cover image Written with Lead: Legendary American Gunfights and Gunfighters

Written with Lead: Legendary American Gunfights and Gunfighters

William Weir. Archon Books, $32.5 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-208-02319-3

American culture is draped in the mythology of guns and violence, shows this montage of 18 telling episodes in our history. Freelance writer Weir, using books and magazine articles as sources, impressively contrasts celebrated events with their myths. He suffered no want of ammo from any era, finding pertinent material in everything from Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in 1777 through the Burr-Hamilton duel, the Alamo and gunslingers Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp to the 1934 ambush slaying of gangster John Dillinger and the Brinks robbery of 1954. These crisply written nuggets clearly advance the author's contention that our mythology is antiestablishment, individualist and violent. A bull's-eye performance. Photos not seen by PW. (June)