The life and legacy of Annie Oakley

517 Pages·1994·2.47 MB·English

by  Glenda Riley

The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley
title:
Oklahoma Western Biographies ; V. 7
author: Riley, Glenda.
publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin: 0806126566
print isbn13: 9780806126562
ebook isbn13: 9780585156064
language: English
Oakley, Annie,--1860-1926, Shooters of
subject firearms--United States--Biography,
Frontier and pioneer life--West (U.S.)
publication date: 1994
lcc: GV1157.O3R55 1994eb
ddc: 796.3/092
Oakley, Annie,--1860-1926, Shooters of
subject: firearms--United States--Biography,
Frontier and pioneer life--West (U.S.)
Page i
The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley
T O W B
HE KLAHOMA ESTERN IOGRAPHIES
R W. E , G E
ICHARD TULAIN ENERAL DITOR
Page iii
The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley
By Glenda Riley
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS : NORMAN AND LONDON
Page iv
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Riley, Glenda, 1938
The life and legacy of Annie Oakley / Glenda Riley.
p. cm.(Oklahoma western biographies ; v. 7.)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN: 0-8061-2656-6
1. Oakley, Annie, 18601926. 2. Shooters of firearmsUnited
States Biography. 3. Frontier and pioneer lifeWest (U.S.)
I. Title. II. Series.
GV1157.03R55 1994
796.3'092dC20
[B] 94-10260
CIP
The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley is Volume 7 in The Oklahoma
Western Biographies.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright © 1994 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Page v
For Bess Edwards,
Annie's guardian angel,
who is generous of time and spirit
Page vii
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editor's Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: A Heroine for All Time xv
1. "We Managed to Struggle Along" 3
2. "The 'Show' Business" 27
3. "The Birds Were First Class" 63
4. "To Be Considered a Lady" 112
5. "Girl of the Western Plains" 145
6. "Why Did I Give Up the Arena?" 176
7. The Legend 206
Conclusion: Who Was Annie Oakley? 231
Note on Sources 237
Index 243
Page ix
Illustrations
Annie Oakley, Frank Butler, and poodle George 95
Annie Oakley with shotgun, ca. mid-1880s 96
Annie Oakley with some of her early guns, medals, and a 97
loving cup
Buffalo Bill Wild West lithograph advertising Annie 98
Oakley
Annie in 1896 at age thirty-six in New York City 99
Annie and Frank's home in Nutley, New Jersey 100
Annie Oakley, ca. 1900 101
Annie's husband, Frank Butler, in New Jersey in 1902 102
Annie as star of The Western Girl in 1902 103
Annie Oakley breaking five targets thrown in the air at 104
one time
Annie with lariat 105
Dave holds an apple for Annie Oakley 106
Annie and friend Eddie Hoff, age seven, of New York, 107
1922
Annie shooting with her left hand, probably in 1926 108
Letter written by Annie Oakley in 1923 109
Annie's and Frank's graves near Brock, Ohio 110
Painting showing Annie Oakley shooting from a 111
sidesaddle
Page xi
Series Editor's Preface
Glenda Riley's well-researched, smoothly written biography of Annie
Oakley accomplishes three large goals. In addition to providing an
illuminating story of an intriguing person, Riley uses Oakley to
comment provocatively on gender roles of her times. The author also
demonstrates how Annie becameand remainsa central figure in
illustrating the Wild West.
More convincingly and more interpretively than any previous
biographer, Glenda Riley details the mythos Annie Oakley created of
herself for her audiences. Summarizing Annie's adroit uses of guns
and horses, her avoidance of villainy and her assumption of heroism,
her modesty and femininity, and her symbolic marriage to a lively and
adventuresome West, Riley supplies a pioneering work of one
individual's participatory role in molding and epitomizing the Old
West. Dozens of earlier biographers achieved this goal in treating
Buffalo Bill Cody, General George A. Custer, and Wild Bill Hickok,
but Riley's work is the first scholarly biography to do so for a female
figure.
Equally noteworthy is the author's use of Annie Oakley to clarify
gender roles in the decades surrounding 1900. Annie opened the
tightly shut door of respectability for women as users of guns. After
her, the handling of weapons, hunting, and shooting became more
acceptable activities for women. Indeed, over time Riley's Annie
Oakley became an oxymoronic character: a feminine-gunman and
lady-marksman, skilled at men's occupations without abandoning her
Victorian gentility.
Obviously Annie greatly enlarged the meaning of Buffalo Bill's Wild
West when she became a vivacious metaphor for a lively but