According to Kate

According to Kate is a fascinating biography of Big Nose Kate and her life in the Old West. Chris Enss definitely did her research and the book is well written.

I found this novel to be immensely fascinating. I have loved every story that I could get my hands on, regarding the lives of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. And while I have often wondered about the women in their lives, I haven't found many reliable sources to go on. Until, that is, I discovered According to Kate. Kate was the longtime companion of Doc Holliday, and an incredibly astounding woman. I loved reading about her, and thanks to the brilliant writing of Chris Enss, I feel as though I was given the opportunity to meet her personally. I now have a new "obsession," if you will, to find more about Miss Kate (I refuse to call her Big Nose Kate!) and the amazing life that she led. My thanks to the author, and a definite recommend!

The legend of Doc Holliday and Kate Elder is one familiar to most people. Over the years, the famous and infamous couple have appeared in movies, articles, books, etc. Chris Enss has chosen a different tale. One focused on Kate Elder and determined to find the woman behind the myth.

Stated simply, Enss succeeded in telling the true story of Kate Elder. From her beginnings as Mary Katherine Horony in Hungary to her humble end, Kate Elder lead a life few could compare.

Enss is a wonderful author. She has a way of giving the facts without losing the story. According to Kate brings the reader along for the journey into the past. Elder becomes a real person with dreams, heartache, love, and hardships. The factual evidence is there, but the author is able to weave those into the story. Although the book does not read like a historical fictional novel, it comes close. It is even better because it is not fiction. It is a true story about someone who experienced a life so unlike our lives today.

Not only is According to Kate and enjoyable read, the book is filled with photographs of the people and places discussed. Scattered throughout the text, the photographs allow the reader to connect even more to the story.

I can easily say this is my first book by Chris Enss, but won't be my last.

ACCORDING TO KATE: THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF BIG NOSE KATE, LOVE OF DOC HOLLIDAY is the latest nonfiction book by Chris Enss. The book will be published on October 1st 2019 by Two Dot Books.

Ever since visiting Tombstone, Arizona, is December 2009, I have been obsessed with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and everyone related to them – including Kate Elder. While Kate was mentioned in many of the books I had read about Holliday, the Earps, and Tombstone, there weren’t any books about Kate Elder (AKA Big Nose Kate AKA Mrs. Doc Holliday AKA Mary Kate Cummings). ACCORDING TO KATE: THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF BIG NOSE KATE, LOVE OF DOC HOLLIDAY is the definitive book about the life of Kate Elder. Close to fifty years after Kate Elder died, Chris Enss has collected her notes and letters into the biography that Kate had hoped to compose during the later years of her life. The book not only tells Kate’s story, but it provides a historical context of the time period and places in which Kate lived. Chris Enss sticks to the facts provided by Kate and other contemporary records – whether those facts are completely accurate or not is questionable. Enss also debunks a lot of fictions and myths that have been assigned to Kate over the years. Kate led a hard, interesting life, and ACCORDING TO KATE: THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF BIG NOSE KATE, LOVE OF DOC HOLLIDAY is a fascinating read.

The history of the American West is enhanced by this description of Kate's life. Even if not everything Kate collected in her collection is 100% confirmed as true, it is interesting to think about the life she led and the difficulties on the frontier at that time!

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Rowman & Littlefield- Two Dot Publishing and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Big Nose Kate was more than just Doc Holliday's girlfriend. Using Kate's own notes, Ms. Enss has put together a thoughtful and we'll written biography of a larger than life woman in the Wild West. An amazing story to be read.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended for fans of Wild West history.

According to Kate is the story of Doc Holiday's paramour, Kate Elder. The author says she lets Kate tell her own story, but some analysis and interpretation would have been constructive. Most of the book is about the wanderings of Hoilday and Kate while both plied their trades. I didn't find out anything new about the woman. I thought the book was a bit bland.

According to Kate
The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

by Chris Enss

Rowman & Littlefield

Two Dot

Biographies & Memoirs , History

Pub Date 01 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of According to Kate through Rowman & Littlefield and Netgalley:

Kate Elder was born Mary Katherine Horony on November 7 1850 in Hungary. Her Father Michael Horony was a German Physician and her Mother, Katharina Baldizar was a homemaker. Her Father was able to provide well for the family.

In the early 1860’s Political Unrest prompted Doctor Horony to move his family out of Hungary. By November 1862 they settles into a modest home in Davenport
Iowa where Doctor Horony resumes his practice. In March of 1865 Katarina died of typhoid fever, just over a month later Doctor Horony died of an unknown ailment very suddenly and unexpectedly.

The five youngest children went to go live with their oldest sister and her husband. In 1866 Kate and Wilhelmina would be sent to the Ursuline Convent and Boarding School In St Louis in 1866 after family friend Otto Smith was named administrator of the Doctors Estate.

Mary was a rebellious student who didn’t take well to the rules of the Convent.

Doc Holliday’s paramour Big Nose Kate could never get a publisher to give her the large amount of money that she demanded to tell the story of her life, however that didn’t stop her from collecting material she wanted to use in a biography. Over the fifty years Mary Kate Cummings, alias Big Nose Kate, traveled the West she saved letters from her family, musings she had written about her love interests, and life with the notorious John Henry Holliday. (Doc Holiday) This book uses rare, never before published material Big Nose Kate stock-piled in anticipation of writing the tale of her days on the Wild Frontier, the definitive book about the famous soiled dove will finally be told. Kate claims to have witnessed the Gunfight at the OK Corral and exchanged words with the likes of Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus. There’s no doubt she embellished her adventures, but that doesn’t take away from their historical importance. She was a controversial figure in a rough and rowdy territory. What she witnessed, the lifestyle she led, and the influential western people she met are fascinating and represent a time period that is very much romanticized.

I give According to Kate four out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

I've read every book and seen every movie I could find on the era of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. None of those mention the women of this era in anyway except a passing remark. Chris Enss has done an excellent job of presenting the life and times of Big Nose Kate. I enjoyed this book from the first page through the last. With Enss talented writing and clear enjoyment in the craft, Kate's contributions to western history can be appreciated by all.

Chris Enss account of Kate, a.k.a. Big-Nosed Kate, a lover of the west’s infamous Doc Holiday, tells the story of her experiences from childhood to her death. Additionally, readers get a sense of what the Wild West was like from personal descriptions and accounts of one woman’s history. The work develops from Kate’s own remembrances and other historic facts. As a Women’s history, “According to Kate” is at times rowdy and others sad; the author illuminates the reality of female lives that must rely on their own abilities to live a meager existence. Kate’s choice in survival was a combination of odd jobs and being a “lady-of-the-evening.” It is not often that the history of a woman of this social rank is recorded and shared among other male dominated histories. Unfortunately, while Kate is a strong individual, it is probably her relationships to the men of her world that propels her into the tomes of history. Through her many years and travels Kate was a madam and worked in saloons across the west. This personal story is readable, detailed, and reveals the regional history of the territories and the states in which Kate lives and works. The added details regarding Holiday, provide additional value to history. Recommended to readers of the American West History and Women’s History.

I grew up on stories of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, and spent time visiting historical sites in Tombstone, Arizona, so I was thrilled for the opportunity to learn more about Mary Kate Cummings. This book lived up to my expectations and then some! What a fascinating woman with a truly fascinating life, and her story is told in a captivating way by Chris Enss. I loved considering Kate's perspective, and it was a fresh take to present it in her own voice.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.