Lee A. Silva’s ancestors were California Gold Rush farmers, merchants, miners, and mule skinners. His paternal grandfather operated a hog farm, and his father owned a cattle ranch, bred quarter horses and started taking the author shotgunning and target shooting shortly after Lee was old enough to walk. Lee began to collect antique guns when he was eight years old, and he has been collecting, dealing in, and writing about them ever since.

Lee worked as a cowboy, lifeguard, taxi driver, jail keeper, hunting guide, process server, insurance investigator, and other jobs while attending San Jose State College, graduating with a BA degree in 1958.

Photo of Author Lee A. Silva After college Lee worked as a Porsche and Rolls Royce salesman, abalone and salvage diver and antique gun dealer, and as a Hollywood actor, Lee appeared in daytime soaps and in the TV series Rawhide. He became a headline singer in Las Vegas with his life-long friends Stan Williams and Gil Sabourin, and he continued to sing and teach guitar in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.

While spending twenty-five years as what he calls a "saloon singer," Lee began writing Old West history. He has been collecting antique guns since he was 8 years old. Today, Lee Silva is a recognized authority on the gunfighters and weapons of the frontier, and he continues to deal in antique guns and swords. He is one of the co-authors of Guns of the Gunfighers, America: The Men and Their Guns That Made Her Great, and The Official Price Guide to Old West Collectibles. He has written dozens of articles for Guns & Ammo, The Gun Report, Gun World , Hunting, True West, Old West, Frontier Times, Wild West, Skin Diver, and other magazines.

Lee Silva is a twenty-two year member of the Western Writers of America. He is a member of NOLA (The National Association for Outlaw and Law- man History) and WOLA (The Western Outlaw- Lawman History Association). He has been a judge for the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Western Heritage awards, has been nominated three times for the Western Writers Of America's Spur award for best short non-fiction, and the first draft of this Wyatt Earp book was a finalist for the 1993 C.L. "Doc" Sonnichsen Book Award given by the University of Texas at El Paso each year for unpublished non-fiction.

The forth-coming volumes by Lee A. Silva about the life and legend of Wyatt Earp will be:

Volume II: Tombstone, The Legend-Making Years

Volume III: The Forgotten Years

Volume IV: The Last Years and the Legend

Lee Silva can be contacted by regular US Mail at PO Box 556, Sunset Beach, CA 90742.

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This website and contents are Ó2005 by Lee A. Silva