Editions

Books in The Papers of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody series, published by the University of Nebraska Press in association with The Papers of William F. Cody, provide scholarly editions of various memoirs and autobiographies related to Buffalo Bill and his endeavors. The works are invaluable resources in understanding the history and popular culture of the nineteenth-century American West.

Series Editors:
Frank Christianson – Brigham Young University
Jeremy M. Johnston – Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Douglas Seefeldt – Clemson University


Forthcoming:

John Y. Nelson, Life Among the American Indians: Fifty Years on the Trail, A True Story of Western Life (1889). Edited and with an Introduction by Will Bagley.

Henry E. Davies, Ten Days on the Plains (1871). Edited and with an Introduction by Paul Andrew Hutton.

Nate Salsbury, Reminiscences (1902). Edited and with an Introduction by Louis S. Warren.

Annie Oakley, Memoirs (1925-26). Edited and with an Introduction by Monica Rico.

Louisa Frederici Cody with Courtney Riley Cooper, Memories of Buffalo Bill (1919). Edited and with an Introduction by Sherry L. Smith.


George W. T. Beck, Beckoning Frontiers: The Memoir of a Wyoming Entrepreneur. Edited and with an Introduction by Lynn J. Houze & Jeremy M. Johnston, preface by Alan K. Simpson & Peter K. Simpson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020).

George W. T. Beck, an influential rancher and entrepreneur in the American West, collaborated with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody to establish the town of Cody, Wyoming, in the 1890s. His adventures in the American West resulted in personal associates who ranged from western legends Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, and Calamity Jane to wealthy American elites such as George and Phoebe Hearst and Theodore Roosevelt. This definitive edition of Beck’s memoir provides a glimpse of early life in Wyoming, offering readers a rare perspective on how community boosters cooperated with political leaders and wealthy financiers.


A Horse's Tale

Mark Twain, A Horse’s Tale. Edited and with an Introduction by Charles C. Bradshaw, afterword by Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020).

A Horse’s Tale, a comic animal tale that doubled as a frontier adventure and political diatribe, concerns Soldier Boy, Buffalo Bill Cody’s favorite horse, as the protagonist and sometime narrator at a fictional frontier outpost with the U.S. Seventh Cavalry. First published in 1906 in Harper’s Monthly, this edition includes the full text of Twain’s original story, an introduction that situates the work in historical and biographical context, thorough annotations, and the addition of significant archival material related to Twain, Cody, and Fiske.


William F. Cody, The Wild West in England. Edited and with an introduction by Frank Christianson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012).

Army scout, frontiersman, and hero of the American West, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was also a shrewd self-promoter, showman, and entrepreneur. In 1888 he published The Story of the Wild West, a collection of biographies of four well-known American frontier figures: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and himself. Cody contributed an abridged version of his 1879 autobiography with an addendum titled The Wild West in England, now available in this stand-alone annotated edition, including all the illustrations from the original text along with photographs of Cody and promotional materials.


John M. Burke, Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace. Edited and with an introduction by Chris Dixon (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012).

Advance man, press agent, and publicist extraordinaire, John M. Burke (1842–1917) was instrumental in turning William F. Cody into the iconic persona of Buffalo Bill. And with this biography, published in 1893, Burke put the finishing touches on the legend that persists to this day. This new, definitive edition includes the full text and all the photographs and line drawings of Burke’s original, while providing critical background on the literary sources, historical characters, and events that figure in the work.


William F. Cody, The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill. Edited and with an introduction by Frank Christianson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011).

Written when Cody was thirty-three years old, this life story captures both the hard reality of frontier life and the sensational image to which a boy of the time might aspire: the Indian fights, buffalo hunting, and Pony Express escapades that popular history contributed to the myth-making of Buffalo Bill. Based on the original 1879 edition, this volume provides a new introduction, historical materials, and twenty-six additional images. It reveals both the William F. Cody of personal history and the Buffalo Bill of American mythology—and, finally, the curious reality that partakes of both.


Charles Eldridge Griffin, Four Years in Europe with Buffalo Bill. Edited and with an introduction by Chris Dixon (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010).

By any standard Charles Eldridge Griffin (1859–1914), manager of the Wild West’s European tour, was a remarkable man. Known by the stage names of Monsieur F. Le Costro, Professor Griffin, and the Yankee Yogi, he was an author, comedian, conjurer, contortionist, dancer, fire-eater, hypnotist, illusionist, lecturer, magician, newspaper owner, publisher, sword swallower, and yogi. Griffin’s story of traveling with Buffalo Bill in Europe from 1903 to 1906, published here for the first time since its release in 1908, opens a window on a vanished world.