Shirley Ayn Linder’s slim and concise Doc Holliday in Film and Literature is a refreshing and welcome addition to the voluminous but often dubious literature that surrounds Holliday. It delivers exactly what the title promises—more, actually, with a superb historical account of Doc’s story from Georgia to Colorado,
beginning with a terrific opening sentence: “Doc Holliday spent most of his life dying.” What follows is a fascinating evolution of a legend in print and on film, including a 1975 episode of Sesame Street with Frank Oz as the voice of Doc Holliday. Linder gets to the truth in a hurry and does a spot-on analysis of how Doc’s image changed in each succeeding decade.
—Allen Barra, author of Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends
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