Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Buffalo Bill Cody

*Includes pictures of Buffalo Bill and other important people, places, and events in his life.

*Describes Buffalo Bill's famous Wild West show and its famous participants. 

*Includes a Bibliography for further reading.

*Includes a Table of Contents.


“The West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind.” – Buffalo Bill Cody 


Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the “Wild West”, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors’ Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. 


The Wild West has made legends out of many men and women through the embellishment of their stories, but it was Buffalo Bill Cody who truly brought the Wild West to life and provided the images that people still associate with the 19th century West today. Though he had a long career that spanned service in the Civil War, trapping, and even a stint with the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill eventually became synonymous with his world-famous Wild West Show. By depicting stereotypical Western scenes like riding the Pony Express, and gunfights between cowboys and Indians, Buffalo Bill became one of the men most responsible for establishing how the public remembered the Wild West, and the show influenced subsequent film and literature. The show also featured several kinds of activities that are still part of rodeos today, including riding bucking broncos, roping livestock, and target shooting. 


Wild West Shows were popular in America during the late 19th century, but it was Buffalo Bill who would make it popular overseas and truly master the art of showmanship. Employing famous figures of the era, including Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill managed to make national celebrities out of his show’s participants, while also deftly promoting himself as the ultimate showman and making himself one of the most famous figures of the Wild West in the process. With plenty of experience shooting bison and riding for the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill would also participate as a cowboy in his own show, and it was even said he played the part of George Custer for Custer’s Last Stand. Buffalo Bill’s show, and his own legend, eventually turned him into a dime novel hero himself. 


While Buffalo Bill will always be associated with his Wild West Show, he was one of the few legends of the West to live a full life, and he did many other things in life that have been overshadowed by his success. Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Buffalo Bill Cody chronicles the Western icon’s life, while also analyzing his legacy and the legends that surrounded his show and what they depicted. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Buffalo Bill like you never have before, in no time at all.