Pat F. Garrett – författare

Of all firsthand accounts of lawlessness in the old Southwest, none is more fascinating than Pat F. Garrett's The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. First published in 1882, a year after Sheriff Garrett killed the Kid, ""the bravest and most feared' gunman of the Lincoln County, New Mexico, cattle war, it is at once the most authoritative biography of William H. Bonney and the foundation of the Billy the Kid legend.

More than twelve decades after Billy the Kid's death in 1881, books, movies, and essays about this western outlaw are still popular. And they all go back to one source: The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, published in 1882 by the man who killed Billy, Sheriff Pat Garrett.Frederick Nolan, an authority on the American Southwest, examines the legends introduced by The Authentic Life and shows how Garrett's book is responsible for misconceptions about the Kid's early life and his short, violent career. This edition, complete with the original text, corrects errors, amplifies Garrett's narrative, and elucidates the causes and course of the Lincoln County War in New Mexico during the 1870s. Nolan provides an introduction that reappraises the last, fatal meeting of Garrett and Billy the Kid, as well as a postscript about the sheriff's snakebitten life following the moment that made him famous.

Born in November 1859 as William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid—as he soon became known—started his criminal career at the age of twelve by stabbing a man in a bar fight. He then moved on to stealing horses, gambling, participating in the Lincoln County War, and even perpetrating mass murder. Billy the Kid’s extraordinary exploits were followed in newspapers around the country, and his legend reached epic heights. Garrett, the Sheriff of Lincoln County and Billy’s ultimate arbiter of justice, provides an incredible, firsthand account of the small-town kid who became a killer in The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Written just eight months after killing Billy in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, during a happenstance meeting in the home of Pete Maxwell, this fascinating, sensational book takes us play-by-play through Billy’s life. From his earliest days in New York and eventual move west to his adventures in Mexico and repeated arrests and escapes, this original account tells all.