Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography

By Buffalo Bill Cody

Buffalo Bill lives deep in American legend. A Kansas-bred farm boy, he went on to become a renowned trapper and hunter, army scout, Indian fighter, and finally a world showman and celebrity. As a man of the Wild West, he became known as a larger-than-life buffalo hunter. As an army scout, he earned the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action. But Bill was unsatisfied. Setting his sights higher yet, he traveled the country performing in Wild West stage shows, and eventually founded “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” a terrifically successful traveling production depicting cowboy and Indian life on the plains. Bill’s show earned him large sums of money and drove him to intense national prominence at the turn of the century. This is his story in his own words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Release date: Apr 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781628720211

Reviews for Buffalo Bill's Life Story

[deldevries · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Point of view is autobiographical ... but the stories stick to life as a scout without rich details outside the Indians and buffalo.

[majackson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Born Feb. 26, 18451849-1852 age 5-8; Learned to ride a horse1855 age 10; Hired at $25/mo. to herd cattle1855-56 age 10-11; Attended school, until had a fight with another school boy over a girl and stabbed the other boy; ran away and herded cattle for several months, then returned to school for a few more weeks1857 age 12; Father died, he left school and herded cattle to Salt Lake City; Killed first Indian; Hired on to a wagon train; meets Wild Bill Hickock (10 years older); he throws a boiling pot of coffee in the face of a bully & Wild Bill protects him from death at the hands of the bully; Held off attack by Indians1858 age 13; Joined another wagon train; tried trapping for furs1859 age 14; Attended school again—for 2.5 months—and then set out west to pan for gold; becomes a Pony Express rider, an Army Scout, etc. until 1879 when he stopped writing this biography.As Cody gains in physical stature he gains in strength and experience and confidence and then it just gets busier and busier and more and more daring. Almost every chapter in this autobiography describes a life-and-death encounter and is just too cluttered to summarize. At no time does Cody sound like he feels any need to exaggerate his adventures because they didn’t feel like such adventures to him at the time. And his writing style just feels “right” for someone who knows a good story doesn’t need embellishment…and has almost no proper education anyway. I do believe that that’s how they really talked to each other. It may be worth it to find a more detailed description of Buffalo Bill’s life, just to see what he left out.In short, I found the book very entertaining and informative and well written and recommend it to "wild west" buffs and anyone, starting from age 10 and up, that wants some first hand descriptions of life just outside of the U.S. of A.