Recommended reading - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Ron Hansen (1983)

 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

by Ron Hansen.
 
Published by Harper Perennial
First published 1983.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0061120197
ISBN-13: 978-0061120190
 
Description:
 

From critically acclaimed author Ron Hansen comes a breathtaking recreation of the American West – a riveting retelling of the life of its most famous outlaw, Jesse James, and his ignoble death at the hands of the “dirty little coward” who coveted James’s legend. It is a stunning portrait of two men – James, a charismatic, spiritual, larger-than-life badman whose bloody exploits captured the imagination and admiration of a nation hungry for antiheroes; and Robert Ford, a young upstart nobody torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy. Powerful, strange, and unforgettable, it is a story of America in all her rough, conflicted glory and the myths that made her.