The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America » (Reprint)

Larry McMurtry worked as a cowhand on his father's Texas cattle ranch until he was 22, but never aspired to be a rancher. Instead, he published his first novel, Horseman, Pass By, when he was just 25. More than two dozen novels later, there's still more to McMurtry than a typical western.

From the early 1800s to the end of his life in 1917, Buffalo Bill Cody was as famous as anyone could be. Annie Oakley was his most celebrated protge, the "slip of a girl" from Ohio who could (and did) outshoot anybody to become the most celebrated star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. To each other, they were always "Missie" and "Colonel" To the rest of the world, they were cultural icons, setting the path for all that followed. Larry McMurtry—a writer who understands the West better than any other—recreates their astonishing careers and curious friendship in a fascinating history that reads like the very best of his fiction.

The New York Times - Suzy Hansen

The book is loaded with fun facts (Queen Victoria gushed over good-looking Sioux Indians), but the whimsical tone suggests that McMurtry chose to retell these familiar stories because he enjoys them so much. And if his thesis - that Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley were Madonna's predecessors - gets lost amid the Indian wars and European show tours, that's not a bad thing.

Book One

The Tropes

Book Two

The Troupes

Annie

Grandmother England

Western Heroes, Heroines, and Villains

Bibliography

Index