Four Years in Europe with Buffalo Bill

Series Editor's Preface

series editor’s preface Four years ago the McCracken Research Library in Cody, Wyoming, set out to edit and publish the collected papers of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. It seemed like an idea whose time had come; in fact, it seemed long overdue. William F. Cody was the most famous American of his time. As a cultural figure his influence was unparalleled. And yet, Cody’s role in our national narrative is largely underappreciated. As Gretchen Adams, the senior editor of this documentary editing project, has stated, “The Papers of William F. Cody documents the life and times of not one but two men: William Cody and Buffalo Bill. When Cody died in 1917, his public persona so completely eclipsed the identity of the man who created it that they may have buried the body of William F. Cody, but the funeral itself was for Buffalo Bill.” Indeed the familiar Buffalo Bill is perhaps viewed today as a quaint character, if not caricature, whose image obscures the substantive William F. Cody. Because Cody is surrounded by so much myth and lore, it is often difficult to trace the very real contribution that he made to the development of the American West. By publishing William F. Cody’s own writings as well as contemporary accounts about him, such as this one by x series editor’s preface Charles Eldridge Griffin, the Cody Papers will reveal the man behind the character and the character behind the man. This present volume in particular illustrates that Buffalo Bill’s Wild West was the point where man and myth intersected. In the editing of this volume, Chris Dixon has given us an annotated edition that will enhance both the reading experience and classroom use. He has also updated the names of all of the locations where Buffalo Bill’s Wild West appeared, which is extremely helpful, given the way the map of Europe has changed since Cody’s time. Dixon’s careful work brings a little-known writing into circulation and is a tremendous resource for scholars and interested readers at all levels. The Dixon edition of the Griffin volume is a fitting beginning for The Papers of William F. Cody. One of the major objectives of the project is to collect materials that document the personal and professional life of a man who had thousands of employees, friends, and customers who wrote to him and about him. In addition to the print edition of the Papers, a key output of the project will be a digital version of this entire corpus of material, complete with authoritative transcriptions, which will be made available through the project website and continually updated as new materials are located. The creation of this digital collection, which brings together the entire body of research materials related to William F. Cody’s personal and professional life, will enable a variety of audiences to consider the impact of William F. Cody the cultural entrepreneur on American life and provide contextualizing documents from other sources, series editor’s preface xi including audio-visual media that exist for the final years of his life. It will allow more scholars to study the man within his times, will provide new resources to contextualize studies of other regional and national events and persons, and will encourage digital edition visitors to explore and learn more about these vital decades of American expansion and development. The digital edition of the Papers will differ significantly from the print edition by including manuscript materials, photographs, and film and sound recordings, and it will offer navigational and search options not possible in the print edition. As Griffin’s volume reveals, it took many people to make Buffalo Bill’s Wild West happen. Likewise, there are many people whose combined efforts have made this documentary project a reality. All of the generous donors and talented scholars who have contributed to the success of this effort will be noted in due course. But in this, the first publication, it is appropriate to acknowledge that big ideas are carried to fruition only by sound and steady leadership. The McCracken Research Library was fortunate at the advent of the papers project that in its board chair it had such a leader. Maggie Scarlett was not only an early supporter of this documentary editing project but also its first true champion. It was through her connections (and...