When I spoke to author Craig Crease about his book “The Wanderer: James Butler Hickok and the American West” for a story in early 2024, I agreed to write a review.

The book was released in June 2024 and although I was trampling the paths of the Lee County Fair & 4-H Show for work, the streets of the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival as a Mendota Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassador, and Nashville and Cleveland on vacation, I was finally able to read the book in July and August.

Although, I’ve lived in Mendota for a major chunk of my life, which is close to Troy Grove (formerly Homer) and the home of “Wild Bill” James Butler Hickok, I don’t know much about the spy, scout, and sharpshooter during the Civil War.

Crease’s book definitely opened up my mind and gave me multiple layers of information and knowledge on Hickok.

It reads as a true biography starting with Wild Bill being born on May 27, 1837, in Homer and moves through his life in chronological order.

In all honesty, I enjoyed not having to jot down notes or a timeline because it was given to me in order. In a lot of biographies or narratives about a person, they jump around. The story may start halfway through the subject’s life or begin at birth and then jump 30 years before returning to when they were in high school.

Crease did a good job of showing the growth of Hickok as a person. It gave an, “Oh, that makes sense” type of feel because Hickok’s previous experiences led up to why he did something or how he could do something when it came to that situation. There wasn’t any guessing, it made sense to know why Hickok became the legend he still is today.

Why he has a plaque in Troy Grove.

Why he is a subject in movies.

Why Crease wrote this book and why I read it and am writing about it.

Another aspect of The Wanderer that I enjoyed are the letter entries in almost each chapter.

A reader can tell Crease did his homework and made sure he had proof of what he was narrating. It’s always a nice touch in a biography to have dated artifacts to help confirm a point or a story line.

I also like how Crease uses his research and findings to say whether something we’ve been told is true or not. He breaks down each myth or folk tale and helps put a spotlight on what seems to be more of the truth and what has been made up for storyteller’s ego or the bright lights of a Hollywood movie.

I say, ‘What seems like,’ because let’s face it we can have evidence of some things of the past, but we don’t have everything to tell a story 100-percent accurate, especially from the 1800s when no one was really thinking about what would be in museums or historical documentation in 2024.

My only negative was the length.

I love to read, but in a world that moves as fast as ours does in the 21^st century, it took me over a month to actually read the over 500-page book because of other commitments. I had to go back and reread a few chapters to remind me of where I was.

However, after reading the entire work, I don’t know what Crease could have cut out because all of the information, story, research was interesting and eye opening.

Even to someone who has grown up a town over from the legend known as “Wild Bill” James Butler Hickok.