Alias Soapy Smith: The book: Contact Us

"I received Jeff Smith's bio of Soapy and enjoyed it very much, marveling at the extent of his research and ability to organize for effective presentation" —William R. Hunt, author of North of 53 Degrees: The Wild Days of the Alaska-Yukon Mining Frontier, 1870-1914 & Distant Justice: Policing the Alaska Frontier

"Congrats on a terrific book! ... I was impressed with the thoroughness and how you two resolved issues like Mattie Silks' connection."
—Tom Noel, author of The City and the Saloon: Denver, 1858-1916 & Denver's Larimer Street: Main Street, Skid Row and Urban Renaissance

"We ... never dreamed that such a wealth of information could be unearthed about a character [Soapy Smith] who probably tended to avoid leaving a huge paper trail. But the great-grandson has done a superb job of gathering material from all types of sources to produce a biography which will challenge anyone to find additional information."

—Newsletter of the Wild West History Association

"In this massive account of the life of his great-grandfather, Jefferson Randolph Soapy Smith, Jeff Smith has covered in scrupulous detail not only the career of his remarkable forebear but the fascinating history of conmanship and gambling in the nineteenth century American West. Drawn from unpublished family records and a wealth of primary sources, it is an engrossing tale and a noteworthy addition to the literature of the genre."
—Robert DeArment, author of Knights of the Green Cloth: The Saga of the Frontier Gamblers & Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend

"Alias Soapy Smith is certainly the last word on the life of one of history’s most colorful characters and the times in which he lived. Jeff Smith is now counted among the ranks of those writers and historians who take the time to seek the truth, and then display it in a most compelling fashion. Alias Soapy Smith belongs on the book-shelf of anyone interested in the old west, the Klondike/Alaskan gold rush, early Alaskan history, Denver political history, or the study of “consmanship” and gambling at the turn of the 20th century."
—Gary Loudoux, author of Nantan: The Life and Times of John P. Clum (Volumes 1 & 2)

Pages

Contact Us