Annie Oakley wasn't a tomboy - she married at 16 -- and she wasn't from the West, despite being touted as the girl from the Western Plains. The real Annie Oakley is worlds removed from the character immortalized by Ethel Merman in "Annie Get Your Gun." She was quiet, a bit prim, and read the Bible regularly. Yet her athleticism and skill were extraordinary.
From a hardscrabble childhood and no formal education, she became an international star who toured through Europe as very few ever did in the 19th Century - France, England, Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, in which she starred, brought a young and vibrant America to the Old World and played to a collective millions of spectators.
This novel humanizes the iconic figure, shows her interacting with people she may or may not have met, and chronicles the loving marriage between Annie and her partner and manager, Frank Butler.