“Are you excited?” Edgar asked, carrying in a bowl of popcorn.
“My expectations are low,” John replied. And yet . . .
Perhaps it was age. He was seventy-seven and no longer well; his feelings seemed closer to the surface these days. Perhaps time had softened his memories of the Earps’ last years. Most likely, he was just getting to be a sentimental old fart.
Whatever the reason, his throat tightened when the earnest baritone voice-over began: “This is the story of Wyatt Earp, the greatest of the old-time fighting peace officers, a real western hero!”
Edgar snorted. “Fighting peace officers? How Orwellian . . .”
“Quiet! I want to hear!” John snapped, for a manly choir had begun to sing.
I’ll tell you a story, a real true-life story,
A tale of the western frontier.
The West, it was lawless,
but one man was flawless,
And his is the story you’ll hear.
“Flawless!” Edgar cried, stunned. “Flawless? John . . . She won! The old girl finally won!”
“Oh, Edgar,” John whispered. “Mrs. Earp would have loved this!”
That was true, for the series would be nice, and clean, and full of pep. Week after week, Wyatt Earp would be portrayed as a handsome, sexless, incorruptible marshal doing selfless battle with bad men who deserved to die.
And he would have a song for his epitaph.
The chorus swelled. John wiped his eyes. It’s not lying, he thought. It’s just remembering things the way they should have been.
Wyatt Earp! Wyatt Earp!
Brave, courageous, and bold!
Long live his fame and long live his glory
And long may his story be told!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Almost twenty-five hundred years ago, Thucydides wrote of the Peloponnesian War, “The endeavor to ascertain these facts was a laborious task. Eyewitnesses did not give the same reports about the same things. Their testimony varied according to their championship of one side or the other.”
That goes double for Tombstone.
There is hardly a sentence written or spoken about the events of 1880–82 that has not been disputed. I don’t expect my version of the story to escape criticism. Careful historians will notice where I have trifled with strict fact: snugging up dates for the sake of narrative pacing or imagining elements of what is, after all, a novel. Nevertheless, I hope partisans of both sides will feel I’ve been fair to the men and women whose names and lives have been so often appropriated in the past.
I absorbed nineteen linear feet of background books for this novel, but to bring that research to life, I signed up for fifty-eight miles on horseback through the rugged mountains surrounding Tombstone. Led by Steve and Marcie Shaw of Great American Adventures, the five-day Earp Vendetta Ride was the hardest fun I’ve ever had. We ate in restaurants and slept in hotels, but it was still seven to nine hours a day in the saddle. Those hours gave me a sense of what it cost John Henry Holliday to ride with Wyatt Earp in the days after Morgan’s death; I am grateful to Todd and Chris Cooper for their companionship and discreet kindness when I was struggling toward the end.
Thanks also go to the citizens of modern Tombstone for their willingness to share their knowledge of the town’s history whenever I showed up. Bert Webster always made me feel welcome. Tim Fattig’s encyclopedic knowledge of the gunfight was awe-inspiring. Doing shots in a biker bar with Stephen Keith in character as Doc Holliday remains a cherished memory.
Many people have been generous with their expertise: Joyce Aros (the Cochise County ranchers); Michael Bernal, Kenneth Brown, Carl Jenkins, Joel Lee Liberski, Randy Williams (billiards); Amy Cooke, Ann Hoffer, Susan McMullen, Susan Morris, Jean Lightner Norum, Dierdre Robinson, Christine Sharbrough (John Flood and Edgar Beaver research); Carey Granger (Tombstone silver mining); Dr. Judith Kaplan (concussion); Kimberly Loomis, Roberto Marino, Margaret Organ-Kean (genealogies); Dawood Ali McCallum (opiate withdrawl); Artie Nolan (Irish proverbs); Pamela Potter (the McLaury family); James Reichardt (legal issues); Vivian Singer (Yiddish); and Oscar Stregall (details of untreated tuberculosis). Special thanks go to Heike Erbarth for her kindness to Manfred Pütz in his final months.
For close and critical reading of early drafts of the manuscript, I thank Joyce Aros, Susanne Bach, Gretchen Batton, Eleanor Behr, Mary Dewing, Richard Doria Jr., Christopher Dussing, Jane Dystel, Miriam Goderich, Carey Granger, Jeff Jacobson, Pam Potter, Bob Price, Jim Reichardt, Vivian Singer, Jennifer Tucker, and David Twigg. Bonnie Thompson has copyedited my novels from the very start, and I am fortunate in being able to rely on her professionalism and attention to detail.
My superb agents, Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, have championed my work since 1995; this novel marked a difficult transition in my career, and their steady support kept me from throwing in the towel. Epitaph is my first book with Ecco, and the experience has been heartening. Special thanks go to Libby Edelson for taking a chance on the partial manuscript and for her sensitive and helpful editing of its final drafts. Thanks also to Eleanor Kriseman for her welcoming responsiveness and to the whole Ecco production team. As ever, I am grateful to the sales forces at both Random House and HarperCollins for making bookstores aware of my novels; to the booksellers in those wonderful stores for shoving my books into the hands of readers; and to the readers themselves for their encouragement and support ever since The Sparrow.
Don, Dan, and Jessie: It’s time to head to La Fiesta for a pitcher of margaritas! You guys are the best.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph © by Don Russell
MARY DORIA RUSSELL is the author of five previous books, The Sparrow, Children of God, A Thread of Grace, Dreamers of the Day, and Doc, all critically acclaimed commercial successes. Dr. Russell holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology. She lives in Lyndhurst, Ohio.
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ALSO BY MARY DORIA RUSSELL
FICTION
Doc
Dreamers of the Day
A Thread of Grace
Children of God
The Sparrow
CREDITS
COVER DESIGN BY SARA WOOD
COVER PHOTOGRAPHS:
© BY MATTHIAS CLAMER/GETTY IMAGES (STREET);
© BY ZOONAR GMBH/ALAMY (BULLET HOLES)
COPYRIGHT
EPITAPH. Copyright © 2015 by Mary Doria Russell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-219876-1
EPub Edition MARCH 2015 ISBN 9780062198785
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