A young woman in the Wild West wages her own personal war for freedom and a desperate attempt to stay close to the man she loves, Billy the Kid, in 1877.

Order from Sunstone Press: (800) 243-5644

In this sequel to Bandita Bonita, Romancing Billy the Kid, the Lincoln County War is far from over and William H. Bonney is now the most wanted, notorious outlaw in the New Mexico Territory. Elucia Howard, now christened with the celebrated moniker, Lucy “Lucky Lu” Howard, has settled into her new role as the Kid’s notorious outlaw sweetheart. With Billy condemned to death as a murderer, Lucy stands by him in his fight to clear his name, and with the few remaining Regulators, they embark on a journey that places Billy deeper within the clutches of the crooked law they had tried to destroy. Includes Readers Guide.

Nicole Maddalo Dixon was born in Philadelphia and raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband, Wallace. Her first book, Bandita Bonita, Romancing Billy the Kid, was also published by Sunstone Press.

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Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-133-7
218 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-472-6
218 pp.,$4.99

"Bravo! Excelsior!! By asking all the right questions and putting his conclusions where they counted, Jay Miller gave heart to those who, alone, would have been unable to combat such devious chicanery." (Frederick Nolan, Chalfont St. Giles, England, Author of "The West of Billy the Kid")

"In a series of newspaper columns, Jay Miller has dug deeply into the latest exploitation of Billy the Kid. A book packed with top-notch investigative reporting." (Robert M. Utley, Georgetown, Texas, Author of "Billy the Kid: a Short and Violent Life")

"Miller systematically demolished the baloney behind the campaign for exhumation. For a long time he was as much a lone gunman as Billy the Kid ever was." (David A. Clary, Roswell, New Mexico, Author of "Rocket Man: Robert Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age")

"Anyone interested in learning about New Mexico should first check with Jay Miller. This collection of Jay's columns is the first in a series of books about New Mexico history and current events. It's a must read." (Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico)

In early 2003, three sheriffs set out to prove that Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid, thereby also proving that Brushy Bill of Hico, Texas was not the real Kid. Along their way, the sheriffs enlisted New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's support and took two communities on a wild ride through court battles to dig up Billy and his mother.

Governor Richardson found an attorney willing to work free and provide Billy with a voice. Follow "Billy" as he speaks for himself in court, requesting that he and his mother be dug up to examine the DNA in their dusty remains for evidence that they were related. And follow the small towns of Fort Sumner and Silver City, New Mexico as they fight to retain the integrity of their municipal cemeteries and keep the legend of Billy the Kid from crumbling away.

Author Jay Miller followed the strange unfolding of events, digging to find the source of the money that financed an official murder investigation and the court action against two courageous small towns struggling to prevent the exhumations.

JAY MILLER grew up in Billy the Kid Country, listening to yarns about Billy, some true, some not. As a syndicated newspaper columnist, Miller has written often about Billy and the Lincoln County War and has used a collection of those columns to weave a riveting story of just what happened when Billy rode again.

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Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-458-7
132 pp.,$19.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-428-3
132 pp.,$7.99

A historical novel based on the life of Billy the Kid.

The orphaned, bucktoothed, New York Irish boy speaks Spanish and wears a Mexican sombrero. He claims his name is William Bonney. His amigos call him “Kid.” To newspapers in the New Mexico Territory and across America, he is “Billy the Kid.” William was among the bravest of the McSween alliance in the Lincoln County War. He was lucky, too—lucky enough to shoot his way out when the rest of his faction was cornered and slaughtered in battle. He was later captured and condemned to hang, but he killed his guards and escaped.

Now, William has one last chance. He heads into Old Mexico with his lover, the fierce Apache maiden Tzoeh. There he hopes to start a new life, live in peace and obscurity, and be forgotten. But powerful Anglo ranchers plot to use William’s hot temper, unmatched courage, consummate loyalty to his amigos, and superb skill with a six-gun for their own ends.

JOHN A. ARAGON was born in Espanola, New Mexico. A former Forest Service “Hotshot” firefighter and Hall of Fame rugby player, he attended St. John’s College in Santa Fe and the University of New Mexico. Aragon is the father of two young adults and has been a practicing trial lawyer for thirty years. He works and writes in Santa Fe.

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Website: http://www.billythekidslastride.com/

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-847-9
218 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-219-7
218 pp.,$3.99

New Research into New Mexico’s Lincoln County War by the historian for the U.S. Marshals Service resulted in this account of murders in Blackwater Canyon, New Mexico attributed to Billy the Kid.

On March 9, 1878, three men were murdered in isolated Blackwater Canyon in New Mexico. The suspects were Billy the Kid and a number of his Regulators. This action, almost assuredly taken in retaliation for the death of the Kid’s friend, John Henry Tunstall, became the real catalyst in the Lincoln County War. In 2006, the author and a team of investigators searched for the remains of the men and related artifacts in the obscure canyon—the first to do so since the murders. The murders were reconstructed with the discovery of over thirty bullet cartridges.

As part of the reconstruction of the crime, the author widens the scope of his investigation by examining the lives and paths of all three victims: William S. “Buck” Morton, a Virginian fleeing from his past; Frank Baker, a mystery man who hid his real name and shady career; and William McCloskey, an elderly cowboy who unsuccessfully attempted to play the peacemaker. The myths and accounts of the three men and their murders are analytically separated. Connective events where the paths of the participants intersected, such as the death of John Tunstall, are likewise examined.

Legend and fact are separated in the case and its participants—both victims and suspects. Billy the Kid is justly portrayed as a human being wrought by conflicts. The Regulators and their opposition reveal character both good and bad. An investigative approach to this portion of the Billy the Kid saga corrects the record on some old assumptions and creates new avenues of insight and possibility.

David S. Turk is the Historian for the U.S. Marshals Service and is no stranger to historical “cold cases.” A graduate from George Mason University, he authored four books and numerous articles on various topics. His interest in Billy the Kid and the New Mexico’s Lincoln County War dates to 2003, when publicity crested over a case reopened by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. His studies resulted in this account of the murders in Blackwater Canyon.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-496-3
156 pp.,$32.95

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-780-9
156 pp.,$18.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-111-4
156 pp.,$14.99

This book proves that a man named Brushy Bill Roberts was not Billy the Kid of Old West days.

For many years, a man known as Brushy Bill Roberts proclaimed to all who would listen that he was the historical and legendary Billy the Kid, alive and well. And there were various books written that claimed this to be true. As a result, many became convinced of the validity of Brushy’s claim and Brushy's elaborate fable has continued to capture the imagination. In this book, the author has attempted to dispel the elaborate hoax once and for all. Brushy Bill Roberts was not Billy the Kid. He was, in fact, just an interesting elderly man, known by his family and acquaintances as a colorful Old West storyteller.

Roy L. Haws has experienced a variety of careers after graduation from the University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering. He has been a sales engineer and sales manager for electrical equipment manufacturers, a country music artist manager and record producer, the publisher of Indie Bullet Country Music magazine, a cattleman in East Texas, a mathematics instructor at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, and an Internet college textbook retailer.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-599-1
164 pp.,$32.95

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-055-2
164 pp.,$19.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-368-2
164 pp.,$5.99

Stories from New Mexico field workers in the Federal Writers’ Project in New Mexico between 1935 and 1939.

Was life on the range in the 1880s and 1890s anything like the hard riding, hard working, hard drinking shoot ‘em up images that moviegoers saw in old Westerns? Yes—and then some, the authentic documents in this collection tell us. Cowboys, sheepherders, ranchers and all those around them in Territorial New Mexico were engaged in constant life-and-death struggles. They battled with each other and with Indians. They endured blizzards, fires, drought, floods, disease and stampeding cattle. In one account, on the morning after Comanche Indians stole all their cattle, James Chisum told his daughter, “Cheer up, Sallie, the worst is yet to come.”

Also included in this collection are reports of cooperation and glimpses of daily happiness: the simple pleasure of riding the range; camaraderie during roundups; hot meals dished out from the chuck wagon; cow camp entertainments; trips to town for fandangos; a sheepherder resting beneath the constellations and his breakfast of burrañiates. There are also high-spirited narratives describing the taming of a good steer, adventures along the cattle trails, the retrieval of mavericks and the roundup of mustangs.

If the stories in this collection seem familiar, they are also surprisingly fresh. Luckily for the rest of us, field workers in the Federal Writers’ Project (a branch of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called the Work Projects Administration), loved to listen and record as much as their subjects liked to talk. The resulting stories from 1935 to 1939 are rich in detail and human spirit. This collection also includes local newspaper articles, reports from New Mexico governors on the state of the livestock industry, cowboy poems, square dance calls, descriptions and drawings of cattle brands, glossaries of cowboy terms and the names of ranches in Colfax County.

Cowboys, Ranching & Cattle Trails is the fifth volume in the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project book series. Previous titles are Outlaws & Desperados, Frontier Stories, Lost Treasures & Old Mines and Stories from Hispano New Mexico.

Ann Lacy, an artist and researcher/writer, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She works on projects related to New Mexico history, culture and environment issues. She is the recipient of a City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award.

Anne Valley-Fox, writer, poet and researcher, is co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series. Her fourth volume of poetry is How Shadows Are Bundled (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-522-9
384 pp.,$42.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-945-2
384 pp.,$29.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-680-5
384 pp.,$6.99

New Foreword by Marc Simmons

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

Many years after the death of Billy the Kid, Deputy John William Poe, who was just outside the door when Sheriff Pat Garrett killed him, wrote out the whole story, which was published in a small edition. Later, in 1933, this first-hand account was offered to a larger public with an introduction by Maurice Garland Fulton, who lived for years among the scenes of Billy the Kid’s wild career.

While certain statements made in the book by Poe are controversial, his account is a valuable document for anyone interested in Billy the Kid. Sunstone Press is pleased to offer this complete reprint of the 1933 edition along with a new forward in its Southwest Heritage Series.

JOHN WILLIAM POE was born in 1850 and died in 1923. Early in his life he was impressed by the novels of Sir Walter Scott and developed a desire to seek adventures out West. After working as a farm hand, on a railroad construction crew, and a buffalo hunter, he wound his way into law enforcement and eventually became a deputy for Sheriff Pat Garrett. After the incident with Billy the Kid, Poe was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, married, and after retiring as a lawman, settled in Roswell, New Mexico where he was a businessman until his death.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-344-7
124 pp.,$26.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-532-4
124 pp.,$18.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-147-3
124 pp.,$5.99

Frontier stories of the Old West from writers in the Federal Writers’ Project in New Mexico between 1936 and 1940.

Between 1850 and 1912, the year New Mexico was granted statehood, the Territory of New Mexico was a wild and dangerous place. Homesteaders, cowboys, ranchers, sheepherders, buffalo hunters, prospectors, treasure hunters and railroad men pushing the borders of the western frontier met with resistance from man and animal alike. Native Americans, who had lived on the land defending their boundaries and way of life for centuries, reacted to the wave of outsiders in various ways. The agrarian Pueblo peoples along the Rio Grande largely kept to themselves. Apache, Navajo and Ute tribes sometimes attempted to co-exist with the newcomers but most often they fought against encroachment. Anglo and Mexican outlaws ran roughshod across the frontier and there was no shortage of bears, wolves, mountain lions, blizzards and bad water to unsettle the newcomers. This collection of frontier stories vividly illustrates the range of struggles, triumphs and catastrophes faced by settlers who hoped to tame the land and inhabitants of Territorial New Mexico.

Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the Federal Writers’ Project (a branch of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called Work Projects Administration) recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. These original documents, published here as a story collection for the first time, reflect the conditions of the New Mexico Territory as played out in dynamic clashes between individuals and groups competing for control of the land and resources.

Frontier Stories, the second in the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book Series, features informative background and historic photographs. Forthcoming books in the series include collections on mining and buried treasure, Hispano folk life, and cattle trails and ranching.

Ann Lacy, co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the New Mexico Artists-in-the-Schools Program and a studio artist exhibiting her work in museums and galleries. She has worked as a researcher and writer for Project Crossroads, specializing in New Mexico history and culture, since 1987. She received a City of Santa Fe 2000 Heritage Preservation Award.

Anne Valley-Fox, co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series, is a poet and writer who has worked for two decades as a writer/researcher for Project Crossroads. Her publications include Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life through Writing and Storytelling, Sending the Body Out, Fish Drum 15 and Point of No Return. How Shadows Are Bundled is her latest collection of poems.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-488-8
330 pp.,$38.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-733-5
330 pp.,$28.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-193-0
330 pp.,$6.99

“I first heard about Henry McCarty from Chuck’s brother, director Eagle Pennell, decades ago. Chuck had uncovered an exciting take on Billy the Kid, and Eagle was obsessed with it. Unfortunately, the revisionist Western they might have made never happened, but that untold origin narrative has finally emerged as a well-crafted novel, with an incredible story to tell.” —Richard Linklater, Film Director. *CLICK ON "MOVIE/TV TREATMENT" BELOW.*

His name is Henry McCarty. One day the lad will be christened Billy the Kid and achieve world fame. But in 1875 he is just an obscure orphaned runaway traveling the Southwestern frontier. Enthralled with Hispanic culture and immersed in the twin arts of gambling and gunplay, Henry McCarty comes of age in boomtowns and barrios, in the wilds of the Chihuahua desert and the rugged high country of pine clad mountains.

After two years on the fertile training ground of an outpost named Camp Grant, a deadly encounter sends Henry back into the desert. An ominous journey follows, ultimately delivering him to Lincoln County, New Mexico, looking for redemption. He finds honest employment cowboying for a resolute young Englishman named John Tunstall, a twenty-three-year-old with an Oxford education and the world-weary look of a poet. But Henry quickly becomes entangled in the Londoner’s wildly escalating mercantile dispute. To survive, he must navigate a Russian novel’s wealth of characters and follow the tit for tat of a complex range war to its fiery conclusion.

Haunted by an Irish childhood in the slums of New York City, this strange boy possesses a stinging IQ and an epic grin, soaring ambitions and a fine tenor voice. When thrown into a hurricane of violence, Henry McCarty rises with an impassioned cause and a farsighted awareness of the machinery of fame and fate.

Chuck Pinnell is a veteran Austin guitarist, producer, film score composer and now, with the publication of The Irish Singer, a first-time novelist. He was born a short drive from the New Mexico border in Andrews, Texas, the grandson of a West Texas cattleman. In the late 1950s Chuck’s father resettled his wife and two sons in east Texas and entered a career in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M. His children grew up in the provincial town of College Station with A&M’s sprawling campus a few blocks out the front door. Both brothers gravitated to the creative mecca of nearby Austin soon after graduating high school. Chuck began his professional life by contributing a rousing guitar soundtrack to his filmmaking older brother’s first short feature, Hell of a Note. Chuck Pinnell went on to score a number of classic Texas films including The Whole Shoot’n Match, Last Night at the Alamo and An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story as well as perform, produce, and record with many of the most talented musical artists in Texas. In 2018, Pinnell completely shifted gears with a deliberate retreat from the world of guitars, songwriters, and filmmakers to focus on a life-long passion—the untold origin story of Billy the Kid—returning three years later with an intensely researched and well-crafted novel. Bringing that story to the world was a shared obsession with his late-great indie pioneer brother, Eagle Pennell. The Irish Singer brings that quest full circle and the pact is finally complete.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-399-7
280 pp.,$36.95

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-314-0
280 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-616-4
280 pp.,$3.99

New Foreword by Marc Simmons

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

For a number of years prior to 1922, one of Santa Fe, New Mexico’s most colorful and famous residents was Charles Angelo Siringo (1855-1928), popularly known as “the cowboy detective.” A small, wiry man, he was friends with practically everyone in town. In 1916 Governor William C. McDonald persuaded Siringo to accept a commission as a New Mexico Mounted Ranger for the state Cattle Sanitary Board. The only thing unusual about that was Charlie Siringo’s age, a ripe 61. Undaunted, he saddled up and with a pack horse started for his headquarters at Carrizozo in Lincoln County. His duty was to run down outlaws and stock thieves in southern New Mexico.

“During my two years as a ranger,” Siringo said, “I made many arrests of cattle and horse thieves and had many close calls with death staring me in the face.” Obviously, Governor McDonald had made a wise choice when he tapped this hard-riding, fast-shooting “senior citizen” for the dangerous ranger job.

But Siringo was more than a law man. He put in countless nights writing up his experiences. When his book, A Texas Cowboy, appeared, its author achieved fame overnight. A Lone Star Cowboy, published in 1919, and which Sunstone Press has chosen to include in its Southwest Heritage Series, contained many of the stories in his earlier books and the author says in his preface: “This volume is to take the place of A Texas Cowboy….”

Meanwhile, soon after publishing his recollections, Siringo joined the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency, whose branch offices covered the West. He remained with the firm for two decades. After leaving the Pinkertons, Charlie Siringo did a good bit of roaming before settling in Santa Fe.

Because of the name he’d made in publishing, he had access to many persons, on both sides of the law. From them he got first hand information that he later incorporated in a new book called Riata and Spurs. In that work, the writer had wanted to include some of his own daring adventures while serving with the Pinkertons. But the Agency threatened a lawsuit if he revealed any of their professional secrets. So the cowboy detective had to delete some of his best material.

Siringo's experiences as the quintessential cowboy and determined detective helped romanticize the West and its myth of the American cowboy.

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Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-533-1
320 pp.,$24.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-263-0
320 pp.,$4.99

Stories about mines and treasures from writers in the Federal Writers’ Project in New Mexico between 1936 and 1940.

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

Between 1850 and 1912, Territorial New Mexico was home to a diverse mix of peoples. Contesting with those who had lived in the region for thousands of years, an array of newcomers arrived: Hispanic settlers, Anglo homesteaders, ranchers, cowboys, sheepherders, merchants, railroad men and—perhaps its chief adventurers—treasure hunters and prospectors.

Lost Treasures & Old Mines brims with stories of gold fever, copper ore and silver mining in the American Southwest. In 1541 when Coronado’s conquistadors arrived in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, pre-Columbian natives had long been mining for turquoise. The stories in this collection tell of hidden Indian mines, treasures lost en route to Spain, gold heists on trains and stagecoaches, placer miners roaming the hills and chicanery among claim partners. Geronimo, Victorio, Billy the Kid and U.S. Calvary soldiers thread through these stories, along with lucky characters who strike the motherlode and hapless ones who lose their fortunes. The Lost Juan Mondragon Mine, The Dead Burro Mine, the Lost Mine of the Pedernal, the Adams Diggings, Elizabethtown and Pinos Altos—such places live as shining memories in these oral histories of fabulous fortunes lost and found.

Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the New Deal Works Project Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. These original documents, published here for the first time as a story collection, reflect the conditions of the New Mexico Territory as played out in dynamic clashes between individuals and groups competing for control of the land and resources.

Lost Treasures & Old Mines, the third in the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book Series, features a lively collection of stories and historic photographs of the era. The first and second books in the series are Outlaws & Desperados and Frontier Stories.

Ann Lacy, an artist and researcher/writer, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has worked for Project Crossroads, a not-for-profit educational resource group, in projects related to New Mexico history and culture. Participating in preserving open space and preservation efforts, she received a City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award in 2000.

Anne Valley-Fox, co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series and staff member with Project Crossroads, is a poet and writer. Her nonfiction books include Your Mythic Journey (co-author, Sam Keen). Her fourth collection of poetry, How Shadows Are Bundled, was published by University of New Mexico Press.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-411-6
268 pp.,$38.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-820-2
268 pp.,$26.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-128-2
268 pp.,$4.99

New Foreword by Ray John de Aragón

Miguel Antonio Otero (1859-1944) not only distinguished himself as a political leader in New Mexico and lived out his life as a champion of the people, but he is also highly recognized for his career as an author. He published his legendary My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882, in 1935, followed by The Real Billy the Kid: With New Light on the Lincoln County War in 1936, My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897 in 1939, and My Nine Years as Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, 1897-1906 in 1940. These books, of which this is one in Sunstone’s Southwest Heritage Series, are filled with the raw power and intrigue of the Wild West written by one who lived it. One would expect no less from such a vibrant personality who filled the pages of his monumental history with the passionate memories of an exciting era.

Otero was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father, who bore the same name, and who was born in Valencia, New Mexico in 1829, had built up a stellar career in the East. Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr. was brought up in a family of wealth and influence, but he also experienced the hardships of growing up in a household that was always on the move. His family’s sojourns took him from one town to another across Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. During Miguel A. Otero’s travels and frequent stopovers in Wild Western towns he came into contact with notorious outlaws like Clay Allison and popular lawmen such as Wild Bill Hickok, Pat Garrett, Elfego Baca, and other well known figures including Doc Holliday, William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”), General George A. Custer, and frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson. In fact, Otero was such an adventurous soul that he always sought out, or was in close contact with, anyone making headlines during the turbulent era he lived in. He even published a short lived newspaper called the Otero Optic, which eventually became the Las Vegas Daily Optic. He began his illustrious career in politics as Las Vegas City Clerk, San Miguel County probate clerk, county clerk, and recorder, and district court clerk. Then in 1892 President William McKinley appointed Miguel Antonio Otero as governor of the New Mexico territory where he served until 1906.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-510-6
352 pp.,$39.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-554-6
352 pp.,$35.00

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-149-7
352 pp.,$7.99

“Marc Simmons’ writing draws you into the maelstrom of our history with ease and clarity.” THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

"Simmons is a consummate historian and writer. Each narrative is well told and gives insight into the fascinating history of New Mexico. These essays will inspire readers to want to know more. The entire collection provides informative and entertaining reading, proving, perhaps, that it takes a maverick historian to tell a maverick's tale." WAGON TRACKS, Santa Fe Trail Association Quarterly

“I first saw New Mexico as a kid, in 1950,” the author says. “At once I fell under its hypnotic spell, as have so many others. My commitment to become a writer about things New Mexican was born shortly thereafter. From more than a half century of prowlings along the byways of the state, I’ve managed to glean a fair knowledge of its peoples and culture.

“What continues to impress me is that history in New Mexico lies so close to the surface. Here one continually runs into Indians, Hispanos and fourth or fifth generation Anglos whose lives and outlook are firmly rooted in the years before yesterday. Moreover, their personal histories are enriched by the backdrop of an extraordinary landscape. These realities have provided me an abundance of material for carving out the series of short narratives compiled in the book.”

MARC SIMMONS is a professional author and historian who has published more than forty books on New Mexico and the American Southwest. His popular “Trail Dust” column is syndicated in several regional newspapers. In 1993, King Juan Carlos of Spain admitted him to the knightly Order of Isabel la Católica for his contributions to Spanish colonial history.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-500-7
264 pp.,$28.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-467-9
264 pp.,$22.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-301-9
264 pp.,$4.99

Stories about outlaws and desperados of the Old West from writers in the Federal Writers’ Project in New Mexico between 1936 and 1940.

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

In the early days of the American West, outlaws dominated the New Mexico Territory. Such colorful characters as Black Jack Ketchum, the Apache Kid, Curly Bill, Devil Dick, Billy the Kid, Bill McGinnis, Vicente Silva and his gang, the Dalton Brothers, and the Wild Bunch terrorized the land. Feared by many, loved by some, their exploits were both horrifying and legendary. In between forays, notorious outlaws were sometimes exemplary cowboys. Singly or in gangs, they held up stagecoaches and trains and stole from prospectors and settlers. When outlaws reigned, bank holdups, shoot-outs, and murders were a common occurrence; death by hanging became a favored means of settling disputes by outlaws and vigilantes alike. Stories of outlaws later provided plots for many of our favorite Western movies.

Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the Federal Writers’ Project (a part of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called Work Projects Administration) collected and wrote down many accounts that provide an authentic and vivid picture of outlaws in the early days of New Mexico. They feature life history narratives of places, characters, and events of the Wild West during the late 1800s. These original documents reflect the unruly, eccentric conditions of the New Mexico Territory as they played out in clashes and collaborations between outlaws and “the gentle people” of New Mexico before and after statehood.

This book, focusing on outlaws and desperados, is the first in a series featuring stories from the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project collection. Other books in the series include stories about ranchers, cowboys, and the wild and woolly adventures of sheepherders, homesteaders, prospectors, and treasure hunters. In them, the untamed New Mexico Territory comes to life with descriptions of encounters with Indians, travels along the old trails, cattle rustling, murders at the gambling table, and Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus. This treasury of Federal Writers’ Project records, presented with informative background and historic photographs, also highlights Hispano folk life and Western lore in old New Mexico.

Ann Lacy has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the New Mexico Artists-in-the-Schools Program and a studio artist exhibiting her work in museums and galleries. As a researcher and writer, she has specialized in New Mexico history and culture. She received a City of Santa Fe 2000 Heritage Preservation Award.

Anne Valley-Fox is a New Mexico poet and writer. Her publications include Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life through Writing and Storytelling, Sending the Body Out, Fish Drum 14 and Point of No Return. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, including El Palacio: Art, History and Culture of the Southwest, New Mexico Poetry Renaissance and In Company: An Anthology of New Mexico Poets After 1960.

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ISBN: 978-0-86534-633-8
472 pp.,$34.95

Bibliography

Each century has its folk figures in which villainy and heroism combine to produce larger than life individuals who then become part of American history and legend celebrated in song and story.

This is particularly true of the western United States in the 19th century when the restless expansion of a growing nation was reflected in an era of extreme individualism. This was not only the time of Horatio Alger’s “rags to riches” sagas but also a time when violence was seen as another way of achieving material success.

By its very nature the American West attracted men (and some women) who considered themselves to be outside the law and generally superior to those who tried to maintain order and justice on the new frontier. Because it was a border state, New Mexico had a large population of outlaws. These desperadoes, by their actions and often wanton killings, influenced the course of history in the area. And at least one, Billy the Kid, became a romanticized figure in art, music and literature.

This compilation is a valuable reference for such individuals but is not meant to be a complete list. Further information about outlaws can be found in the books listed in the bibliography.

Softcover:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-039-8
48 pp.,$14.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-649-2
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New Foreword by Ray John de Aragón
New Preface by Marc Simmons

Miguel Antonio Otero served as the first Hispanic governor of the U.S. Territory of New Mexico, from 1897 to 1907. He was appointed to the office by President William McKinley. Long after his retirement from politics, Governor Otero wrote and published his memoirs in three volumes, a major contribution to New Mexico history. But he also published a biography in 1936 titled The Real Billy the Kid. His aim in that book, he proclaimed, was to write the Kid’s story “without embellishment, based entirely on actual fact.” Otero had known the outlaw briefly and also had known the man who killed Billy in 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett. The author recalled Garrett saying he regretted having to slay Billy. Or, as he bluntly put it, “it was simply the case of who got in the first shot. I happened to be the lucky one.”

By all accounts, Billy the Kid was much adored by New Mexico’s Hispanic population. Otero asserts that the Kid was considerate of the old, the young and the poor. And he was loyal to his friends. Further, Martin Cháves of Santa Fe stated: “Billy was a perfect gentleman with a noble heart. He never killed a native citizen of New Mexico in all his career, and he had plenty of courage.” Otero was especially admiring of Billy because as a boy in Silver City, “he had loved his mother devotedly.” Such praise must be viewed in the context of the times. Other people, of course, saw Billy as an arch-villain.

MIGUEL A. OTERO rightly distinguished himself as a political leader in New Mexico where he raised a family and lived out his life as a champion of the people, but he is also highly recognized for his career as an author. He published his legendary My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882, in 1935, followed by The Real Billy the Kid: With New Light on the Lincoln County War in 1936, My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897 in 1939, and My Nine Years as Governor of New Mexico Territory, 1897-1906 in 1940. All of these books are published by Sunstone Press in its Southwest Heritage Series.

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Hardcover:
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ISBN: 978-1-63293-493-2
252 pp.,$36.95

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ISBN: 978-0-86534-547-8
252 pp.,$24.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-100-8
252 pp.,$9.99

Patrick Floyd Garrett, widely known as “Pat,” (1850-1908) had tracked down and killed the outlaw Billy the Kid but also became a victim of the tangled politics of the time. He has been maligned by writers, libeled by Hollywood and deprecated by many of his contemporaries. But despite them, all his deeds retain for him a niche in the gallery of fast shooting peace officers who helped to bring law and order to the frontier West. When he died, there was rejoicing in some quarters and relief in others--as might be expected in the case of a controversial figure. There was also genuine and profound sorrow in the rugged hearts of many in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, as well as farther afield, and the circumstances surrounding his death, ostensibly at the hands of a most unlikely cowboy named Wayne Brazel, have puzzled and intrigued historians since that spring day in 1908 when he was shot to death and left lying in a sand drift on a lonely road.

But was Pat Garrett shot by Wayne Brazel, or hired killer Jim Miller? Brazel confessed, but few believed his story and he was acquitted. Colin Rickards’ book sheds light on this unhappy affair which still remains a source of controversy.

Colin Rickards has done extensive research on Pat Garrett including checking official court records, investigating contemporary accounts and conducting interviews. He separates fact from fantasy in this meticulously documented account. An authority on frontier history, the author has written numerous articles and books on the Old West. A journalist by profession, Rickards has applied the same techniques to ferreting out the true stories of life and death adventures in western history.

More information on this controversial period in American Southwestern history, the heroes and the villains can be found in these and other Sunstone Press books: Alias Billy the Kid by Donald Cline and Sheriff William Brady by Donald R. Lavash.

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Softcover:
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ISBN: 978-0-86534-079-4
96 pp.,$8.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-384-2
96 pp.,$5.99

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

Was Sheriff William Brady a willing pawn in the hands of a crooked political fation or was he an honest man dedicated to law and order? After his extensive research, Donal R. Lavash thinks Brady deserves a more realistic evaluation of his part in the Lincoln County Was in New Mexico.

In 1873, crime and violence were rampant in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Land fraud, cattle and horse stealing were common. Outlaws, including Billy the Kid, swarmed in to join hands with dishonest citizens. Although Brady tried to stem the frowing tide of anarachy, his efforts ended when he was ambused by Billy the Kid and his gang.

This book is not only a biography of a man but the history of an era in the American Southwest. More information on this controversial period will be found in these other Sunstone Press books: “Alias Billy the Kid” by Donald Cline, “Sheriff Pat Garrett’s Last Days” by Colin Rickards, “The Death of Billy the Kid” by John William Poe, “The Real Billy the Kid” by Miguel Antonio Otero, “Stalking Billy the Kid” by Marc Simmons, “The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid” by Pat Garrett, “Kit Carson’s Own Story of His Life” by Blanche Grant, and “Dynamite and Six-Shooter” by Jeff Burton.

Donald R. Lavash was a historian on the staff of the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives and was a specialist in American Southwest history. An author of numerous articles and the book, “A Journey Through New Mexico History” also published by Sunstone Press, he received his Ph.D. from the International Institute for Advanced Studies.

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Softcover:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-064-0
128 pp.,$16.95

“Thanks to the discerning Simmons, this careful collection offers rare glimpses of chance encounters with the young outlaw in Territorial New Mexico’s vast expanses, as recalled by folks who had little to gain from the recollections. Young Billy on the lam comes across as engaging, polite, well-mannered and brandishing a six-shooter with chivalry. Simmons’ last chapter, his longest, is a bravura piece that alone is worth the price of the book.” NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE

“Having written about New Mexico history for more than forty years,” explains the author, “it was perhaps inevitable that in time I should publish a few articles on Billy the Kid. After all, he is the one figure from this state’s past whose name is known around the world. The Kid’s career, although astonishingly short, nonetheless, left an indelible mark in the annals of the Old West. And his name, William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, seems locked forever into the consciousness of the starry-eyed public.

“Upon request,” the author continues, “I was able to assemble a collection of my varied writings pertaining to some of Billy’s real or imagined deeds. Each section opens a small window on an aspect of his tumultuous life, or casts light upon others whose fortunes intersected with his. In this book, I have stalked Billy in an erratic rather than a systematic way, taking pleasure merely in adding a few new and unusual fragments to his biography. I trust that readers who have a fascination with the history and legend of Billy the Kid will find in these pages something of interest and value. As Eugene Cunningham wrote more than seventy years ago, ‘in our imagination the Kid still lives--the Kid still rides.’”

MARC SIMMONS is a professional author and historian who has published more than forty books on New Mexico and the American Southwest. His popular “Trail Dust” column is syndicated in several regional newspapers. In 1993, King Juan Carlos of Spain admitted him to the knightly Order of Isabel la Católica for his contributions to Spanish colonial history.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-577-5
196 pp.,$28.95

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-525-6
196 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-427-6
196 pp.,$6.99

Stories by Hispanic writers in New Mexico between 1936 and 1940 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project in New Mexico.

The story of Spanish settlement in New Mexico begins with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s expedition into the territory in 1540–1542. The conquistadors were seeking new lands, gold, and converts to Christianity. In 1598, Juan de Oñate’s expedition of soldiers, settlers and indigenous Mexicans arrived, charged by the Crown to colonize the northern frontier of New Spain. Far from Mexico and the seat of Spanish government, in a land of extremes already inhabited by the First Americans, these settlers proved their tenacity. Farmers, shepherds and townspeople, they lived off the land: they built houses and churches, constructed irrigation ditches, raised crops, wove cloth and hunted for food in an often hostile land. They borrowed, bartered and intermarried with their Pueblo neighbors and weathered an occasional uprising; they battled with Comanche, Apache, and Navajo for control of land and resources. When the American army arrived, they chose sides and paid the consequences.

Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the New Deal Works Project Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project (WPA) recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. Happily for us, Hispano settlers were avid storytellers and gave the field writers detailed descriptions of village life, battles with Indians, encounters with Billy the Kid, witchcraft, marriages, festivals and floods. The result is a rich and uniquely regional literature.

Stories from Hispano New Mexico is the fourth volume in the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series. The first three titles in the series are Outlaws & Desperados, Frontier Stories and Lost Treasures & Old Mines, all from Sunstone Press.

Ann Lacy, an artist and researcher/writer, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has worked for Project Crossroads, a not-for-profit educational resource group, in projects related to New Mexico history and culture. Participating in preserving open space and preservation efforts, she received a City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award in 2000.

Anne Valley-Fox is co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project Book series. She is a poet and writer who has worked for two decades as a writer/researcher for Project Crossroads. Her fourth collection of poetry is How Shadows Are Bundled (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

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Hardcover:
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ISBN: 978-1-63293-487-1
336 pp.,$38.95

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6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-885-1
336 pp.,$26.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-172-5
336 pp.,$6.99

Since a July night in 1881 when he was shot down at the age of 21, Billy the Kid has been a victim of the myths that surrounded and captured him. This vivid interpretation of the Kid’s life and character will come as an exciting revelation to readers who may have been familiar only with the earlier fictionalized versions. For here is real, moving tragedy painted in broad brush strokes with the vivid hues of the stark American Southwestern landscape.

Never before has there been brought into true focus the Lincoln County War, which broke out in 1878 in the then Territory of New Mexico, and which furnished the background and the period for the adventures of this extraordinary boy. The literature concerning both the desperate cattle war and the singular young outlaw have necessarily been constructed around a thin framework of fact with its papier maché façade of myth and legend.

So persistent have been these legends that the true character of the Kid seemed almost beyond reach. Indeed, the Western poet, Arthur Chapman, once wrote that “Billy the Kid must remain wholly the most unaccountable figure in frontier history.”

Frazier Hunt (1885 – 1968) had the good fortune to have access to a great mass of fresh and unpublished source material which fully documents this thrilling history of the Kid and his times. It is a new and rather appealing boy who now comes to light—an alert, likeable yet tough youngster, adored by the native Mexicans no less for his fluency in Spanish than for his kindness and consideration, but no wanton killer. In place of the former distorted figure of legend, a young man of flesh and blood and heart emerges into clear perspective. So at last we have the real Billy the Kid—authentic, true—and completely accountable.

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Hardcover:
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ISBN: 978-1-63293-503-8
356 pp.,$39.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-717-5
356 pp.,$29.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-235-7
356 pp.,$7.99

Little is known about the boyhood of the real Billy the Kid, but this is the way it could have gone for him during his growing-up years, shared here with his fictional best pal, Willie the Kid.

Both born in New York City in 1859, William Tweed Bonnifield acquires the nickname Willie the Kid when he emerges from the womb laughing, but William Henry McCarty won’t be christened Billy the Kid until he becomes notorious many years later. The fatherless boys meet in an Indianapolis classroom when Billy hits Willie with a hard-boiled egg and Willie doesn’t snitch. They become bosom buddies, and their mothers, Charlotte and Catherine, bond as two struggling “widows.” Mischief maker Billy proves popular with boys and girls alike. Well-behaved Willie looks for direction, for better or worse, from Billy. After Indianapolis, the close families stay connected in Wichita, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado, before venturing to New Mexico Territory. In Santa Fe Catherine marries would-be gold prospector Bill Antrim; later, in Silver City, Charlotte weds carpenter Fred Schellschmidt. Willie and Billy must deal with growing pains, worrisome mothers, indifferent stepfathers, Wild West hard cases, teachers, lawmen, and a deadly case of consumption. When his mother dies, teenaged Billy is set adrift, commits a minor crime, escapes jail, and runs off to the Arizona Territory. Of course, his best pal comes along. But how long can they stick together? The bolder of the two is destined to become the infamous Billy the Kid. But will Willie the Kid follow the same outlaw path or will the boyhood amigos live out different lives in New Mexico? Includes Readers Guide.

The author grew up in New York and Ohio, majored in history at the University of New Mexico, and worked for newspapers in Hobbs and Las Cruces, as well as New York City, Missoula, Montana, and Leesburg, Virginia. His previous historical novels include Captured: From the Frontier Diary of Danny Duly (2014), Our Frontier Pastime 1804-–1815 (2019), Man from Montana (2021), The Call of McCall (2022), and Mountain Woman: How She Defied the Odds in the Time of the Mountain Men (2023). Greg lives in Virginia but periodically returns to New Mexico to visit his old haunts and those of the Kid.

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ISBN: 978-1-63293-635-6
174 pp.,$22.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-737-6
174 pp.,$3.99

A meticulously researched story of the life and times of Gideon Truesdell (1811–1882), who struggled to amass a fortune, only to lose everything, and had to start over in one of the roughest towns in the old Southwest, where his family became intimately acquainted with Billy the Kid.

Newspapers of the day described young men with a burning desire to get rich on the frontier as having a bad case of “western fever,” and by 1836 Gideon Truesdell had surely caught it. He struggled with life on the frontier until he amassed a million-dollar ($68 million today) fortune in the lumber, agricultural, cattle, and mining businesses. Late in life the Chicago Fire nearly wiped him out, and at the age of sixty-three he started over in Silver City, New Mexico, in one of the roughest towns in the old west. He made a good living in the cattle business, and it was at his son’s hotel that the family became acquainted with teenager Henry Antrim, also known as Billy the Kid, who lived with them for five months. Academic scholars agree that the Truesdells knew him well, and that they liked him. When silver was discovered in Tombstone, Arizona, Gideon organized a cattle business that made him affluent. A year later, he died at the age of seventy-one after an accomplished life during a fascinating period of history.

In 1980, Richard Fritz wrote a thesis while at the University of Wisconsin that, forty-years later, became the basis of Western Fever: The Life and Times of Gideon Truesdell. He spent most of his career as the owner/operator of bowling centers, was a partner in the Kenosha Redskins semi-pro football team, an Indoor baseball franchise, and as president of Southport Properties.

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Hardcover:
6 x 9, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-63293-535-9
544 pp.,$60.00

Softcover:
6 x 9, illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-63293-461-1
544 pp.,$48.95

Many Historic Photographs

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

It’s possible that Billy the Kid escaped the gunfire from Pat Garrett’s pistol. And, under the name of John Miller, he could have lived the rest of his life as a cattle rancher and horse breeder in the Zuni mountains of Western New Mexico, and as a farm worker in Buckeye, Arizona. His adopted son, Max Miller, said so. So do most of the Indians and the Mormon pioneers who knew John Miller. Could this be? Our book presents some convincing evidence. You decide.

Helen Airy graduated from Yreka High School, Siskiyon County, California, and the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in English literature. She was a columnist for the "San Francisco Examiner" for five years until the outbreak of World War II when she joined the American Red Cross in December, 1942, and was sent to England. She served as an aero club director on a B-26 bomber base at Rougham, in East Anglia, and later as a London-based reporter writing about the American Red Cross. She is the author of "Doughnut Dollies, American Red Cross Girls During World War II," also published by Sunstone Press.

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Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-418-5
176 pp.,$34.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-185-2
176 pp.,$18.95

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ISBN: 978-1-61139-248-7
176 pp.,$4.99

BOOKLIST says: “Here’s an interesting idea: tell the story of the American Southwest (specifically, New Mexico) through the eyes of its children. The author, a history professor, introduces us to a group of unknown boys and girls who, in their own ways, were as important to the region as any familiar historical figure. Here are Haroldie and Sammie Kent, two young black children who were at the forefront of school desegregation in the 1950s; here’s Marion Russell, who, with her mother, Eliza, was part of a wagon train down the Santa Fe Trail in the early 1800s; here are Douglas MacArthur and Billy the Kid, before they became (respectively) a general and a gunslinger. It’s a unique and vastly informative book; drawing on oral histories, the stories are often told in the subjects’ own words, and the richness of detail tells us as much about the past as it does about childhood.” LIBRARY BOOKWATCH reports: "...a very highly commended addition to personal, school, and community library American History collections."

Historians have considered the contributions of many groups--from outlaws and lawmen to Harvey Girls and railroaders--in the making of the modern American Southwest. But few writers have considered the unique role of children in this vast region of the United States. Richard Melzer has taken a large step in filing this void by examining the diverse experiences of children growing up in different communities, in different cultures, and in different historical periods. Using New Mexico as a focus, and drawing on memoirs, oral histories, diaries, and autobiographies, Melzer has compiled the most thorough, captivating, and compelling set of true stories about childhood ever to appear in print. His collection, ranging from the experiences of Billy the Kid to those of Douglas MacArthur, is destined to become a classic in American Southwest historical literature.

RICHARD MELZER is a professor of history at the University of New Mexico/Valencia Campus. A prize-winning teacher and a popular public speaker, he is the author of many books and articles about the American Southwest. Sunstone Press is the publisher of Melzer's focused biography, ERNIE PYLE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, and BREAKDOWN, HOW THE SECRET OF THE ATOMIC BOMB WAS STOLEN DURING WORLD WAR II. He is also the author of COMING OF AGE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=BQ4n40dic9YC

Hardcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-1-63293-595-3
345 pp.,$38.95

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-338-2
345 pp.,$22.95