Cimarron badman legend Clay Allison takes his readers on a ride through his uneven and turbulent life while trying to grab a part of his own American dream: an extensive ranch with herds of cattle, and a progeny of sons to generate his name and legacy into the future. But alas, his soul-selling choice of a shortcut to prosperity by linking his star with the Santa Fe Ring skewers his plans and darkens his future. Echoing a Greek tragedy, he ends marked for assassination, and his younger brother John is shot-gunned in the dark by error, mistaken for Clay. His final years are not to be envied, but he toughs it out to the end. JAMES S. PETERS was born in Wyandotte, Michigan in 1930. In the mid-1940s his family moved to California where at sixteen he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served three years as a medic. Later he spent ten years in the navy as a photographer and in 1964 he alighted in Taos, New Mexico and developed an avid interest in Southwestern American history. After living in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, he continued researching and writing articles on the frontier West. After retiring, he pursued his interests in writing and painting. This is his first work of creative nonfiction. He now lives in Colorado.