In Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, Karen Holliday Tanner, a distant cousin, reveals the real man behind the legend. Shedding light on Holliday's early years in a prominent Georgia family during the Civil War and Reconstruction, she examines the elements that shaped his destiny: his birth defect, the death of his mother and estrangement from his father, and the diagnosis of tuberculosis, which led to his journey west.

Using previously undisclosed family documents and reminiscences as well as other primary sources, Tanner documents the true story of Holliday's friendship with the Earp brothers and his run-ins with the law, including the climactic shootout at the O.K. Corral and its aftermath.