TwoDot Press continues its impressive run of frontier biographies with Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star ($26.95). Author Matthew Kerns, a Tennessee-based historian and digital archivist, carefully explores the life of John “Texas Jack” Omohundro who rose to national prominence as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West shows after befriending Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. Later, Texas Jack was the subject of a series of Ned Buntline dime novels. Before his stardom, however, Texas Jack was a Confederate scout and spy and later a trail boss who led cattle drives on the Chisolm and Goodnight-Loving trails throughout the West. Texas Jack is a complete and thoughtful biography of a recognizable, but little-understood figure of the American West.
—Erik J. Wright, assistant editor of the Tombstone Epitaph