History has served as fuel for writers of both fiction and non-fiction since time untold. Real life provides the best fodder for stories and the real lives of people long dead and cultures now defunct is a refreshingly safe place to get a tale that won't likely bring controversy. But even with a gripping, well written story there is always an element of luck in getting a story published. I suppose that there is an element of luck in everything. Just ask Billy the Kid. He and his Regulators survived a range war only to meet with various, usually bloody ends. But for one brief and luck time there was a wedding and a game of croquet. Someone snapped a tintype picture of that moment and developed it. That picture was passed around for decades until it languished in a junk shop where it was purchased with a box of other such things for $2. Then the buyer figured out what it was through a series of lucky events and now it is looking to sell for $5,000,000.
National Geographic will be airing a documentary October 18.