Rating: 
Summary: Excellent research with too much Opinion
Review: I have given this book four stars mostly based on the research and references given by the author. However, I find the opinions expressed by Tefertiller detract from the overall work. One instance of this is the presentation of the court proceedings of the Sharkey-Fitzsimmons prize fight. Tefertiller provides the reader with a complete transcript of the civil trial. The judge ultimately concludes that prize fighting in California was illegal and it (the court) had no standing in the case and dismisses the action. Though the evidence is heavy that Wyatt was involved in a scheme to fix the fight, Tefertiller somehow excuses Earp's actions and pronouces him innocent. To me, Tefertiller should not have made excuses for Wyatt's behavior. He performed a great service by presenting the trial transcript. But after providing the transcript, Tefertiller followed it by saying, "What I think happened . . ." And there were many instances of this kind of presentation throughout the book. The historical evidence presented is fantastic. The book would have greatly benefited with not just fewer, but no "What I Think happened."
Rating:
Summary: VERY IMPRESSED
Review: I HAVE READ SEVERAL ACCOUNTS OF WYATT'S LIFE AND BELIEVE THIS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST. A LITTLE DRY AT TIMES, BUT THIS IS MORE THAN COMPENSATED BY THE WELL VERSED HISTORIC NARRATIVE. IT IS NOT A FANCIFUL ACCOUNT OF WYATT'S LIFE. IT IS AN INSIGHTFUL LOOK INTO WYATT'S TIME AND PLACE IN THE WESTERN FRONTIER. HE IS NOT A DO GOOD MARSHALL BUT HAS ALL THE GOOD AND BAD TRAPPINGS OF A REAL HUMAN BEING. DON'T EXPECT THE HOOLYWOOD EARP, EXPECT THE REAL WYATT EARP!
Rating: 
Summary: Masterfully Done
Review: I have read some 15 books that dealt with Wyatt Earp and the difficulty at Tombstone. Mr. Tefertiller has captured the essence of who Wyatt Earp was. Simply put a man made of the times he lived in. Neither saint nor devil and , at the same time saint and devil. Heros are not born but made and I see where the author has made that point very well. Very good read, best to date on Earp.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Neophytes
Review: I have thoroughly enjoyed reading "Life Behind the Legend" I am sometimes suspicious of historical books not penned by historians. But such fears are groundless in this instance. Tefertiller has done an exceptional job of ignoring the inaccurate work done by some in the field and has gone to the original sources for his information. Wyatt Earp is one of those American icons who draws writers like flies, and for most people, separating fact from fantasy is difficult when weighing through the dozens of tomes. Congratulations for Tefertiller for his tenacity and for giving us a revealing and fascinating look at this American icon.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Neophytes
Review: I have thoroughly enjoyed reading "Life Behind the Legend" I am sometimes suspicious of historical books not penned by historians. But such fears are groundless in this instance. Tefertiller has done an exceptional job of ignoring the inaccurate work done by some in the field and has gone to the original sources for his information. Wyatt Earp is one of those American icons who draws writers like flies, and for most people, separating fact from fantasy is difficult when weighing through the dozens of tomes. Congratulations for Tefertiller for his tenacity and for giving us a revealing and fascinating look at this American icon.
Rating:
Summary: A more gooder book than others.
Review: I liked this book. It easy to reed and rote good. Wyatt Earp was good with guns and shot good, too. Dock Holliday was his friend and they got the bad guys.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Impressed
Review: I must be from another planet. The positive reaction to this book leaves me confused. It's not an objective look at Earp, as is frequently said, but more hero worshipping. He actually lists the research done for the movie Tombstone as reference material!! I guess it says a lot about the reverence Wyatt fans approach him with that they think of this book as some kind of honest biography. The author sort of cops to what he's up to when he says that when all is said and done, Stuart Lake's bio had most of the facts right. How he came to this conclusion, I have no idea, but I think what he meant was that he and Stuart Lake had the same goal - to glorify Wyatt Earp. So we're still waiting for a good bio of this very interesting frontier character.
Rating: 
Summary: Incontestably a Rehash
Review: I noticed the Amazon sales record on this book of 20,000 some, which is respectable for any book, especially on a Western subject, and re-examined my opinion of it. I concluded that the title is one of its major elements of success: there is that positive suggestion of mystery, "the man behind" etc. Another element, of course, is the name Wyatt Earp itself, which is sales gold. For example, Wyatt's wife's memoir: I MARRIED WYATT EARP, is selling for twice the price of this book, and doing so over a quarter of a century after it was first published, and is rated under 100,000.
It is, therefore, pertinent to the public to know what this book may really be in addition to what it suggests. It certainly had gathered in one source everything in secondary sources that had been published up until the time it was written. Unfortunately, much of the obvious debt to other writers is not reflected in footnotes. For example, as in the case of Paula Mitchell Marks as well, this writer takes as a given "not only the discovery of fire and the wheel" but "the commonplace existence of electricity", so to say. In specific terms, this author, who refers to I MARRIED WYATT EARP on the WEB as the Hitler Diaries, despite his own use of its major source, the actual manuscript memoir of Mrs. Wyatt Earp, also seems unaware that characters he takes for granted were discovered through the research of the so-called "collector and editor" of I MARRIED WYATT EARP, most years ago. Thus we find people who were only names, or shadowy misrepresented figures, often with incorrect photo of them accepted as bonafide, in this book, fleshed out with the original research that uncovered them, without a scintilla of evidence of the source material. This certainly faults the book's methodology, and raises questions about either the objectivity or thoroughness of the author, both factors that should make the reader wary of accepting the author's conclusions.
There are also gross errors of fact, such as acceptance of a diary of Adelia Earp that the author should have known was a fabrication by a hoaxer, and not only that, but I don't know a single person aside from the author, and perhaps his editor, who thinks the "rare photo find" of Wyatt Earp that is the frontispiece (uncaptioned) is actually Wyatt Earp.
This is a book of potentially great value as a compendium to save a new Earp fan time in getting on board about the major accepted facts (as distinguished from alleged facts) but that reader, if serious, would be forced to consult the collected sources anyhow, to keep from being led astray. Unfortunately, that is not self-evident, and even it were, those sources would remain to be ferreted out, since they are not acknowledged as they would have been in an objective work.
This is definitely not an author who wants readers to decide for themselves and if they do it should not be based on his work alone. If based on a wide array of sources as appears desirable in this case, the readers' conclusion is not apt to result in elevating this author to the status of a respected authority, in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Excellant
Review: I started with Stuart Lake and finished with Tefertiller and this is the best piece of work (THE LIFE BEHIND THE LEGEND) i have read yet. pepper
Rating:
Summary: Good summary reference
Review: It's been noted that most of the ground covered by this book has been well plowed before now, if not as thoroughly. What I found most interesting was the author's "take" on what he sees as the far-reaching implications of the meaning behind the mindset that enabled the famous Tombstone confrontation. All in all I quite liked the author's characterization of Wyatt Earp, especially in his concluding remarks.
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