Life of Billy Dixon Book-Buffalo hunting-Sharps Rifle-Rolling Block-Adobe Walls!

Description

A reproduction of the 1927 original
LIFE OF BILLY DIXON
Plainsman, Scout, and Pioneer
by Olive K. Dixon
A
MUST-have
for your Sharps, single shot, blackpowder, or Western library!
"Dixon wore many hats on the frontier, including that of a trapper, buffalo hunter, and cowboy, and he enjoyed them all. A facsimile of the 1927 original, this book conveys Dixon's enthusiam for the wide-open West, telling of his hair-raising escapades in American battles as well as his calmer moments on the plains."---
American West
Life of Billy Dixon
is a compelling narrative of the "wild, free life" on the Great Plains frontier. Ride with Billy Dixon and his Sharps rifle to a high point on the plains and look out over a nearly solid mass of buffalo that stretches in every direction as far as the eye can see. Stand with Billy Dixon at Adobe Walls, in the unsettled Texas Panhandle, as hundreds of Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne warriors on horseback charge out of the pre-dawn darkness toward a few dozen buffalo hunters. Crouch down in desperation with Billy Dixon at the Buffalo Wallow Fight as he and a few wounded and dying men lie in a shallow
depression on the plains surrounded by howling Indians.
In
Life of Billy Dixon
the Great Plains frontier is seen through the knowing eyes of a participant who lived that frontier experience and who fortunately left an accurate and engaging record for those who followed.
Exerpt from
Life of Billy Dixon:
"I had gotten possession of a big '50' gun early in the fight, and was making considerable noise with it. I sized up what was going on behind the pile of buffalo hides, and took careful aim at the place where I thought the Indian was crouched. I shot through one corner of the hides. It looked to me as if that Indian jumped six feet straight up into the air, howling with pain. Evidently I had hit him. He ran zig-zag fashion for thirty or forty yards, howling at every jump, and dropped down in the tall grass. Indians commonly ran in this manner when under fire, to prevent our getting a bead on them.
I managed to get hold of the '50' gun in this manner. The ammunition for mine was in Rath's store, which none of us was in the habit of visiting at that particular moment. I had noticed that Shepherd, Hanrahan's bartender, was banging around with Hanrahan's big '50,' but not making much use of it, as he was badly excited.
'Here, Jim,' I said to Hanrahan. 'I see you are without a gun; take this one.'
I gave him mine. I then told 'Shep' to give me the '50.' He was so glad to turn loose of it, and handed it to me so quickly that he almost dropped it. I had the reputation of being a good shot and it was rather to the interest of all of us that I should have a powerful gun."
This book is a reproduction of the 1927 edition. In his life story, Billy Dixon's vision is filtered through several lenses---that of his wife, who patiently wrote down his lengthy oral history, and that of Frederick S. Barde who took Mrs. Dixon's voluminous notes and edited them into the first edition published in 1914 under the title
Life and Adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas Panhandle.
The revised edition of 1927, which is reprinted here, added a brief introduction by historian Joseph B. Thoburn, changed the title and some of the illustrations, and rearranged a few paragraphs. It is, however, essentially the same book as the 1914 edition.
Paperback. 5 1/2x8 1/2. 298 pages. Black and white photos.
BRAND NEW
!