Out West: Travels Through the American West - Past and Present

Many books about the American West leave out the more intriguing details… For example, was Butch Cassidy really killed in a Bolivian shoot-out? It seems that he probably returned, under a false name, to live out his days in the West. In 1935 he even submitted an autobiographical script to Hollywood–only to have it rejected as being too preposterous to be believable. He died two years later, penniless. Working for the BBC, British writer Tim Slessor has filmed and traveled out West for over forty years; indeed, at one time he quit his job to go and work for a very happy year in western Nebraska. In this book he selects a series of beguiling stories that range from the mountain men and their fur trade to the pioneers of the overland trail, from Custer and the disaster at the Little Big Horn to the last stand of the Sioux at Wounded Knee, from the early cow-towns and the railroads to the cattle barons and the emigrant sod-busters. Full of surprises and insights, Out West casts new and entertaining light on the history and personalities of the American West.