"You are a very, very clever little girl." — Queen Victoria to Annie Oakley

Her life was the stuff of legend — from humble Quaker origins in Darke County, Ohio, Annie Oakley (nee Phoebe Ann Moses) rose to the heights of renown as a world-famous entertainer and featured performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West extravaganza. Her self-discipline, showmanship, and legendary gifts as a sharpshooter earned her the adulation of millions; yet to close friends she was always a generous, gentle woman. She excelled in a man's sport but never lost her feminine appeal.

This volume provides a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the life and career of Annie Oakley — her impoverished girlhood, long and devoted marriage to Frank Butler, early years with the Sells Brothers Circus, and especially seventeen years spent touring with Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), playing to packed arenas in America and Europe.

More than 100 rare photographs, posters, handbills, and other memorabilia document Annie, Buffalo Bill, Johnnie Baker, and other members of the famous troupe; the show on tour in Europe; Annie's celebrated trick shots, famous visitors, etc. In a career that spanned more than 40 years (1882–1925), Annie Oakley accumulated a remarkable store of memorable experiences: command performances before the crowned heads of Europe; adoption by Sitting Bull (who named her "Little Sure Shot"); and an appearance before the first motion-picture camera, Edison's Kinetograph, in 1894. These and many other outstanding moments come to vivid life in Mrs. Sayer's fascinating and informative text.

Through the years, the life and legend of Annie Oakley have been immortalized on stage, film and TV, and in books. Yet few presentations offer as revealing and intimate a look at a genuine American folk heroine as this book. In addition, nostalgia buffs, show-business historians, and Americana enthusiasts will find it an informative account of life with one of the greatest entertainment spectacles of nineteenth-century America: Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

Original Dover publication.