The Saga Of Doc Holliday

You’ve heard Doc Holliday’s history, but do you know his story? His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with Wyatt Earp, but before Doc Holliday was a Western legend, he was a Southern Son. The story begins in Civil War Georgia, as young John Henry Holliday welcomes home his heroic father and learns a terrible secret about his mother, with his only confidant his favorite cousin Mattie. As the Confederacy falls and tragedy strikes, John Henry’s hero-worship turns to bitter anger and he joins with a gang of vigilantes to chase the Reconstruction Yankees out of their small Georgia town. When their murderous plot is discovered and brings threats of military prison, he vows to change his reckless ways, leaving home to attend dental school in Philadelphia and hoping to become a respected professional man worthy of asking for his cousin Mattie’s hand. But when he returns from two years in the North he finds family intrigues, lies and revelations, rivals for Mattie’s affections—and a violent encounter that changes everything and starts him on the road to Western legend. Southern Son is the first book in the award-winning Saga of Doc Holliday, an epic American tale of heroes and villains, dreams lost and found, families broken and reconciled, of sin and recompense and the redeeming power of love.

Acclaim for Doc Holliday "Splendid . . . not only the most readable yet definitive study of Holliday yet published, it is one of the best biographies of nineteenth-century Western 'good-bad men' to appear in the last twenty years. It was so vivid and gripping that I read it twice." --Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University, and author of The New Encyclopedia of the American West "The history of the American West is full of figures who have lived on as romanticized legends. They deserve serious study simply because they have continued to grip the public imagination. Such was Doc Holliday, and Gary Roberts has produced a model for looking at both the life and the legend of these frontier immortals." --Robert M. Utley, author of The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull "Doc Holliday emerges from the shadows for the first time in this important work of Western biography. Gary L. Roberts has put flesh and soul to the man who has long been one of the most mysterious figures of frontier history. This is both an important work and a wonderful read." --Casey Tefertiller, author of Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend "Gary Roberts is one of a foremost class of writers who has created a real literature and authentic history of the so-called Western. His exhaustively researched and beautifully written Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend reveals a pathetically ill and tortured figure, but one of such intense loyalty to Wyatt Earp that it brought him limping to the O.K. Corral and into the glare of history." --Jack Burrows, author of John Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was "Gary L. Roberts manifested an interest in Doc Holliday at a very early age, and he has devoted these past thirty-odd years to serious and detailed research in the development and writing of Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend. The world knows Holliday as Doc Holliday. Family members knew him as John. Somewhere in between the two lies the real John Henry Holliday. Roberts reflects this concept in his writing. This book should be of interest to Holliday devotees as well as newly found readers." --Susan McKey Thomas, cousin of Doc Holliday and coauthor of In Search of the Hollidays

You’ve heard Doc Holliday’s history, but do you know his story? Dance with the Devil is the story of a how a gentleman becomes an outlaw, how an outlaw becomes a lawman, and how a Southern son named John Henry becomes a legend called Doc Holliday. The year is 1873, and the West is wild. Jesse James and his gang are robbing trains, the Sioux Indians are on the warpath, and Dr. John Henry Holliday arrives in Texas as a young man with a troubled past hoping to regain his place as a Southern gentleman and win back the love of the girl he left behind. But his life in the West doesn’t turn out the way he’s planned, and soon he’s in trouble with the law and facing a terrifying truth as desperation drives him toward the frontier and leads to deadly action. And as the story races from the gambling halls of Dallas to the saloons of Dodge City and the dangers of the Santa Fe Trail, John Henry finds a new love affair and a new hero to follow—and an old enemy eager for a reckoning. Dance with the Devil is the second book in the award-winning Saga of Doc Holliday, an epic American tale of heroes and villains, dreams lost and found, families broken and reconciled, of sin and recompense and the redeeming power of love.

The final volume in the award-winning historical novel trilogy about the South's most famous Western legend, Doc Holliday. His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp. But before Doc Holliday was a Western legend he was a Southern son, born in the last days before the American Civil War and raised to be a Southern gentleman. Now the story of his life as told in the Southern Son Trilogy comes to a dramatic conclusion in The Last Decision. Tombstone, Arizona Territory, is the richest silver boom town in the country, promising fortunes to anyone daring enough to stand up to the stage coach robbers and rustlers who infest the nearby mountains. But John Henry Holliday is only trying to make a little money off the gambling tables when he's caught up in a secretive plot to stop the disturbances before they start a threatened war with Mexico. When suspicions rise and tempers ignite, the plot turns into a war between cowboys and lawmen, and he becomes a player in the most famous street fight in the Wild West. The aftermath brings retribution and a reckoning that sends John Henry and his friend Wyatt Earp fleeing for their lives. But a hoped for sanctuary in Colorado is broken by legal battles and bounty hunters and the unwelcome celebrity of national newspaper coverage of the OK Corral shooting. And for John Henry, the attention brings hired guns hoping for a moment of fame against the infamous Doc Holliday. He can never return to the quiet life he once knew, but as the mountain altitude and illness take their toll, he is forced to turn to the one person he thought he'd never see again. It's a reunion that's been too long in coming, and brings revelations that challenge everything John Henry thinks he knows about his friends, his family, and himself. And with luck, he'll have one last chance to prove himself as the Southern gentleman he was raised to be.

His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp. But before Doc Holliday was a Western legend he was a Southern son, born in the last days before the American Civil War and raised to be a Southern gentleman. His story sweeps from the cotton plantations of Georgia to the cattle country and silver boomtowns of the American West. The Saga of Doc Holliday comes to a dramatic conclusion in Dead Man's Hand. Tombstone, Arizona Territory, is the richest silver boom town in the country, promising fortunes to anyone daring enough to stand up to the stage coach robbers and rustlers who infest the nearby mountains. But John Henry Holliday is only trying to make a little money off the gambling tables when he's caught up in a secretive plot to stop the disturbances before they start a threatened war with Mexico. When suspicions rise and tempers ignite, the plot turns into a war between cowboys and lawmen, and he becomes a player in the most famous street fight in the Wild West.

His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp, and he is probably most famous for his time in Tombstone. But Doc Holliday’s story is a much richer than that one sentence summary allows. His was a life of travel across the west—from Georgia to Texas, from Dodge City to Las Vegas, across Arizona and from New Mexico to Colorado and Montana. Revealed from contemporary newspaper accounts and records of interviews with Doc himself and the people who knew him and packed with archival photos and illustrations, The World of Doc Holliday offers a real first-hand accounting of his life of adventure.

The American Wild West, 1873: Jesse James and his gang are robbing trains, the Sioux Indians are on the warpath, and John Henry Holliday arrives in Texas as a young man with a troubled past hoping to regain his place as a Southern gentleman. So begins Gone West, the second volume in the trilogy of novels entitled Southern Son: The Saga of Doc Holliday. Born in the last days of the Old South, John Henry has already faced the challenges of Civil War and Reconstruction, of first love and teenage rebellion and the beginning of a professional career. But when a violent encounter changes everything, he is sent running far from his Georgia home. Starting over in Texas, he attempts to remake his career and win back the respect of his family and the love of the girl he left behind. But his life in the West doesn't turn out the way he has planned, and soon he's in trouble with the law again and facing a terrifying truth. When desperation drives him toward the frontier and leads to deadly action, John Henry is once again running for his life. As the story races from Dallas to Dodge City, from Denver to Trinidad and the Santa Fe Trail, he finds a new love affair, a new hero to follow -- and an old enemy eager for a reckoning. Gone West is the story of a how a gentleman becomes an outlaw, how an outlaw becomes a lawman, and how a Southern son named John Henry becomes a legend called Doc Holliday.

You’ve heard Doc Holliday’s history, but do you know his story? Dead Man’s Hand brings John Henry Holliday to Tombstone, Arizona, the richest silver boomtown in the country, where he’s caught up in a secretive plot to stop a gang of cattle rustlers and stage robbers before they start a threatened war with Mexico. When suspicions rise and tempers ignite, the plot turns into a war between cowboys and lawmen, and he becomes a player in the most famous street fight in the Wild West. The aftermath brings retribution and a reckoning that sends John Henry and his friend Wyatt Earp fleeing for their lives, but a hoped-for sanctuary in Colorado is broken by legal battles that attract national newspaper coverage and hired guns hoping for a moment of fame against the infamous Doc Holliday. He can never return to the life he once knew, and as the mountain altitude and illness take their toll, he is forced to turn to the one person he thought he’d never see again. And with luck, he’ll have one last chance to prove himself as the Southern gentleman he was raised to be. Dead Man’s Hand is the final book in the award-winning Saga of Doc Holliday, an epic American tale of heroes and villains, dreams lost and found, families broken and reconciled, of sin and recompense and the redeeming power of love.