Ned Buntline was the pen name of writer Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who became an influence on American popular culture in the mid-19th century by writing and promoting adventure stories. His own life was filled with adventures, scandals, and violent episodes, all of which he turned into material gobbled up by the reading public.

Buntline’s contributions to Americana included the discovery of a frontier scout named William Cody, who became “Buffalo Bill” in dime novels published by Buntline.

The conception of the American West which was portrayed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and eventually countless movie and television westerns, could be traced back to Buntline’s work.

The varied publishing endeavors of Buntline were extremely popular, but he also had many detractors who felt his work was coarse and inappropriate for the public. None of that mattered to Buntline, of course. He laughed off any criticism and continued to write his distinctive tales of mayhem and adventure until his death in 1886.

Life of “Ned Buntline”

Edward Z.C. Carroll was born in Delaware County, New York, on March 20, 1823. His father was a schoolmaster, but young Edward showed little interest in education and ran off to join the Navy as a cabin boy in his early teens. After showing herosim when a boat capsized in 1838, he was rewarded with a midshipman’s commission.

While serving in the Navy he wrote a book under the named Ned Buntline, which was based on a nautical term. His writing attracted the notice of a magazine editor in New York City, and in 1842 Carroll left the Navy and embarked on a career working for magazines.

He began to go by the name of Ned Buntline and essentially became an adventurous character. In the 1840s and 1850s Buntline became involved in a series of escapades and it’s difficult to sort out fact from fiction.

In 1846 he’d shot a man in Kentucky and was lynched for it yet managed to survive. Returning to New York City after that scrape, he started a newspaper, Ned Buntline’s Own.

Publishing anti-immigrant propaganda, he played a role in organizing the Know-Nothing Party. By some accounts was an instigator of the notorious Astor Place Riot in New York City.

At some point he also traveled to the West as a member of an expedition for a fur trading company. Buntline wrote about the Mexican War and claimed to have participated in it, though that’s doubtful. And he enlisted in the Civil War but, again, his role in that is sketchy.

While living his various adventures he kept writing books, with titles such as The Mysteries and Miseries of New York, Ned Buntline’s Life Yarn, and Navigator Ned. He wrote quickly and claimed to never revise any of his writing. Despite any literary failings, his books sold, and he became part of the popular culture of America.

Ned Buntline and Buffalo Bill

Perhaps Buntline’s most lasting contribution to American culture was the role he played in bringing the character of Buffalo Bill Cody to a wide audience. Buntline happened to meet William Cody, a military scout, by chance in 1869. He heard some of his stories and began to use them as fodder for books and articles.

Buntline kept writing to Cody, urging him to come to New York City and essentially play himself onstage. Cody eventually agreed, and began a show business career that would change pop culture in America.

The character of Buffalo Bill became extremely popular, and Cody eventually organized and toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Thus the genre of the western, which lives on today in television programs and films, was the result.

Though Cody was encouraged by Buntline, the two men only worked together for a few years.

Buntline, by the 1880s, had essentially retired. A lifetime of adventures had left him with injuries that caused residual health problems, and he died at his home in New York State on July 16, 1886.