Overview
Annie Oakley is a legend - America's greatest female sharp-shooter, a woman who triumphed in the masculine world of roadshows and firearms. Despite her great fame, the popular image of Annie Oakley is far from true. She was neither a swaggering western gal nor a sweet ""little girl"". Annie Oakley was a competitive and resolute woman who wanted to be the best and succeeded. In this comprehensive biography Shirl Kasper aims to set the record straight, giving us an honest portrait of the woman known as ""Little Sure Shot"". Born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio in 1860, Annie took her first shot at age eight - the start of her life-long fascination with shooting. Early local acclaim led to a contest with Frank Butler, a professional sharp-shooter. Annie won - and Frank fell in love with her. Annie and Frank (who eventually gave up his own act to be Annie's manager) were wed not long after and remained married for 42 years, until their deaths in 1926, just days apart. Annie's sharpshooting career began while on the road with Frank's show, but she rose to fame in her 17 years with Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Her speed, agility, uncanny precision and charm soon made Annie world famous. ""Annie Oakley"" provides a vivid portrait of this American original: a prim and proper woman, conservative in her views, hard-working and frugal, whose greatest source of pride was to be accepted as ""a lady"". Significant events are documented here for the first time: Annie's decision to join the struggling Wild West show; her meeting with Sitting Bull; the nature of her feud with Lillian Smith, another Wild West markswoman; and the real reason that Annie's hair suddenly turned white when she was only 41.
Full Product Details
Author: Shirl Kasper
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press
Dimensions:
Width: 14.00cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.566kg
ISBN: 9780806124186
ISBN 10: 0806124180
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 15 May 1992
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
""Relying largely on Oakley's own scrap-books, Kasper reveals a complex character far removed from the rough Western tomboy mythologized in popular lore.""
A fact-filled, if flatly executed, attempt to uncover the truth behind an American legend, by Kansas City Star reporter Kasper. Relying largely on Oakley's own scrapbooks, Kasper reveals a complex character far removed from the rough Western tomboy mythologized in popular lore. Born Phoebe Ann Moses to a Quaker farming family in Ohio, Oakley (1860-1926) discovered her lifelong passion and extraordinary talent at age eight after sneaking off with her father's hunting rifle. When she was 20, local farmers pitted her against circus sharpshooter Frank Butler in an impromptu contest. Winning both the match and her rival's heart, Oakley (who married Butler) soon gained a career when she stepped in for her new husband's ailing partner. In 1886, with Butler now serving as devoted manager and assistant, Oakley joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Petite and slender, clad in a prettily embroidered skirt and blowing kisses, the prim star used humor, pantomime, and drama - along with astounding shooting prowess - to captivate audiences in America and Europe for 17 years, finally retiring with dignity and self-made fortune intact. Kasper pointedly emphasizes the paradox informing both Oakley's appeal and her place as a symbol of the liberated woman. Conservative and proper, she was appalled by bloomers and uncertain about women's suffrage - but, at the same time, she was a feminist despite herself, constantly proving the truth of her statement that women could equal men in anything outside of heavy, manual labor. Despite first-rate research, though, Kasper fails for the most part to go past quotes and chronology to the deeper historical and personal analysis necessary to animate Oakley and her world. The result is an admirable but unsatisfying sketch. A bit wide of the mark but with a worthy enough target to warrant readers giving it a shot. (Kirkus Reviews)
Relying largely on Oakley's own scrap-books, Kasper reveals a complex character far removed from the rough Western tomboy mythologized in popular lore.
"""Relying largely on Oakley's own scrap-books, Kasper reveals a complex character far removed from the rough Western tomboy mythologized in popular lore."""
Author Information
Shirl Kasper, who holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas-Lawrence, is a journalist with the Kansas City Star.
