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Title: Orphans Preferred : The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express by CHRISTOPHER CORBETT ISBN: 0-7679-0692-6 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: 'Orphans' Leads to Happy Trails
Comment: If dry wit and historical musings are your cup of tea, this book is for you. Christopher Corbett mixes facts, hearsay, and humor to provide an engaging and amusing tale of the Pony Express, its creators, riders, and historians. What little is known of the Pony comes from decades of oral history and embellishments, leaving the truth to toss around like a tumbleweed in the wind, but Corbett leaves no trail untrod as he explores facts and tall tales of the famous mail delivery service. No one can unravel all the twists of the poorly documented, short lived Express, but Corbett's exploration into the past will give you some answers and quite a few chuckles.
Rating: 2
Summary: A very windy author...
Comment: This book really was a let down. The author just can't seem to get to the point. Trivial history continually draws away from the story. I can't recommend you buy this book, let alone take the time to read it.
Rating: 4
Summary: Be Forewarned - Facts Are Appropriately Limited
Comment: At the outset, the author establishes the major truth about the Pony Express and its 18 month run across the west- we do not know much about it for sure. Little of this book is devoted to facts about the Express. That is appropriate, because as Mr. Corbett proves beyond doubt, there are not that many facts to be known. There is, however, legend and buncum.
Mr. Corbett devotes most of the book to the buncum (a word he aptly uses often) and the legends. He then debunks them with proofs that have been well-researched. He also gives interesting profiles of the "journalists" and dime novel writers who both made up stories out of whole cloth and created legends out of men such as Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickock.
Some of the writer/character profiles are priceless. They could be characters in spoof novels. So are the men who attempted to establish their bona fides as riders for the Express - often getting years and places absolutely incorrect. The most hilarious was a man named Murphy touted by no less than the NY Times as the last of the Pony Express riders when he died in the late 20th century.
Mr. Corbett does a very good job at giving all that is known and can be proven to be true about the Pony Express. He then also does an excellent job tracing the inaccuracies as presented in histories of the Express. Lastly, he traces the origins of the legends that grew long after the Express had ridden its last ride. An entertaining and informative book about an interesting topic.
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Title: The Pony Express: A Photographic History by Jan Moeller, Bill Moeller ISBN: 0878424709 Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Sudden Sea : The Great Hurricane of 1938 by R.A. Scotti ISBN: 0316739111 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 03 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander ISBN: 067003133X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Across the Great Divide : Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail by Laton McCartney ISBN: 0743249240 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Horatio's Drive : America's First Road Trip by Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns ISBN: 037541536X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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