Born to the Badge

Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey

Fiction - Historical - Personage
385 Pages
Reviewed on 11/20/2018
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Author Biography

Mark Warren has been writing stories since he was a child growing up in Georgia.

He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in Chemistry/Pre-med. Following undergraduate work Mark pursued music composition and arrangement at Georgia State University.

At Medicine Bow, his school in the Southern Appalachians, he teaches nature classes and survival skills of the Cherokees. The National Wildlife Federation named him Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year in 1980. In 1998 Mark became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999 he won the World Championship Longbow title.

Mark has written extensively about nature for magazines, including:
Guernica, Blue Ridge Highlander, North Georgia Journal, and Georgia Backroads.

Mark is a lifelong student of Native American History and Survival Skills, and Western History with a special focus on Wyatt Earp. He is a member of the Wild West History Association and Western Writers of America.

His published books include:
*Two Winters in a Tipi (Lyons Press, 2012), a memoir
*Secrets of the Forest (Waldenhouse Publishing, 2016), a 4-volume series on nature/survival
*Adobe Moon (Five Star Publishing, 2017), an historical novel and first in the trilogy Wyatt Earp: An American Odyssey
*Born to the Badge ( 2018), second in the trilogy *Promised Land (2019) third in the trilogy

    Book Review

Reviewed by Steve Leshin for Readers' Favorite

Born to the Badge - Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey, Book 2 by Mark Warren is a tribute to its author as a well researched telling of the years when Wyatt Earp began a career as a lawman in the Old West towns of Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas up to his eventual journey to Tombstone, Arizona. Covering the years 1874 through 1879, Born to the Badge is the second book in a series about this extraordinary man, Wyatt Earp. This is a Western novel to be sure and author Mark Warren does an excellent job in capturing Wyatt from his late twenties through early thirties.

It is not easy to portray a historical character like Wyatt Earp. As an author who has used Wyatt as a character in my own writing, I had to read a lot of books and articles about Wyatt before I could write about him as a flesh and blood character. My Wyatt is an older, more urban ex-lawman. In Born to the Badge, Mark Warren does a thorough study of a younger man. In the mid to late 1870s setting, Warren covers Wyatt’s beginnings as a deputy in Wichita, his first encounter with Mattie Blaylock, his second wife, his relationship with his older brother James, and how he met Doc Holliday. I especially like the way Wyatt handles Clay Allison as well as his decision making later on when he has had enough of Wichita and Dodge City. The dialogue rings true for that time period in the 1870s and the reader will get to know the Wyatt Earp in history rather than the TV or movie character. An enjoyable read for anyone interested in Wyatt Earp and the Old West.