Popular understanding of the American West has been shaped as much by fact as by fiction – fiction that in some cases is contemporary to the actual figures and events it represents, as many of the documents in the Graff Collection testify.

The lawless nature of burgeoning settlements proved irresistible to authors and audience alike. (In)famous figures from the press were often depicted in periodicals such as the Police Gazette (see Billy LeRoy, the Colorado bandit (Graff 968)) as well as illustrated novels such as The life, times, and treacherous death of Jesse James (Graff 4196) and The life and adventures of Colonel David Crockett of Tennessee (Graff 5330). The alleged bandits often published their own accounts, for example the notorious robber of the James-Younger gang Cole Younger is credited with The story of Cole Younger, by himself (Graff 4796). One such account from a figure still very well known today, Life and adventures of Calamity Jane (Graff 484), is purported to be unreliable as a historical source, an example of how, through the agency of these books, even the figures themselves perpetuated the fiction and the image of The West.