A fictional portrait of James Butler Hickok describes his staunch Abolitionist upbringing on a hardscrabble farm; achievements as a rancher, soldier, lawman, and marksman; extensive travels throughout America; and the supernatural abilities and past phantoms that haunted his life. Reprint.

Born James Butler Hickok, Wild Bill's reputation as gunslinger extraordinaire has titillated journalists, dime store novelists, and historians alike. Here, at last, is the real story-crafted by a master biographer-of this complex hero whose exploits form the heart of frontier lore. Nurtured by devout, staunchly Abolitionist parents, young Hickok left their hardscrabble farm to home-stead in Kansas. A true romantic and Renaissance man, nurtured by Greek and Arthurian legend, he effortlessly succeeded as rancher, gambler, Union soldier, Indian fighter, lawman, baseball umpire, merchant, actor, marksman nonpareil, and lusty lover to whores, debutantes, and Libbie Custer. But Hickok's talents could not bring him peace. Guided and plagued by phantoms from his past, blessed and cursed with supernatural gifts, Hickok, like his hero, Ulysses, fulfilled his destiny through his travels. From bleak upstate New York to the rugged Badlands, from New York's Broadway to the Rockies, from the Mississippi riverboats to the Great Salt Flats, here is the compelling Odyssey of an American icon, told in Randy Lee Eickhoff's unforgettable prose.