The Honorable Cody
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917, he was the best-known person on earth. But the world wasn't done with him. In this richly wrought novel, Richard Wheeler depicts the struggle to commandeer his remains for commercial purposes.The owner of the Denver Post, Harry Tammen, wanted to bury him outside of Denver, as a tourist attraction. Cody wanted to be buried in his namesake town, Cody, Wyoming. His estranged wife Louisa had other ideas, and so did his sisters. So did Cody's friends. The result was a gaudy free-for-all, in which Tammen prevailed, and the old scout was finally buried on Lookout Mountain, outside of Denver.
The author gives us a telling look at the sycophants and connivers who surrounded the showman. He paints a tender portrait of the old man, who was besieged by a lot of people with a lot of schemes. Cody had many friends, including Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull, who remembered the old man fondly, and these people, too, have their say in this penetrating and sometimes comic novel. And in the end, Buffalo Bill emerges as a hero, a man better than many of those who surrounded him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wheeler good-naturedly spoofs Buffalo Bill Cody and the many myths surrounding him in this clever take on the mustachioed millionaire frontiersman who never believed his own press. After Cody dies of pneumonia in 1917, his family, friends and associates squabble over his legacy, his money and where he will be buried. Gen. Nelson Miles reminisces about Cody's days as a cavalry scout. Unscrupulous Denver Post publisher Harry Tammen gleefully manipulates and cheats Cody before (and after) his death. Maj. John M. Burke, Cody's publicist, relates the history of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and takes credit for Cody's fame. Cody's wife, Louisa, is a greedy, embittered woman who hates her husband for his boozing, womanizing and reckless spending of what she thinks is her money. Other characters add texture: a gold-digging actress sees Cody as an easy mark; a lawman recalls how Cody helped him pull off a friend's jailbreak; and a newspaper reporter is ordered to write a glowing obituary intended to squeeze even more money out of the celebrity corpse. The Cody that emerges from this wholesome compendium of fictional anecdotes is a flawed but good man, and though Wheeler never fully separates the man from the myth, Wheeler's many fans will not be disappointed.
