The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
Book cover
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| Original title | The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, The Noted Desperado of the Southwest |
| Language | English |
| Genre | biography · history |
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The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid is a biography and first-hand account written by Pat Garrett, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, in collaboration with a ghostwriter, Marshall Ashmun "Ash" Upson. During the summer of 1881 in a small New Mexican village, Garrett shot and killed the notorious outlaw, William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. Due to the first publisher's inability to widely distribute this book beginning in 1882, it sold relatively few copies during Garrett's lifetime. By the time the fifth publisher purchased the copyright in 1954, this book had become a major reference for historians who have studied the Kid's brief life. The promotion and distribution of the fifth version of this book to libraries in the United States and Europe sent it into a sixth printing in 1965, and by 1976 it had reached its tenth printing. For a generation after Sheriff Garrett shot the Kid, his account was considered to be factual; however, historians have since found in this book many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the life of Billy the Kid.
In the days and weeks that followed the death of Billy the Kid, there were several articles written mostly in New Mexican newspapers and dime novels that depicted the Kid's death in ways that put Pat Garrett in a bad light. As the author wrote in his introductory to this biography, "I am incited to this labor, in a measure, by an impulse to correct the thousand false statements which have appeared in the public newspapers and in yellow-covered, cheap novels." Garrett's purpose comes in two parts; firstly, he wanted to publicly respond to the speculative accusations against him about Billy the Kid's death that were being printed, and secondly, he wanted to set the record straight regarding the more notable incidents that had involved the notorious outlaw beginning with his early life and leading up to his untimely death. Many people had begun to gossip about the unfairness of Garrett's final encounter with the Kid, so his first reason, which was to clear his name, was decidedly his main purpose.
Garrett, who did not consider himself a writer, called upon his friend, Marshall Ashmun "Ash" Upson, to ghostwrite this book with him. Ash Upson was an itinerant journalist who had a gift for graphic prose. Upson and Garrett shared equally in the royalties. As was noted in the introduction to the fifth version of this book:
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