Judson, Edward Zane Carroll

Judson, Edward Zane Carroll: see Buntline, Ned.

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Judson, Edward Zane Carroll (Ned Buntline, pen name) (1823–86) adventurer, writer; born in Stamford, N.Y. His adventuresome life was obscured by his own fabrications but he seems to have run away to sea as a youth and after some soldiering and trapping in the American West he tried to launch a career in 1844 as a publisher/editor in New York City. That venture failed and he may have escaped a lynching after being accused of a murder in Nashville, Ky. (1846). Back in New York City, he started up another magazine, Ned Buntline's Own, and began publishing the first of some 400 "dime novels," most published under the name "Ned Buntline." He then spent a year in jail for his role in starting the Astor Place riot in May 1849. In the 1850s he was one of the organizers of the American Party, the so-called "Know Nothings," who were opposed to "foreigners" and Catholics. He enlisted in the Union army in 1862 but was apparently dishonorably discharged in 1864. About this time he met William F. Cody, and christening him "Buffalo Bill," began to write books featuring his exploits. Judson also wrote a play, Scouts of the Plains (1872) that Cody—and later “Wild Bill” Hickok—starred in. He spent his last years back in Stamford, N.Y. A genuine 19th-century rogue, he preached temperance, wrote hymns, and went through four wives while achieving his dubious feats and writing his crude tales.