Review by Booklist Review
One of the most well-known female outlaws in U.S. history, Pearl Hart was born Lillie Davy in Ontario, Canada. Having experienced her first brush with the law at age 11, and groomed by years of trauma inflicted by her dysfunctional and addiction-riddled family, Hart was well versed in taking care of herself, no matter the cost. In 1899, Hart's crimes intensified, culminating in the robbery of a major stagecoach route in Colorado. She was then caught, arrested, and sent to prison. A resourceful woman, she managed to escape, but was caught shortly after and sent to the Yuma Territorial Prison. A rarity for her time, due in large part to her gender, Hart became a nationally recognized delinquent. Known for his biographies centered on notable westerners, Boessenecker (Shotguns and Stagecoaches, 2018) gathers magazine features, newspaper articles, and other primary sources into a readable narrative of Hart's life. Compelling storytelling paired with extensive research bring together the myths and the truths that have surrounded Pearl Hart for generations.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Daring gambits in the Wild West. Boessenecker, a historian of the Western frontier who has written about a host of pioneer outlaws, cuts through myths and misinformation to offer a colorful, well-researched biography of Canadian-born Lillie Naomi Davy (1871-1935), who became legendary as the tough-talking, gender-defying bandit Pearl Hart. Escaping an abusive, drunken father, Lillie, age 13, and her 11-year-old sister, Katy, cut their hair, donned their brother's clothes, and ran away from home--only to return to their violently dysfunctional family and run away time and again. In the next few years, the sisters became involved with men who turned out to be criminals and, not surprisingly, abused them. Throughout her teens, Lillie was in and out of reformatories and prisons, but she and Katy were incorrigible. In Buffalo, where a madam who called herself Pearl Hart had committed suicide, 16-year-old Katy established her own bordello, taking the name of Minnie Hart. Lillie became a prostitute, plying her trade in Buffalo; Toledo, Ohio; Trinidad, Colorado, "a hotbed of prostitution"; and Phoenix, Arizona, where she, too, took a new name: Pearl Hart. Boessenecker recounts in lively detail the sisters' amorous entanglements--Lillie, at 15, got involved with a 36-year-old bigamist and later eloped with an opium-addicted piano player who, she claimed, introduced her to the habit--and their repeated arrests, as well as the crimes perpetrated by some of their many siblings. The centerpiece of the story, though, is the bold stagecoach robbery that Pearl pulled off with the help of a lover. Needing money to travel to see her mother--her "dearest, truest friend," she said--whom she thought was dying, Pearl saw robbery as her only choice. Conviction, imprisonment, escape, and recapture ended in a five-year sentence in Yuma penitentiary. After release on early parole, the woman celebrated in newspapers and magazines as a glamorous outlaw, "uniformly noted [for] her physical attractiveness," retreated into quiet comfort. A brisk rendering of an adventuresome life. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
