Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and the Legends

by Glenn Shirley

Book Overview

Who was Belle Starr? What was she that so many myths surround her? Born in Carthage, Missouri, in 1848, the daughter of a well-to-do hotel owner, she died forty-one years later, gunned down near her cabin in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. After her death she was called "a bandit queen," "a female Jesse James," "the Petticoat Terror of the Plains." Fantastic legends proliferated about her. In this book Glenn Shirley sifts through those myths and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806122765
• ISBN13: 9780806122762
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Glenn Shirley does it again..

I have read two books by Glenn Shirley and found them to be as accurate as can possibly be determined by known public and private records. I verified some of the material that he used in this book on a recent research trip to the Ft. Smith Historical Park research library. It was all very accurate. Since one of my ancestors is described in this book, a deputy marshal and posse (Tyner Hughes and Charley Barnhill) who brought her in, I have family stories to back up the representation he made on this arrest. These stories were given to my family by two nephews of Charley Barnhill, and agree with Shirley's account. Other deputies who rode with them have substantiated the information in the Indian Pioneer Papers also. A great read.

Comparing Fact and Folklore

Many books have been written about Belle Starr, and Glenn Shirley's is the only one that reveals the known facts and leaves the rest to folklore. Living in Fort Smith, part of Belle's old stomping grounds, I've met many people who to this day still proclaim to know who Pearl Starr's father was, and at last who killed Belle Starr. Unless the bodies of Cole and Belle and Pearl and Jim Reed are dug up for DNA testing, the "truth" will never be known. And as for Belle's death, it will always remain one of the great mysteries of the Old West. Glenn Shirley does the best of any author in comparing fact and hearsay about this great legendary figure, and if anyone wants to read the best book on Belle Starr, this one is it. Steven Law, ReadWest.com.