For your consideration is a rare 1926 First Publishing of "The Saga of Billy the Kid" by William Noble Burns, publisher Doubleday, Page & Co. This entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. The book focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and 1881. Burns paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanized into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilization was rapidly displacing. Walter Noble Burns's “Saga of Billy the Kid” kindled a fascination in Billy the Kid that survives to this day. This rare book is in amazingly good condition, the green cloth bound gold gilt front cover is illustrated with a stamped cowboy hat, horse crop, and revolver. The gold gilt is a little faded on the spine. Intact deckled pages exhibit age tanning throughout, slight foxing noted. Spine is loose from the back cover. Measures 5.5"W x 8.5"L x 1.5"D