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Elmer McCurdy
The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw
Mark Svenvold
Hardbound with original dust jacket
312 pages with complete index
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: October 15, 2002
Carnival sideshows, train robbers and mummies all have an inevitable draw.
But in this thoughtful account of one iconic American outlaw, journalist and poet
Svenvold uses these topics to examine a deeper issue: the origin of American
entertainment obsessions.
With a languorous storyteller's flair, Svenvold thoroughly teases out the story of
Elmer McCurdy, a "screw-up and ne'er-do-well bandit bungler who had accidentally
achieved fame long after death."
McCurdy's "pathetic, nine-month crime spree" of
attempted train robberies-long after the end of the great era of train robbers-opens
this well-drawn story, which focuses more on McCurdy's afterlife, when his mummified
body was passed from traveling circus to wax museum to its final resting place,
a graveyard in Oklahoma, where the body of the outlaw, who had become larger than
life, was ultimately transformed into a "site, a locus, a mirror of the fantasy life
of an American public."
The account becomes a meditation on fame and death and our nostalgia for the romantic
myth of the American West. Svenvold pays homage to and expands on his predecessors'
work-Richard Basgall's The Career of Elmer McCurdy, Deceased and a BBC
documentary-offering rich treatments on everything from circus life to care of
cadavers. While he may not be the first to offer the facts of this wonderfully
bizarre story, Svenvold's evocative treatment will lure in anyone looking for a
well-spun tale.
Mr. Svenvold has woven an incisive, at times deadpan-hilarious commentary on the
fading Wild West, the rise of sideshows and exploitation flicks, theme tourism and
other illustrations of just how low the entertainment taste of the American public
can go. Mr. Svenvold's has written the equivalent of a decent burial for poor dead Elmer.
Highly recommended.
This book has been gently read, the pages are clean and bright and in excellent condition.
Order by ITEM #BKS-103-07
PRICE: $24.95
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