Calamity

“Jones’s purpose is not to winnow fact from fancy but to parse how frontier celebrity was made in the overlaps among life, performance and invention.”—Christine Bold, Times Literary Supplement

“Jones does history, and her subject, a great service with her compassionate and revealing biography.”—Lynn Downey, New Mexico Historical Review

“In this vivid and compelling biography, Karen Jones recovers the remarkable creativity of Martha Jane Canary, who helped to invent the mythic West by reinventing herself. As Calamity Jane, she told wild tales of adventure and blurred the lines between legend and history, male and female, and truth and possibility.”—Alan Taylor, author of The Internal Enemy

“Tells a great story. Lively, engaging, and timely, Calamity is guaranteed to thrill and entertain in the mode of its sensational subject.”—Rachel Adams, author of Sideshow U.S.A.

“This lucid and lively book offers an absorbing portrayal of a remarkable woman in the American West.”—Sarah M. S. Pearsall, author of Atlantic Families

“A fast-paced tour through a Western landscape populated with memorable characters, many of them long-forgotten.”—Laura Browder, author of Her Best Shot