This was a ton of information that I just didn't know. I've loved Annie Oakley since I first saw the Musical as a kid. And from that point on I did know stuff like the fact that in real life Frank didn't win against Annie, but married her aside from who won and who lost. But, there was cool new stuff in here like the fact that they met and married before they started traveling with Cody.

I hadn't known she was an actress either, that was really cool info to find out, and the book had a lot of that in there. All her life after Cody's show was super interesting. She seemed very committed to teaching women (and men to a lesser degree) how to properly shoot and seemed totally obsessed with making every one in the country a trap shooter.

I also hadn't known about how she went up against Hearst and his burgeoning empire in a ton of libel lawsuits and that changed the US too.

I wonder if not for Joel Sayre and John Twist (first movie with Barbara Stanwyk) about Annie and then Rodgers and Hammerstein then would we all know more about this great lady. The former writers took away the fact that Annie won and Frank married her, and then Rodgers and Hammerstein totally destroyed their characters. And this book did a good job revealing the real (and awesome) Annie Oakley.

Also, one of my favorite parts of the book was the pictures. They were totally awesome.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of TwoDot. ( )

This is a biography that can be enjoyed by all ages

I am definitely one of those who knew of Annie Oakley only for her gun touting Wild West time with Buffalo Bill Cody. But she was so much more than that. A devoted wife and champion of charities; a advocate women owning guns and being in the military; the victim and fighter of yellow jacket journalism; an actress; and the list goes on and on. (Interestingly, she was against woman’s suffrage.)

Annie came from a poor family and started shooting game as a way to provide. Eventually meeting and beating her future husband, Frank, at a shooting competition sparked the start of her career.

However, an issue I had with this biography was that so much of it seemed excerpted from newspapers back then. It’s a short book and the amount used seemed equivalent to what a hefty bio would have. There were also many passages from journals and letters. I have nothing against using sources this way, but it became a little excessive.