I generally do not read other historical novels about a subject I’m contemplating; but I would be remiss not to mention the best Wyatt Earp book, the long out-of-print, and yet extremely influential, Saint Johnson (1930), by W. R. Burnett. Burnett, the most undervalued of great American crime writers, went to Tombstone and researched this unflinching study of the Earp/Clanton conflict, beating Stuart Lake to the punch. Many Earp films have derived from Burnett’s work, including the first major one, Law and Order (1932) with Walter Huston as the Wyatt character.
As part of immersing myself in the subject, I watched every Wyatt Earp film available. The power of Wyatt’s life and legend is borne out by how many really strong films he’s inspired, in particular John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946) with Henry Fonda as Wyatt; John Sturges’s aforementioned Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and his vendetta sequel, Hour of the Gun (1967) with James Garner as Wyatt (Garner also played Earp in Blake Edwards’s jokey Sunset, 1988); and the two competitive big-budget ’90s films, George P. Cosmatos’s Tombstone (1993) with Kurt Russell as Wyatt, and Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp (1994) with Kevin Costner as Wyatt. Film fans and Earp buffs often argue the merits of the latter two, but I find both worthwhile.
Bat Masterson was the hero of another Western TV favorite of the 1950s, with actor Gene Barry bringing the derby-sporting, cane-clubbing lawman to larger-than-life. The biography serving as basis for the series, Bat Masterson (1957) by Richard O’Connor, appears to take a legend-building Stuart Lake stance. Nonetheless, the book remains a valuable Masterson resource. A more scholarly yet very readable path was taken by Robert K. DeArment in his definitive Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend (1979).
Masterson himself wrote a series of magazine articles about Earp and other Western figures, collected as Famous Gun Fighters of the Western Frontier (1908); an article written about Bat by his friend and editor, Alfred Henry Lewis, rounds out the collection of historical sketches. Unfortunately a difficult book to find in any edition, the 1982 Weatherford Press version, annotated by Jack DeMattos, is recommended. Bat’s memory doesn’t seem any better than Wyatt’s, but the collection represents a rare semi-memoir by one of the West’s most famous gunfighters (and one turned professional writer, at that).
I have read and written much about Al Capone over the years, but the major sources remain John Kobler’s Capone (1971), Laurence Bergreen’s Capone (1994), and Robert J. Schoenberg’s Mr. Capone (1992). Background on Johnny Torrio and Frankie Yale was derived from Johnny Torrio: First of the Gang Lords (1970), Jack McPhaul; Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster (2005), T. J. English; and in particular Under the Clock: The Inside Story of the Mafia’s First 100 Years (1988), William Balsamo & George Carpozi, Jr., which concentrates on Frankie Yale. For Arnold Rothstein I turned to In the Reign of Rothstein (1929), Donald Henderson Clake, and Rothstein (2003), David Pietrusza.
A key work on New York during Prohibition, The Night Club Era (1933) by Mew York Herald-Tribune city editor Stanley Walker, is a source used by virtually every modern book on the subject, and mine is no exception. Other vintage works consulted include Incredible New York (1951), Lloyd Morris; New York (1930), Paul Morand; New York Nights (1927), Stephen Graham; Rand McNally New York Guide (1922); Valentine’s City of New York (1920), Henry Collins Brown; and The WPA Guide to New York City (1939). Two memoirs reflecting the era were useful: Belle Out of Order (1959), Belle Livingston; and Blonde, Brunettes and Bullets (1957), Nils T. Granlund. So was the unusual (and unsigned) tribute volume, The Iron Gate—Jack & Charlie’s “21” (1950).
More recent works consulted on New York night life during Prohibition include The Devil’s Playground (2004), James Traub; Gangsters & Gold Diggers: Old New York, The Jazz Age, and the Birth of Broadway (2003), Jerome Charyn; New York Night: The Mystique and Its History (2005), Mark Caldwell; Nightclub Nights: Art, Legend and Style 1920–1960 (2001), Susan Waggoner; and The Stork Club (2000), Ralph Blumenthal.
For background on Coney Island I turned to Coney Island: The People’s Playground (2002), Michael Immerso; Coney Island: Lost and Found (2002), Charles Denson; and Good Old Coney Island (1957), Edo McCullough.
Information on trains and train travel came from All Aboard! The Railroad in American Life (1996), George H. Douglas; The American Railroad Passenger Car (1978), John H. White, Jr.; History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (1974), Keith L. Bryant, Jr.; and The History of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (1988), Pamela Berkman.
To portray various secondary characters, I sought inspiration and information from the following biographies: Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (1979), Randy Roberts; A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring ’20s (1999), Roger Kahn; My Life East and West (1903), William H. Hart; The Legendary Mizners (1953), Alva Johnson; Hello Sucker! The Story of Texas Guinan (1989), Glenn Shirley; and Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs (1993), Louise Berliner.
Damon Runyon, though a minor player here, nonetheless casts a large shadow. I had only read a handful of his stories as an adolescent, and, seeking flavor for the world of this novel, I began to read about him, and by him. His stories were a revelation to me; he is dismissed as a comical/sentimental twist-ending specialist, which ignores the vividness of his first-person narration, the toughness of his view, and the darkness of his world. I came away from this project thinking Runyon deserves a place beside Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain, only he’s a better short-story writer than any of them.
Books about Runyon that I read in whole or in part include Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture (2003); Damon Runyon—A Life (1991), Jimmy Breslin; The Men Who Invented Broadway: Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell & Their World (1981), John Mosedale; Trials and Tribulations: The Best of His True-Crime Writing (1946), Damon Runyon; and The World of Damon Runyon (1978), Tom Clark. Also helpful was Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (1995), Neal Gabler.
Dozens of Internet sites answered questions on the fly on subjects ranging from milk delivery to Western lingo, as well as filled in blanks on individuals like Wilson Mizner and Texas Guinan, and locations including Coney Island and Times Square. I acknowledge and thank the mysterious, industrious individuals who put so much research at a writer’s literal fingertips.
I would especially like to thank my editor, Sarah Durand, who responded enthusiastically to the idea of this novel from the outset, and whose hard work, guidance and patience has kept it (and me) on track. And I am, as always, grateful to my agent and friend, Dominick Abel.
Of course the last and biggest thanks must go to my wife, Barbara, who was always willing to interrupt her own writing to play in-house editor, on-call psychoanalyst, impromptu researcher, and reliable sounding board. She is truly queen of the cowgirls.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Max Allan Collins has earned an unprecedented twenty-two Private Eye Writers of America "Shamus" nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991), and the Mike Hammer short story, “So Long, Chief” (2013). In 2007 he received the PWA life achievement award, the Eye, and in 2012 his Nathan Heller saga was honored with the PWA “Hammer” award for its major contribution to the private eye genre.
His graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998) is the basis of the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks film, followed by two acclaimed prose sequels and several graphic novels. He has created a number of innovative suspense series, including Mallory, Quarry, Eliot Ness, Jack and Maggie Starr, Reeder and Rogers, and the “Disaster” novels. He is completing a number of “Mike Hammer” novels begun by the late Mickey Spillane, most recently Murder Never Knocks; his full-cast Hammer audio novel, The Little Death with Stacy Keach, won a 2011 Audie.
His many comics credits include the syndicated strip "Dick Tracy"; his own "Ms. Tree"; "Batman"; and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, for which he wrote ten best-selling novels and several award-winning video games. His tie-in books have
appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list nine times and the New York Times three. His movie novels include Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster (IAMTW Best Novel “Scribe” Award, 2008).
An independent filmmaker in the Midwest, Collins has written and directed four features, including the Lifetime movie "Mommy" (1996); and he scripted "The Expert," a 1995 HBO World Premiere, and the film-festival favorite, “The Last Lullaby” (2009), based on his novel, The Last Quarry. His documentary “Caveman: V.T. Hamlin & Alley Oop” (2008) has appeared on PBS and on DVD, and his documentary “Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” (1998/2011) appears on the Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray of “Kiss Me Deadly.”
His play "Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life," was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2004 by the Mystery Writers of America; a film version, written and directed by Collins, was released on DVD and appeared on PBS stations in 2009.
His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, song-writing, trading-card sets, and video games. His coffee-table book, The History of Mystery, was nominated for every major mystery award, and his Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award.
Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins; as “Barbara Allan,” they have collaborated on eleven novels, including the successful “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries, Antiques Flee Market (2008) winning the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award in 2009. Their son Nathan is a Japanese-to-English translator, working on video games, manga and novels.
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