A biographical study of Mattie Blaylock, also known as Celia Ann Blaylock, identified as Wyatt Earp’s second wife. The book traces her life from her youth in Iowa through her involvement in frontier towns across Kansas, Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Dakota Territory, situating her experiences within the social world of prostitution and itinerant life in the nineteenth-century American West.
Drawing on historical records, the volume follows Mattie’s marriage to Earp, their movements through towns such as Fort Scott, Wichita, Dodge City, and Tombstone, and her later years after their separation. It also examines the conditions of frontier brothel culture, substance use, and the limited economic and social options available to women in the so-called sporting life, concluding with an account of Mattie’s final years and death in Arizona.
Notes adapted from the publisher's information.
