Recommended reading - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Ron Hansen (1983):

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

By Ron Hansen.

Published by Harper Perennial.

First published 1983.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0061120197

ISBN-13: 978-0061120190

Description:

From critically acclaimed author Ron Hansen comes a breathtaking recreation of the American West – a riveting retelling of the life of its most famous outlaw, Jesse James, and his ignoble death at the hands of the “dirty little coward” who coveted James’s legend. It is a stunning portrait of two men – James, a charismatic, spiritual, larger-than-life badman whose bloody exploits captured the imagination and admiration of a nation hungry for antiheroes; and Robert Ford, a young upstart nobody torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy. Powerful, strange, and unforgettable, it is a story of America in all her rough, conflicted glory and the myths that made her.