The Rise and Fall of Jesse James
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Book Overview
Jesse and Frank James were household names long before images of America's most wanted were televised. For several decades after the Civil War, they were hunted by hundreds who supposed them to be involved in every bank and train robbery in the Midwest. Trained as guerrilla fighters in the border conflict between Kansas and Missouri, they joined with the Younger brothers in February 1866 to rob a bank in Liberty, Missouri. That was the beginning of a criminal confederation that seemed beyond the reach of the law until the Northfield, Minnesota, raid killed three of them and sent the James brothers into hiding. But they were the objects of posted rewards that proved too tempting in Jesse's case: in 1882 he was shot in the back by Robert Ford of his own gang.
The Rise and Fall of Jesse James, by Robertus Love, a newspaperman who knew Frank James, is a pioneering work that plumbs the personalities of the outlaws, looks at their domestic lives, cites many stories about them, and attempts to separate fact from legend in tracking their violent operations.
Michael Fellman assesses Love's 1926 book in his introduction to this Bison Books edition.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0803279329
ISBN13:9780803279322
Release Date:June 1990
Publisher:Bison Books
Length:446 Pages
Weight:1.10 lbs.
Dimensions:1.1" x 6.3" x 8.5"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
A True Western Classic.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Countless books have been written about the outlaw Jesse James and his brother Frank over the last 120 years. This is one of the best. Robertus Love knew Frank James, and also knew some of the bandits who rode with Jesse and the eyewitnesses who saw the crimes. This book, written in the 1920's, was the first attempt at an honest biography of Jesse. It still holds up after 80 years. Love has the ability to take the reader back in time to those wild days of the Old West. While some of his stories are more legend than history, this book is still a great read and essential reading for anyone with an interest in our country's most famous outlaw.
Exciting!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
A well-written account of outlaw Jesse James's life featuring such colorful characters as the Youngers. Full of interesting facts (did you know Jesse was wounded during the Civil War)?
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