Jesse James Was His Name: Or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri - Softcover

"It is not an overstatement to say that if the James brothers had not existed they would have been invented, for indeed the legend is primarily a tale untouched by truth. William A. Settle's well-documented volume cuts cleanly through the tangle of folklore, identifies the demonstrable facts and labels the remainder as folklore and legend. Much of the volume deals with the historical setting. . . . Of the multitudes of volumes (not to mention the hundreds of pulps and celluloid monuments) devoted to the James brothers, Settle's is the first which is scholarly throughout."-Journal of American History * Journal of American History *

"Jesse James," said Carl Sandburg, "is the only American bandit who is classical, who is to this country what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose exploits are so close to the mythical and apocryphal." For this definitive study no significant source of information concerning Jesse James and his brother Frank has been neglected, and from it emerges resolution of the debated point: "Were the Jameses common criminals or gallant Robin Hoods?" William A. Settle Jr. is the author of The Dawning: A New Day in the Southwest.