Everyone knows the name Calamity Jane. Scores of dime novels and movie and TV Westerns have portrayed this original Wild West woman as an adventuresome, gun-toting hellion. Although Calamity Jane has probably been written about more than any other woman of the nineteenth-century American West, fiction and legend have largely obscured the facts of her life. This lively, concise, and exhaustively researched biography traces the real person from the Missouri farm where she was born in 1856 through the development of her notorious persona as a Wild West heroine. Before Calamity Jane became a legend, she was Martha Canary, orphaned when she was only eleven years old. From a young age she traveled fearlessly, worked with men, smoked, chewed tobacco, and drank. By the time she arrived in the boomtown of Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1876, she had become Calamity Jane, and the real Martha Canary had disappeared under a landslide of purple prose. Calamity became a hostess and dancer in Deadwood’s saloons and theaters. She imbibed heavily, and she might have been a prostitute, but she had other qualities, as well, including those of an angel of mercy who ministered to the sick and the down-and-out. Journalists and dime novelists couldn’t get enough of either version, nor, in the following century, could filmmakers. Sorting through the stories, veteran western historian Richard W. Etulain’s account begins with a biography that offers new information on Calamity’s several “husbands” (including one she legally married), her two children, and a woman who claimed to be the daughter of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity, a story Etulain discredits. In the second half of the book, Etulain traces the stories that have shaped Calamity Jane’s reputation. Some Calamity portraits, he says, suggest that she aspired to a quiet life with a husband and family. As the 2004–2006 HBO series Deadwood makes clear, well more than a century after her first appearance as a heroine in the Deadwood Dick dime novels, Calamity Jane lives on—raunchy, unabashed, contradictory, and ambiguous as ever.

“Who in the world would think that Calamity Jane would get to be such a famous person?” one of the pallbearers at her funeral asked an interviewer many years later. It seemed like a reasonable question. Who else has accomplished so little by conventional standards and yet achieved such enduring fame? But conventional standards do not apply. Calamity was poor, uneducated, and an alcoholic. For decades, she wandered through the small towns and empty spaces of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana. But she also had a natural talent for self-invention. She created a story about herself and promoted it tirelessly for much of her life. The story emphasized her love of adventure and the heroic role she played in key events in the early history of the American west. She became that story to people around the country who read about her. And she became that story to herself. The details about her exploits were rarely accurate, but a larger truth lay beneath them. In an era when there were few options for women, Calamity had the audacity to be herself. She lived as she pleased, which is to say that she allowed herself the same freedoms her male contemporaries assumed as their birthright. She spoke her mind. She flouted the rules. She dressed as a man when it was illegal for women to wear pants; hung out in saloons although that was unheard of for any woman who was not a prostitute; did men’s work; cursed, hollered, and smoked cigars. Although Calamity’s name is imprinted in history, most people know little about her. This highly readable biography brings Calamity to life against the backdrop of the American west and of women’s determination to break free from their historical constraints.

The life story and adventures of a legendary American frontierswoman Calamity Jane, whose real name was Martha Jane Canary.

The Wild West was home to many men and women looking for adventure and a new life. Back then, in a place of danger and intrigue, there were several characters that made their mark on the frontier. One woman was Calamity Jane. Born Martha Jane Cannary, Calamity Jane would become one of America’s best-known sharpshooters and horse riders. Her life is told in here in easy-to-read language and vivid illustrations sure to engage young readers.

Calamity Jane was always in search of adventure. Nothing scared her—not rattlesnakes or wild horses or even Wild Bill Hickok. Quicksand could not keep her down. As an army scout, Calamity Jane rescued a wounded captain from the middle of a bloody battle. She never even got a scratch. As a Pony Express rider, she outwitted a band of robbers and sent them running. Even smallpox didn’t dare tangle with her. Catch some of Calamity Jane’s spirit in this fast-paced tale.

Originally sold by the traveling Kohl & Middleton Dime Museum as a short souvenir booklet, The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane by Herself details the sensational life of Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane. Orphaned early in life, Jane provided for her young siblings by working as a frontier scout at Fort Russell, Wyoming. After building a reputation as a rough-rider and a gun-slinger, Jane settled in Deadwood, South Dakota, throwing her lot in with the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and the legendary Buffalo Bill, eventually appearing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and in the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane by Herself is as wild and outlandish as the author herself, offering a unique perspective into a woman who lived her life outside of the conventions of her time. Famous during her life, Calamity Jane became larger than life after her death in 1903 and her legend lives on through contemporary media, including in the 2013 novel In Calamity’s Wake by Natalee Caple, and as a character on the popular HBO series Deadwood. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

A meticulously researched account about how an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a Wild West heroine is presented in this biography of Martha Canary, the woman known as Calamity Jane.

"Life and Adventures" by Calamity Jane is an autobiography of Martha Jane Burk (1852-1903), better known as Calamity Jane. She was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and raconteur. In addition to many exploits, she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion for others, especially for the sick and needy. The book gives a detailed account of Calamity Jane's life, interesting events, and her special milestones. Excerpt: "My maiden name was Marthy Cannary. I was born in Princeton, Missourri, May 1st, 1852. Father and mother were natives of Ohio. I had two brothers and three sisters, I being the oldest of the children. As a child I always had a fondness for adventure and out-door exercise and especial fondness for horses which I began to ride at an early age and continued to do so until I became an expert rider being able to ride the most vicious and stubborn of horses, in fact the greater portion of my life in early times was spent in this manner. "