The Saga of Billy the Kid

Originally published in 1926, this biography tells the rousing tale of Billy the Kid, one of the most well-known outlaws in the Old West. The Saga of Billy the Kid focuses on a period of time when two dangerous gangs tore a bloody path across Lincoln, New Mexico. After being shot to death in 1881 by the intrepid Lincoln County sheriff Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid became a romanticized symbol of the wildness that laced the American West. Interest in the outlaw’s wild life grew after Burns’s initial publication, setting Billy the Kid up as one of the finest examples of the loss of the Wild West. As the United States grew more industrialized, the stories of saloons, train robberies, and lone cowboys became even more important, and still remain important today.
In a rousing tale that is partly truth, partly fiction, read the story that started its own wild frontier in the most influential version available.

Walter Noble Burns: Walter Noble Burns (1872-1932), was a journalist and historian in Chicago.