UA Press speaks out

Although the book I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, collected and edited by Glenn C. Boyer, has made the news recently, the controversy surrounding it has a long history since its publication in 1976. The controversy centers on two main issues: authorship of the book and the authenticity of the sources used in compiling the book. The Press views this controversy as one between Glenn Boyer and his critics, although I recognize that the University of Arizona is now being criticized.

Regarding authorship, the Press views the book as materials collected by Glenn Boyer and edited by him in a first-person narrative style. The book is titled: I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, and the attribution reads "collected and edited by Glenn G. Boyer."

The Press requested clarification of Boyer's role in the book in a letter addressed to him on Jan. 25, 1972, by Kit Schiefele, associate editor. She wrote:

I'll go along with you on footnoting throughout, but there is one thing that disturbs me. In your earlier draft of the Introduction, you made clear that the Ms (manuscript) you have presented is not solely the first-person writing of Mrs. Earp, and that you have written a first-person account based on her memoirs and other material as well. In your new Introduction you no longer make this clear. This is not fair to the reader - nor is it sound scholarship. Before I turn the Ms over to Marshall (Townsend, then director of the Press) to put it "on stream" for the evaluation process, I would like to ask that you seriously consider rewriting at least the first page of the introduction so that you make clear to the reader exactly what he is reading.

Although Boyer did not include this statement in an introduction, he explained his approach in a section of the book titled "Editor's Epilogue: How This Book Came To Be." Boyer states:

Merging the two transcripts, which contained vastly different materials presented in widely varying styles, was a challenging task. To establish a conversational standard for the combined first person narrative, I interviewed and corresponded with many people who were intimately associated in life with both Wyatt and Josie. In the course of my research, many of them became my warm friends, including the family of Celia Ann Blaylock, Wyatt's second wife. From directions and clues picked up from such informants, I was able to arrive at a vocabulary and syntax that closely approximated the speech of the living Earps.

Glenn Boyer states in his book that he used a variety of sources, including two manuscripts, correspondence, and interviews. While I have not seen either manuscript, the Press has a copy of a sworn affidavit dated Sept. 21, 1983, from Jeanne Cason Laing (her mother, Mable Earp Cason, worked with Josephine Earp on her memoir) that a manuscript memoir by Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp existed and was used by Boyer in his book.

The second issue of controversy concerns sources and materials used by Glenn Boyer to write his book. The Press, as a scholarly publisher, does not examine primary sources for the books we publish; we rely on peer review of the manuscripts as a basis for making a decision to publish a book. We did so with Boyer's book, which was peer reviewed in mid-1973 by two readers, who recommended publication after revision. The revised manuscript was reviewed again in Sept. 1973 and was again recommended for publication.

The controversy has raged for some time and I do not believe it will subside. Glenn Boyer is not an employee of the University of Arizona and the controversy about his writing should be between Mr. Boyer and his critics. The Press's role is to make peer-reviewed works available to a community of readers who can the reach their own conclusions in matters of dispute.

Christine R. Szuter
Interim Director, UA Press