Calamity Jane

By Roberta Sollid

Book Overview

Still the most authoritative factual source, this book separates the romanticized Calamity depicted in dime novels and Hollywood films from the real, flesh-and-blood woman. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0917298330
• ISBN13: 9780917298332
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Montana Historical Society
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

The amazing truth behind hollywood myth of Calamity Jane.

It's a thrill to see this historic treasure back in print. I found the 1951 edition of Sollid's "historical criticisim" in the basement of my University in a cracked and brittle condition. After spending months of wading through the various versions of Calamity Jane's life here was a first hand investigation into not only all the source material I had read but also of jail records, court reports, newspaper archives and interviews with Deadwood oldtimers who knew "Calam'". The term "historical criticisim" is somewhat misleading if it implies a dull achedemic read. Sollid's passion for her subject leads her to board the bus in the summer of 1949 to visit numerous towns in Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming where she searched local archives and interviewed townsfolk ranging from Catholic nuns to the Deadwood bar-tender who was pallbearer at Calamity Jane's funeral. As Sollid progresses her scholarly text begins to ignite. This book contains many photos of Calam' that I had never seen elsewhere, including a macabre photo given to Sollid by the undertakers' widow. This gem of a book cuts through the glamorisation of Calamity Jane by Hollywood fake up artists and challenges the equally absurd sketches of her character by predominately male historians of the 20th century. A wonderfull tribute to the memory of Martha Cannary Burke a.k.a. Calamity Jane. Discover the woman behind the myth.