
Belle Starr
The Truth Behind the Wild West Legend
1 August 2025
Territory Rights — Worldwide.

Description
In this definitive biography of the most infamous female American outlaw of the nineteenth century, Michael Wallis challenges a notorious legacy
In the annals of Wild West desperadoes, Belle Starr is remembered as the Bandit Queen. Now Michael Wallis parses over a century of mythmaking to reveal the woman behind the renegade legend.
Starr was born Myra Maibelle Shirley in 1848 and was educated to be a Southern belle. Her early years were characterised by the chaotic violence of the American Civil War—she was traumatised by the death of her brother while riding with a guerilla group supporting the Confederate Army and she swore revenge against all Yankees, becoming a “friend to any brave and gallant outlaw”.
Turning a redemptive eye to Belle Starr’s legacy, Wallis crafts portrait of a woman demonised for refusing to accept genteel Victorian ideals, who chose to live her life outside the law, riding with a pearl-handled Colt .45 strapped to her hip.
Also By: Michael Wallis 

Michael Wallis
Paperback, 2018
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award
A
Publishers Weekly Holiday Guide History Pick
“A book so gripping it can scarcely be put down.......

Michael Wallis
E Book, 2017
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award
A
Publishers Weekly Holiday Guide History Pick
“A book so gripping it can scarcely be put down.......

Michael Wallis
Hardback, 2017
Named “Best Book of 2017” by the Wild West History Association
Cutting through 160 years of mythmaking, best-selling historian Michael Wallis presents the ultimate cautionary tale of America’s...

Michael Wallis
Paperback, 2012
"Vivid, Comprehensible . . . cuts through decades of mythmaking." —Texas Monthly

Michael Wallis
E Book, 2011
"This engaging biography exactly and vividly catches the tone of a region, a time, and a man."—Larry McMurtry