Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life By Robert M. Utley
University of Nebraska Press, 302 pages, $22.95 While Momaday`s
``The Ancient Child`` presents the umpteenth fictive portrait of
Billy the Kid, readers interested in a more authentic account of
the renegade`s life will not be disappointed by Robert M.
Utley`s careful study. Utley demonstrates that the Kid was very
much a media creation even before Pat Garrett killed him on July
14, 1881. Eastern newspaper reporters were already on hot
pursuit of the colorful outlaw`s trail. Garrett and Ash Upson`s
``The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, the Noted Desperado of
the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood have Made His
Name a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona & Northern Mexico,``
published less than a year after the Kid`s death, assured his
fame. Thereafter, myth took over. Utley describes Billy as a
``hero and anti-hero,`` whose career did not live up to his
reputation. The Kid certainly did not kill 21 men (one for each
year of his life) as is generally