John M. Burke (1842–1917) played an essential role in turning William Frederick Cody into the classic character of "Buffalo Bill." With this biography, published in 1893, Burke refined the legend that continues today. Burke attempted to present the story of William F. Cody from the wild Western scenes of Kansas and Nebraska. And from the prairies of the Platte to the parlors of the East and the palaces of Europe. Burke claimed to give a candid account of Buffalo Bill's life. Hostile Indians, gunfights, cattle stampedes; Cody's Wild West was full of danger at every turn. Burke's portrayal of Buffalo Bill as a pioneer and hero is an honor to the romance of the Wild West and a canonical volume in the American story which is a brilliant example of mythmaking. The book gives insight into how things were back then, and it also makes the reader familiar with the beginnings of American Nationhood.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was the most famous American of his age. He claimed to have worked for the Pony Express when only a boy and to have scouted for General George Custer. But what was his real story? And how did a frontiersman become a worldwide celebrity? In this prize-winning biography, acclaimed author Louis S. Warren explains not only how Cody exaggerated his real experience as an army scout and buffalo hunter, but also how that experience inspired him to create the gigantic, traveling spectacle known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. A dazzling mix of Indians, cowboys, and vaqueros, they performed on two continents for three decades, offering a surprisingly modern view of the United States and a remarkably democratic version of its history. This definitive biography reveals the genius of America’s greatest showman, and the startling history of the American West that drove him and his performers to the world stage.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, star of the American West, began his journey to fame at age twenty-three, when he met writer Ned Buntline. The pulp novels Buntline later penned were loosely based on Cody’s scouting and bison-hunting adventures and sparked a national sensation. Other writers picked up the living legend of “Buffalo Bill” for their own pulp novels, and in 1872 Buntline produced a theatrical show starring Cody himself. In 1883, Cody opened his own show, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, which ultimately became the foundation for the world’s image of the American frontier. After the Civil War, new transcontinental railroads aided rapid westward expansion, fostering Americans’ long-held fascination with their western frontier. The railroads enabled traveling shows to move farther and faster, and improved printing technologies allowed those shows to print in large sizes and quantities lively color posters and advertisements. Cody’s show team partnered with printers, lithographers, photographers, and iconic western American artists, such as Frederic Remington and Charles Schreyvogel, to create posters and advertisements for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Circuses and other shows used similar techniques, but Cody’s team perfected them, creating unique posters that branded Buffalo Bill’s Wild West as the true Wild West experience. They helped attract patrons from across the nation and ultimately from around the world at every stop the traveling show made. In Art and Advertising in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, Michelle Delaney showcases these numerous posters in full color, many of which have never before been reproduced, pairing them with new research into previously inaccessible manuscript and photograph collections. Her study also includes Cody’s correspondence with his staff, revealing the showman’s friendships with notable American and European artists and his show’s complex, modern publicity model. Beautifully designed, Art and Advertising in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West presents a new perspective on the art, innovation, and advertising acumen that created the international frontier experience of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

The author of this book has attempted to present to the reader the story and triumphs of the frontier lad of nine years, from the wild Western scenes of Kansas and Nebraska, from the prairies of the Platte to the parlors of the East and the palaces of Europe. William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917) was an American scout, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in Toronto Township, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only twenty-three. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe.

In 1893, John M. Burke wrote a biography of Gen. William F. Cody (see photo at right) titled, Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace. The book wasn?t the first or last biography of the famous cowboy-turned-showman, but it was the first book-length biography written by a public relations practitioner. Burke was Cody?s promotions manager and press agent (see picture on page 6). Although historians credit Burke with turning Cody into the legendary ?Buffalo Bill,? the book Burke wrote has often been ignored or overlooked by historians of the ?Wild West.? In fact, Public Relations Scholar Jason Berger has found that only one of four major biographies about Cody cites Burke?s book.Dr. Berger speculates that Burke?s book has been overlooked partly because the original has not been widely available. Indeed, a survey of major public libraries in the United States has found that only a handful have a copy, and many of those copies are too fragile for public use.This reprint, which also includes two news stories published about the Wild West show in 1895, is offered to help remedy that shortage. In the ?Introduction,? Dr. Berger points out that Burke?although controversial and often accused of distorting facts?was a genius when it came to marketing and public relations. As such, this book is useful not just to historians, but also to public relations practitioners and student of popular culture, who are still trying to understand the ?Buffalo Bill phenomenon? and its impact on field of public relations. (Cover and back page photographs courtesy of the online repository at the Library of Congress.)