Miguel Antonio Otero's three-volume autobiography is one of the best documentations of life on the American frontier during the last half of the nineteenth century. His recollection of his life from his childhood until the end of his term as governor of the Territory of New Mexico in 1906 is written in the tradition of chronicles of the Southwest. His aim in writing it, he tells readers, was to provide future generations with a firsthand account of what really happened during that interesting period of his life. No less important, since he knew the subject personally, is his 1936 book on William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid, which he wrote because, according to him, all the others were "pure fiction, wholly devoid of fact." His, on the other hand, is "based entirely on actual fact."

Born 17 October 1859 in St. Louis, Missouri, Otero was the son of the famous Miguel Antonio...