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    Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp
    Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp
    Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp
    Ebook417 pages235 hours

    Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp

    By Ann Kirschner

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The definitive biography of the Jewish girl from New York who won the heart of frontier lawman Wyatt Earp: “Splendid.” —The Wall Street Journal

    For nearly fifty years, she was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp: hero of the O.K. Corral and the most famous lawman of the Old West. Yet Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp has nearly been erased from Western lore. In this biography, the author of the acclaimed Sala’s Gift brings Josephine out of the shadows of history to tell her colorful tale of ambition, adventure, self-invention, and devotion. Reflective of America itself, her story brings us from the post–Civil War years to World War II, and from New York to the Arizona Territory to old Hollywood.
     
    Lady at the O.K. Corral reveals how this aspiring actress and dancer—a flamboyant, curvaceous Jewish girl with a persistent New York accent—landed in Tombstone; sustained a lifelong partnership with the complex and charismatic Wyatt Earp; and was equally at home in Alaskan Gold Rush boomtowns, opulent San Francisco hotels, mining camps, casinos, racetracks, boxing arenas, and back lots where she visited Cecil B. DeMille and Samuel Goldwyn.
     
    “Kirschner has cleverly identified a parallel story buried under the debris of history: that of Josephine Marcus, for nearly 50 years Earp’s common-law wife and a valiant frontierswoman in her own right.” —The New York Times Book Review
     
    “Scrumptious . . . This quick-paced biography has it all.” —USA Today
     
    “Kirschner’s fascinating profile captures the restless spirit of the frontier as deftly as it does Josephine’s energy, affection, and limitless appetite for adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9780062199003
    Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp
    Author

    Ann Kirschner

    Ann Kirschner is University Dean of Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. She began her career as a lecturer in Victorian literature at Princeton University, where she had earned a Ph.D. in English. A writer and contributor to a variety of newspapers and other publications, she has built a career as an entrepreneur in media and technology. She lives with her family in New York City, a short drive from her mother's home.

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    Reviews for Lady at the O.K. Corral

    3.5/5

    22 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is less a biography about Josephine Earp and more about the attempt to white wash the history of the old west and the part the Earps played in it. Josephine was constantly concerned about her own past and kept it buried as well.DeBlank does a good job describing all the attempts to write a biography of Wyatt Earp by various authors as well as making television shows and movies and the role Josephine played in keeping secrets.
    • 5/5
      Excellent job presenting facts. Good presentation in the narrative. Notes, sources and index make this book a good reference.
    • 3/5
      Poor Josephine. She lived almost all of her life in Wyatt Earp’s shadow – even “The True Story of Her Life” is mostly about Wyatt. I found this to be a long and depressing read, detailing how Josephine followed Wyatt around like a puppy, living a very lonely, child-less existence, constantly in fear of being found out (She and Wyatt were not legally wed and he left his previous common law wife, Mattie, who spiraled down into addiction, prostitution, and suicide).

      Poor Josephine. Her life is a cautionary tale about the importance of financial planning, Wyatt’s rootless existence as a saloon-keeper and gambler left her as a lonely and practically penniless widow, relying on the kindness of relatives to survive.

      I really wish this book had pictures, but reading revealed that most of the items from the day were either lost in various calamities or scammed from her. Poor Josephine. Her squabbles with the other Earps and the various authorized and unauthorized biographers had the feel of one of those trashy scandal shows.
    • 5/5
      There were three women he had considered himself married to before her, but Josephine Marcus Earp was Wyatt Earp’s common-law wife for fifty years. She was around for the famous shoot out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, she panned for gold by his side in the wilds of Alaska, and she tried to mold his image to her liking in the early days of Hollywood while leaving herself as far out of the story as possible. Josephine was Jewish, but though she returned to her roots and buried Wyatt in a Jewish graveyard when he died, religion wasn’t a big part of her life during the years she and Wyatt were together. Her family had moved from Poland to New York City and then San Francisco while she was still young, but the limitations of city society didn’t offer Josephine the life she wanted. She left for Tombstone as a teenager seeking adventure, and she and Wyatt were living as husband and wife to other people when they met. The fact that Wyatt deserted a woman who later died as a prostitute to be with her was embarrassing to Josephine, and it was part of the reason she didn’t want the particulars of her past tainting the legend of the man she loved.Since Josephine actively tried to suppress her own part in Wyatt’s life, author Ann Kirschner had a challenging job researching this book, but she has succeeded in making Lady at the O.K. Corral fascinating as both a biography of a spirited woman and a history of the rapidly changing American West. Though Josephine only wanted one side of his story told, Wyatt Earp was a lot more complicated than the brave, courageous and bold frontier man who cleaned up the West in the 1950’s TV show. It’s true Wyatt was briefly a lawman but he also spent time in jail himself, and he earned his living as a respected saloon owner, a prospector, a gambler and a pimp while he and Josephine moved from boomtown to boomtown, seeking their fortunes.

    Book preview

    Lady at the O.K. Corral - Ann Kirschner

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