The Last Gunfight

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral seems to exert an eternal fascination. Barrels of ink and miles of celluloid have been committed to the legend and history of the events surrounding the October 26, 1881, showdown in Tombstone and its grim and bloody aftermath.

Do we need another Tombstone book? Journalist Jeff Guinn apparently thinks so — and it turns out his “The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West” is well worth the time I spent listening to the unabridged audio.

If you want to get straight to the shooting, this book ain’t for you. Guinn takes the reader on a leisurely exploration of the phenomenon of a late-Victorian mining boomtown. For me, that’s the value of the book —it paints a vivid picture of the boom-bust economics and high-stakes personal politics that drove the action on the frontier.

Guinn is evenhanded and dispassionate in his approach to the old story. Wyatt Earp comes off as a very tough man who could never quite put things together in a way that would give him the money and status he craved. Not a hero, not a villain — just a hard man on the make who couldn’t quite make it.

Some of the negative reviews on Amazon.com would have you think the book is an “anti-Earp” screed, which is ridiculous and reveals more about the psychological needs of the reviewers than it does about the book.

Guinn does a good job of laying out the dynamics that built like a thunderstorm over the southeast Arizona desert. If the Earps are not portrayed as heroes per se, certainly Guinn isn’t taking up for the “cowboy” faction. They may not be the red-sash gangsters of the movie “Tombstone,” but they are clearly rustlers and outlaws. Guinn makes their world-view understandable but he doesn’t whitewash them. Nor does he — thank god — turn them into victims of class warfare or call them “pastoralists” as Paula Mitchel Marks did in “And Die in the West.”

The gunfight, which actually took place in a lot on Fremont Street, was an unfortunate affair built as such affrays so often are, out of pride, misperception of motives, miscommunication and the venality of some of the players — specifically the lush and coward Ike Clanton and the slimy politician Sheriff Johnny Behan.

Nobody came out the winner from the Tombstone showdown. Obviously not the “cowboys” who met their maker in the brief exchange, but nor did the Earps ultimately fare well.

I think the importance of events in Tombstone is oversold — and not just by Guinn. It’s certainly an interesting, complex and exciting tale, but I personally think the Lincoln County War in New Mexico has more to say about commerce, conflict and politics in the West than this sorry affair. But that’s by the way; the books a good ’un; I’m glad I spent a few hours on it.