The Colonel and Little Missie

US: Simon and Schuster, 2005. Paperback. Good. From the early 1800s to the end of his life in 1917, Buffalo Bill Cody was as famous as anyone could be. Annie Oakley was his most celebrated protégée , the 'slip of a girl' from Ohio who could (and did) outshoot anybody to be come the most celebrated star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In this sweeping dual biography, Larry McMurtry explores the lives, the leg ends and above all the truth about two larger-than-life American figures. W ith his Wild West show, Buffalo Bill helped invent the image of the West th at still exists today -- cowboys and Indians, rodeo, rough rides, sheriffs and outlaws, trick shooting, Stetsons, and buckskin. The short, slight Anni e Oakley -- born Phoebe Ann Moses -- spent sixteen years with Buffalo Bill' s Wild West, where she entertained Queen Victoria, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Kaiser Wilhelm II, among others. Beloved by all who knew her, i ncluding Hunkpapa leader, Sitting Bull, Oakley became a legend in her own r ight and after her death, achieved a new lease of fame in Irving Berlin's m usical Annie, Get Your Gun. To each other, they were always 'Missie' and 'Colonel'. To the rest of the world, they were cultural icons, setting the path for all that followed. Larry McMurtry -- a writer who understands the West better than any other -- recreates their astonishing careers and curious friendship in a fascinating history that reads like the very best of his fiction.