Pretty Boy: The Epic Life of Pretty Boy Floyd

New York: Forge Books. Fine in Fine dust jacket. 2003. First Edition. Hardcover. Full number line.. 352 pages. <i>"As I lay dying, I see Daddy Walter sitting on the porch reading a Bible sold to him by a man wearing spats."</i> Thus begins the novel of Charles Arthur Floyd, best known to depression-era America as Pretty Boy Floyd. <i>"I was the dreamer, the seeker of all things beyond my reach, the dandy, the dancer, the lover of countless woman, the bank robber, the husband, the father, the son, the brother. I was the most wanted man in America."</i> Rising out of the harvests and oil fields of the Oklahoma dustbowl that John Steinbeck so poignantly captured in <i>The Grapes of Wrath</i>, Pretty Boy Floyd became the most wanted man in America by the newly formed FBI-and the woman who loved him.<br><br>And while Bonnie and Clyde were tearing up the country, robbing and shooting their way across the Southwest-Charley knew them both, cared for neither-Charley was robbing banks from Kansas City to Ohio. The local newspapers were full of stories about guys like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, and Al Capone, but none of them had what Pretty Boy had: uncommon good luck, a taste for fancy clothes, fancy cars, and beautiful dames. From the opening pages to the final chapter, we hear Charley and his pals, his lovers, and his family tell us the story of Pretty Boy Floyd. Writing with the same combination of lyricism and earthy prose that he used to create the western classic, <I>The Stone Garden: The Epic Life of Billy the Kid</I>, Bill Brooks plays the medium for Pretty Boy, his partners, lovers, and his enemies. .