The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West

A. No. But I think everyone has an interest in this Western history episode, probably because of the movies and television shows that grew out of the legend. Q. So how was the book? A. I think Jeff did a great job of collecting all the available evidence, memoirs, journals, newspaper reports, books, anything he could find, to piece together a truthful account of what really happened at Tombstone in October, 1881, and prior to and after the OK corral gunfight itself. Sometimes he seems to put thoughts in the people's heads that no one can really be sure were there or not, but that goes with putting the story into a narrative form, to make it interesting for readers. And it is quite interesting. It reads almost like a novel. Q. So the general reader would be interested, not just Western buffs? A. I think so. By reading the book, I understood a lot more about Tombstone, about the mining operations, about the politics of the area, and about the Earps and their adversaries, than I did by seeing the movies and television. Of course, movie goers and TV watchers don't want this kind of detail, but it's good to compare those scenes, from movie and TV, with what actually happened, to see how entertainment grows out from the truth but dramatizes it to sell it to audiences.