• Doc Holliday

  • The Life and Legend
  • By: Gary L. Roberts
  • Narrated by: Arthur Flavell
  • Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (232 ratings)

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Doc Holliday  By  cover art

Doc Holliday

By: Gary L. Roberts
Narrated by: Arthur Flavell
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Publisher's summary

In Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, the historian Gary Roberts takes aim at the most complex, perplexing, and paradoxical gunfighter of the Old West, drawing on more than 20 years of research - including new primary sources - in his quest to separate the life from the legend.

Doc Holliday was a study in contrasts: the legendary gunslinger who made his living as a dentist; the emaciated consumptive whose very name struck fear in the hearts of his enemies; the degenerate gambler and alcoholic whose fierce loyalty to his friends compelled him, more than once, to risk his own life; and the sidekick whose near-mythic status rivals that of the West's greatest heroes. With lively details of Holliday's spirited exploits, his relationships with such Western icons as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, this book sheds new light on one of the most mysterious figures of frontier history.

©2006 Gary L. Roberts (P)2019 Tantor

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What listeners say about Doc Holliday

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More of a history lesson

This book gets into a lot of details around the life and family/friends of Doc Holliday. It also seemed more of a history of the West and in some places seemed like I was reading a family tree. It was long but I enjoyed most of it.

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2 people found this helpful

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Great story and narrator

It got a little tedious at times but I’m glad I stuck with it. I picked it up at random and I wound up really enjoying it, especially towards the end.

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Worth the listen

Worth the listen if you enjoy the story of Doc and Wyatt. Very informative to facts and myths you may not have known about. Had me craving every moment to listen

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All biographers should side this as template

One of the best researched and fairly presented biographies I’ve ever read. This the most objective, matter of fact presentations of a biography I’ve ever read/heard. And yet, the author still manages to weave a compelling narrative. This is a must listen!

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Really Doc Holiday was Not the Outlaw Media then made it same so then.

Doc Holiday was not what the Newspapers / Media formats back then and all of the Hollywood programs to paint him as as evil man. Was and is a lie. If you Study History you can and will be able to relate the same way now in 2024 with elite take over offices were all taken place then too.

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Meticulously Researched

If you’re an Old West history fan, which I am, you’ll really enjoy this detailed account of Doc Holliday. The true Doc Holliday is still a mystery as to what exactly made him tick, but I think this book gets close.

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Detailed, sometimes dry BUT….

….a thoroughly convincing biography of one of the Old West’s most iconic personalities. The author’s premise that Doc Holiday was a product of his southern raising - with the attendant attachment to personal honor - And the fatalism of his tuberculosis is both convincing and earnestly presented. A worthwhile listen for those of us who long for a time of rugged individuality even if it depends upon appreciation of a “good bad man.”

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“Watch Tombstone?” You are an idiot

This book is very well researched and written in the Ken Burns style. If you are dumb piece of cod’s wallop just check out Tombstone. If you want to read a detailed, pleasant, informative book, this one is highly recommended. The previous reviewer is clearly not a golfer.

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A very interesting listen.

This book solidified the picture in my mind of Doc Holliday. A deeply flawed man with as deep a burning sense of loyalty to his friends as a hatred towards his enemies.

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1 person found this helpful

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Ronderfully researched book

Wonderful and packed full of exciting historical, non-bias facts and deep details about Doc as well as all of the meaningful historical figures of that western period in history.

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