| The Journals of Lewis and Clark Contributor(s): Devoto, Bernard (Author) |
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ISBN: 0395859964 ISBN-13: 9780395859964 Publisher: Harper Perennial OUR PRICE: $20.69 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1997 Annotation: In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank - not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward and that a national "Voyage of Discovery" must be mounted to determine the nature and accessibility of the frontier. He commissioned his young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an intelligence-gathering expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis, accompanied by co-captain William Clark, the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, and thirty-two men, made the first trek across the Louisiana Purchase, mapping the rivers as he went, tracing the principal waterways to the sea, and establishing the American claim to the territories of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Together the captains kept a journal, a richly detailed record of the flora and fauna they sighted, the Indian tribes they encountered, and the awe-inspiring landscape they traversed, from their base camp near present-day St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. In keeping this record they made an incomparable contribution to the literature of exploration and the writing of natural history. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Travel | United States - West - General - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 917.804 |
| LCCN: 97001518 |
| Series: Lewis & Clark Expedition |
| Physical Information: 1.37" H x 5.48" W x 8.32" (1.08 lbs) 576 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Journals of Lewis and Clark are the first report on the West, on the United States over the hill and beyond the sunset, on the province of the American future" (Bernard DeVoto).
In 1803, the great expanse of the Louisiana Purchase was an empty canvas. Keenly aware that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward--and that a "Voyage of Discovery" would be necessary to determine the nature of the frontier--President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to 1806, accompanied by co-captain William Clark, the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, and thirty-two men, Lewis mapped rivers, traced the principal waterways to the sea, and established the American claim to the territories of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Together the captains kept this journal: a richly detailed record of the flora and fauna they sighted, the native tribes they encountered, and the awe-inspiring landscape they traversed, from their base camp near present-day St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River, that has become an incomparable contribution to the literature of exploration and the writing of natural history. |
Contributor Bio(s): Devoto, Bernard: - Bernard DeVoto (1897-1955), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was a renowned scholar-historian of the American West and one of the country's greatest men of letters. |