Pistol Packin' Madams: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West - Paperback

by Chris Enss (Author)

Between 1840 and 1870, hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic dreamers embarked on the 2,000-mile journey into the wide-open frontier of the United States in search of free land, gold, adventure, and a better life. Although only a few women were numbered among the very first pioneers, those who did take the risk changed the face of the United States forever. The Western woman left the restrictions and conventions of her way of life behind and carried the struggle of emancipation into areas sacred to the male. She competed in business and politics, bronco busting, smoking, drinking, gambling, and gun-toting. This book celebrates the stories of the non-conforming, gun-toting pioneers who settled the West.

Author Biography

Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies, and is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita and Happy Trails (with Howard Kazanjian) Her research and writing and reveals the funny, touching, exciting, and tragic stories of historical and contemporary times.

Enss has done everything from stand-up comedy to working as a stunt person at the Old Tucson Movie Studio. She learned the basics of writing for film and television at the University of Arizona, and she is currently working with Return of the Jed" producer Howard Kazanjian on the movie version of The Cowboy and the Senorita, their biography of western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.