Martha Jane Cannary ran through names like whiskey, but one moniker stuck - Calamity Jane. Stranded in a Virginia City mining camp, this orphan blasted through the 1860s West, determined to be noticed and tell her own story. Rowdy and seemingly hell-bent on her own destruction, this devoted friend, jilted lover, sometime wife, and heartbroken mother wandered the West she loved. She shot up saloons, performed in bordellos and Wild West shows, worked when she had to, cared for the sick, and lied about what she couldn't change. This well-researched historical novel vividly revives an original woman of the American West.