The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West - Softcover

Christopher Corbett is the author of Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express, as well as a novel, Vacationland. He teaches journalism at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Exhaustively researched Corbett uses Bemis’s story as a platform for a larger discussion about the hardships of the Chinese experience in the American West.” Aaron Leitko, The Washington Post

Corbett’s accomplishment in pulling this dark history into a popular narrative is all the more impressive when you consider the difficulty of reporting on a foreign population that lived mainly outside the reach of census takers and journalists Corbett handles a great deal of sordid material with sensitivity In restoring to the poker bride a more honest and complete history, Corbett undoes generations of self-serving mythology.” Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

Imagine McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Deadwood hand-stitched together and given a novel slant as a mini-epic of Chinese immigrant life. That suggests the polyglot vitality of The Poker Bride a juicy combination of social history and deconstructed myth [Corbett] juggles facts and apocrypha like a master with The Poker Bride, Corbett cements his claim as an ace surveyor of America’s borderland of fable.” Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun

In The Poker Bride, Christopher Corbett delves deep into the soul of the real old west, using the story of one Chinese sojourner’ a young woman named Polly as the thread to link a thousand pearls of fact and lore and whatever you call those fragments of story that lie somewhere in between. All I can say is, Twain would be proud.” Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City

[Corbett] provides a colorful overview of the Chinese experience.” Melanie Kirkpatrick, The Wall Street Journal

Corbett gracefully weaves the history of the Chinese in the 19th-century American West Corbett’s intriguing book will appeal to readers interested in the narrative history of the American West and tales of the mining camps Corbett’s accomplished book will engage history buffs and general readers alike.” Library Journal (starred review)

[Corbett] turns a dark chapter in our history into compelling reading.” The Week

The main strength of Corbett’s book is his detailed description of life in wide-open California and the Pacific Northwest [Polly Bemis’] story is remarkable, and Corbett’s research is certainly thorough. The Poker Bride adds immeasurably to the Asian-American nonfiction catalog.” Martin Brady, Bookpage