Joy of the Birds
Gale Cooper
AuthorHouse, 2008

"For William H. Bonney, whom they murdered, and for his spirit, which they could not kill."
                                           -Dedication

From the Book Cover:
Joy of the Birds is a milestone in the literature of Billy the Kid. It is arguably the definitive revisionist telling of his story.

Based on research utilizing 40,000 pages of archival documents and books, and input of over 300 consultants, Joy of the Birds creates a virtual world.

As docufiction, it ends 130 years of cover-up by the Santa Fe Ring: a corrupt cabal of robber baron politicians, law enforcement, and hit-man thugs which caused the freedom fight known as the Lincoln County War. Central to that uprising was Billy Bonney, outlawed by these enemies as Billy the Kid. That war's last survivor, he had to die. The truth could have brought down President Hayes's administration.

Joy of the Birds is also a tale of star-crossed romance between Billy Bonney, a charismatic drifter, and young Paulita Maxwell, the richest heiress in New Mexico Territory. It was in her brother's bedroom in the family mansion that Billy was murdered by betrayal and by the hand of Sheriff Pat Garrett a little before midnight on July 14, 1881 Paulita would have heard the fatal shot.

The undercurrent in Joy of the Birds is of a mythic hero journey in the cosmic battle of good and evil. Billy Bonney's astounding escapes from Ring clutches and his transformations in his fight against Ring injustices yield his comprehension of a wise old woman's childhood lesson to him that birds know the great truth: there is only life - now and eternal. "So fly and fly like them without any fear, because there is only one moment in which you must know death, and millions of moments to be alive. And, after that one moment, you have forever." From that revelation comes freedom to be true to one's highest ideals and fearlessness to walk the earthly path to the end.

What Others Say:
"In this extraordinary mixture of fiction and history, Billy the Kid is vividly brought to life with unmatched attention to psychological detail and historical truth. Authentic, convincing and impeccably researched, told with uncanny realism and understanding, here is the story of the boy who danced fearlessly with death every day of his life and became the most lasting legend of his time. Powerfully and relentlessly, Joy of the Birds will transport you into the life and the world of Billy the Kid and make you see it and feel it as you never have before."
                         - Frederick Nolan
Author of The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History

About the Author:
Gale Cooper is a Harvard-educated M.D. psychiatrist specializing in murder case consultation, who moed from a Beverly Hills, California medical practice to a New Mexico mountain to write Joy of the Birds. The author has also written and illustrated adult non-fiction and children's books.

After publishing this book, Gale Cooper went on to publish the follow-up non-fiction account MegaHoax: The Strange Plot to Exhume Billy the Kid and Become President.

Hardcover. 648 pp. Roster of Appreciation and Bibliography by Subject