TOMBSTONE
TOMBSTONE By Tom Clavin St. Martin’s Press 365 pgs When look back in history on powerful empires, we soon learn that all the great ones had rich folktales and myths. The Greeks had the Aeneid and the Odyssey, while the Brits had the Legend of King Arthur. In America, the closest thing to such was the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, AZ. The good guys were the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday and the bad guys were the cattle rustling Clantons and McLaurys. This one particular moment of violent lasted all of 33 seconds but its effect on the image and culture of the American character is still being felt today. Western historian Tom Clavin echoes those statements in his own preface and mentions all the dozens of movies made on the subject, never mind the countless books. While aware he is going to be treading over lots of well known locales, the wonder of this book is how he focuses on the details and minutiae. He doesn’t drop us into that dusty Arizona mini