No comments about Rand McNally 5th Edition Omaha street guide.

No comments about Spreading the Word: A History of Information in the California Gold Rush.

No comments about The Great Platte River Road : The Covered Wagon Mainline Via Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie.

5 comments about Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.

1. This classic work by one of the great yarn-spinners of all time includes some wonderful descriptive information about California places and people in the early 1860s and some gripping, heartstopping tales about King's own mountaineering exploits. Even in his early 20s, Clarence King was recognized for leaderhip and intellectual ability. He served with the Army Topographic Engineers on the survey of the Western United States along the 40th parallel and was an intimate of Henry Adams and his wife in their small social/intellectual circle in Washington D.C. (See Patricia O'Toole's "The Five of Hearts"). He established his national reputation for being a shrewd, practical man of science when he discovered and exposed a stock swindle based on salted ore and fraudulent assay samples when asked to evaluate a mining promotion in Colorado. "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" is a non-chronological, semi-autobiographical reconstruction of some of King's time (circa 1862-63) with Josiah Whitney's Survey, commissioned by the State legislature to catalogue and evaluate California geologic and mineral resources. It is an entertaining and engrossing narration of one foolhardy, death-defying exploit after another. Like those of John Muir (another classic, albeit overrated talesman of the Range of Light), Clarence King's numerous renditions of his own hairsbreadth escapes from impossibly precarious positions by the power of luck, pluck and sheer physical prowess, while entertaining and enthralling, were made possible only by his own chronic rash foolhardiness, if not by tremendous powers of exaggeration. A better man was his fellow draft-dodger (the Civil War was going on back East all the while they were dancing around in the mountains of California, after all), William Brewer. Brewer served longer, harder and more responsibly than King in the Whitney Survey. Brewer also wrote a factually more thorough and reliable description of conditions in the young state of California in a series of letters home to his family in New England (collected as "Up and Down California"), with none of King's histrionics but just as entertaining in its own way. King's book does include some unique insights. One is his near-comic description of the "Piker" rubes (from Pike County, Missouri), rural folk residing in the foothills of the Southern San Joaquin Valley, which can be read as a precourser of all hilarious mountain folk descriptions, from Li'l Abner through the Beverley Hillbillies to Deliverance. But truth be told (rarely enough, one suspects), this book is mostly about the indefatigable King and his own personal exploits in the Southern Sierra. While King's literary talent was substantial, his writing (and indeed his entire public life and historic reputation) were seemingly unilluminated in any way by his own domestic arrangements. These included a life-long love relationship and common law marriage to a black woman, Ada, with whom he maintained a household including their several children. Not only did he keep the marriage secret from all of his prominent social contacts, but he kept his own notorious identity and true name a secret from his wife and children until just before he died. Still, under the constant strain of maintaining a double identity, he continued to support his family and maintained an exhausting schedule of international travel, geological consulting and writing until he died prematurely from consumption at the age of 59. (See Thurman Wilkins' "Clarence King"). You won't find any mention of King's real family anything King wrote for public consumption, or even for the consumption of his well-placed friends. Altogether, this book makes for a slightly less than satisfying cud to chew over, but it tastes pretty good the first time on the way down.



2. Clarence King sure knows how to tell a good story. Whether they are true stories, well that's for you to decide. But really, it doesn't matter. You'll read of him dangling from the edge of great cliffs and running from wild west bandits, all the while keeping the reader wondering how he'll ever live to tell the tale. Overall the book is a collection of stories by a man who loved the Sierra Nevada, for it vast wilderness was his playground.



3. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada is essential reading for anyone who both loves those mountains and wants to get a glimpse of life there before it reached the level of settlement it has today. Whether or not all the stories here are strictly factual, they are often both gripping and entertaining. Additionally, they bring the reader some sense of what rural central California life was like at that time.
   Clarence King was a gifted wordsmith. His hilarious, politically incorrect descriptions of western characters are reminiscent of some of the best incisive commentary of Mark Twain. Then his descriptions of climbing in the mountains are so intense that you may even wince as you are carried along as he describes some of the most hair-raising brushes with death. Those who have been where King describes will certainly feel what King has written as they read along.
   One reviewer, though entertained, seems to doubt what King says. I don't. Though there may be a little hyperbole in King's description of events, the reader should remember that at that time the average guy was far more physically fit than the average guy today. You had to be or you didn't make it, because every day in the wilderness was fraught with challenge and physical danger.
   All in all, you could say that this book is a collection of bold tales well told. I particularly like the stories of his crossing the desert coming to California, of the hog farmers, of his escape from determined bandits, of his ultimate conquest of Mt Whitney, and of all the colorful characters he meets in his path both in the Sierras and at Shasta.
   And though some might take him for a bigot because of some of his comments about the natives, remember that he saves the sharpest point of his pen for the most worthless characters of his own stock who abound in the California of his day. Whatever you think about what King has written, once you pick this up you'll find it hard to put down until you've finished the last paragraph.



4. I thought the book was very well written and interesting, as was the life of the author Clarence King. His descriptions of the Sierra Mountains in the 1860's and 1870s and how they got their names and the early climbs he attempted.



5. Very interesting insight in to not only early Mountaineering in California, but also of life in early California. Being a longtime resident of the Valley, it was great to get a glimpse into the past and dream of what it was then, as opposed to now

No comments about The Flora of Nebraska: Keys, Descriptions, and Distributional Maps of All Native and Introduced Species That Grow Outside Cultivation: With O.

No comments about Native Languages and Language Families of North America: Folded Study Map.

No comments about Rand Mcnally Easy to Read Nebraska (Rand McNally Easy to Read!).

4 comments about Paris Reflections: Walks through African-American Paris.

1. One recent Saturday afternoon, I set out, copy of Paris Reflections in hand, to do an actual walking tour of the Latin Quarter in Paris. My aim was to familiarize myself with some of the Black American history meticulously detailed in the book. I wasn't entirely convinced that this journey would be that enjoyable.

   What followed was an afternoon of sheer delight, as I rediscovered some of the incredible beauty of this area, with the added bonus of a perspective of celebrated Black Americans from a different era. While their very haunts may have changed or even be totally nonexistent, the monuments and neighborhoods themselves are still intact, to be seen just as these personalities saw them.

   I applaud the authors for what must surely have been a labor of love. One pet-peeve, however, is the lack of photos of the basic points of interest encountered during the walks. But, otherwise, the discovery process as presented in this book in this most beautiful of cities is worth the price of admission alone. I enthusiastically recommend this offering!




2. Congratulations on work well done. While there are thousands of writings on Paris, add this to your list of Paris reading. While this work is uniquely geared towards a personal experience of Paris through the eyes of African Americans, it is a must have for anybody planning a cultural tour of the city of Paris. I congratulate Ms. Anderson for her enlightening and beautiful book!



3. Paris Reflections, Walks Through African-American Paris is a comprehensive walking guide through the streets of Paris. Written by Christiann Anderson and Monique Wells, two African-American women who have adopted the city as their home, the book is a well documented history of African-Americans and others of African descent who have lived, worked and played in the famed City of Lights.

   As one reads through the book, the authors' love and appreciation of the city is evident. In Paris Reflections, readers follow six fascinating walking tours of the city and are treated to a treasure cove of information, the obscure as well as the familiar, from important dates in Africa-American history in Paris to profiles of colorful personalities who have lived and worked in the city. Well written and easy to read, Paris Reflections, Walks Through African-American Paris is a valuable resource for both travelers and non-travelers as well.




4. As one who had never been to Paris I found/find Ms. Anderson's book extremely helpful, as well as entertaining. The discovery of Paris is a very personal journey, and I give Ms. Anderson credit for NOT including photographs, because pictures limit ones' own experiences of Paris. If photographs had been included in this book, they would have limited my own imagination of African-American Paris, and my personal journey of discovery. Ms. Anderson is an accomplished writer and artist, who is very readable. Her artwork is intriguing. I highly recommend this book, as somebody who doesn't travel very much, however I also feel the seasoned traveler will also benefit from her research. It also makes a lovely gift.

2 comments about Nebraska Atlas and Gazetteer (Nebraska Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. The Delorme atlases/gazetteers are valuable references especially if you are traveling the back roads. Compared to a regular road map, there is much more detail to find your way just about anywhere in the atlas coverage area. If you need a lot of detail, you can then purchase topographic maps. Special features are also noted. Get one of these for any state where you plan to explore off the beaten trail. I already have atlases for five states, and the collection will surely grow in coming years.



2. First off, let me state that this is a great atlas. It has all the roads you'd ever want to drive on, and many you don't want to. It gets four stars for that alone.
   
   But the maps are getting out of date. It hasn't been updated in nearly a decade, and there are many roads that aren't accurate any longer. The most egregious example of the atlas being old is that it STILL lists the SAC Museum as being located in Bellevue, though it moved to Ashland years ago.
   
   Overall, though, it's 99% great. I've used mine until it was dog-eared and tattered, and then bought another that's well on its was to getting worn out. As soon as they update the maps, I'll buy another.

5 comments about Osborne Russell's Journal of a Trapper and maps of his travels in the Rocky Mountains.

1. Osborne Russell was never one of the elite of the Mountain Men. He spent most of his time in the mundane tasks of cooking, cleaning, and other camp chores while on trapping expeditions. But he wrote one of the best accounts -- certainly one of the most accurate -- of the peregrinations and the exciting events in the life of a Mountain Man. Osborne was in the Northern Rockies between 1834-1943 and was a minor participant in many expeditions and fights with the Blackfeet.
   
   Editor Haines has compiled the routes of Russell's travel in 10 maps and added explanatory notes to his narrative. However, a lot more could be done to make this book more readable. First, there are no chapter or paragraph divisions to ease the task of the reader. It's even hard to keep track of what year Russell is talking about. Secondly, there is room for many, many more footnotes and explanations of what Russell was doing and when and where.
   
   We need a new edition of Russell's work which will make it more accessible to the reader. This old edition is invaluable if you are a student of the Mountain Man, but the casual reader will bog down.
   
   Smallchief



2. This book offers an excellent insite to the period at the tail end of the beaver trapping erra of the "Mountain Men".



3. Trappers were the first to blaze a trail across the wild frontier west of the Mississippi. Osborne Russell's Journal of a Trapper edited by Aubrey L Haines is a first-person must have account for fur trade enthusiasts whether those who read of the era or those who re-enact.
   
   Russell's first hand comments, descriptions and discourse concerning the time, the topography, the wildlife and life in general provide a peek into the area we know as Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon long before settlement took place by the pioneers. Russell's book provides much information regarding many of the events in the Rockies during this time. Russell was a discriminating observer who was careful to mention distances, directions, who he was with and names of physical locations, as well as animals, topography and the like in his writing. He describes other fur traders, including some of the 'big' names we know from history, as well as providing description of many Native People in the area; particularly Snake also known as the Shoshones, the Blackfeet and Crow.
   
   The hardships faced by the first whites into the country far from the -civilized- East Coast is documented, as Russell provides insight into the Native people already living in the area, and the mountain men who made their way to the Rockies.
   
   Russell lived the time of the 1830s and 40s as a fur trapper/trader in the Rocky Mountains he set down a journal to record his thoughts, impressions and what he saw, in doing so he has provided a realistic depiction for those who have interest, but no first hand knowledge. He was not one of the lauded of history, rather he was a simple man, who described in detail the day to day life, survival, excitement and events of the time.
   
   Joining an expedition heading into the Mountains during the mid-1800's acquired the skills essential for survival in the mountains, and kept his journal recounting the last days of the beaver trapping era of the Mountain Men who have appeared in movies, stories and books.
   
   Rather than the romanticizing of events as is prone in Hollywooded up movies Russell listed the typical commonplace tasks of cooking, cleaning, and other camp chores which all Mountain Men performed while on trapping expeditions and in doing so he offers true insight into what it was that made these men leave the comfort and safety offered in the towns and homes of the Eastern Coastline to tramp out into untried, little known areas where privations were many and ease was hard to come by. He told of laying traps and hunting for game, of scouting the country, and problems that came from weather and terrain, and he described the rendezvous which was the highlight of the fur trapper year as men carried their furs to be traded or sold, re-supplied their food stores, enjoyed the company of others for a short time before returning to the mountains. Russell himself attended six rendezvous before he left the mountains for good.
   
   He told of the travels and the exhilarating episodes of the life experienced by the fur trappers. Trapping for beaver in the Northern Rockies between 1834-1943 Osborne took part in a number of expeditions in addition to battles with the Blackfeet who were less than thrilled to find the white men on their hunting grounds.
   
   Editor Haines has set down the routes of travel taken by Russell as 10 maps in addition to adding clarifying notes to his account. The maps are scattered throughout the text. Without chapter or paragraph divisions to aid the reader the journal is set down pretty much as a man might do in his own journal.
   
   At times it takes a little digging to figure exactly where or when an event is taking place. On the other hand, a true devotee of the era should have no trouble muddling through, as is done when reading the originals of many of the old journals of the time. Leaving the journal pretty much intact in the newer edition provides the reader a better feel for the man and his writing than might be accomplished were the text -cleaned up- with modern paragraph breaks and the like.
   
   The landscape of the area changed so much during the decade Osborne describes. Disease, in particular small pox, alcohol, and loss of lifestyle are the depressing legacy left for the Native People. Reading of the decline of populations of Native Americans, beaver in particular, but all fur bearing critters and the near disappearance of buffalo leads the reader on to the last journal entries as the reader follows Osborne. He grimly describes the plunge in buffalo populations and the approaching finish of the fur quest as beaver populations dwindled, the European desire for the fur declined and other furbearers were becoming more profitable.
   
   Born in Maine in 1814, Osborne Russell left home at sixteen, and became a fur trapper when he was seventeen. He spent eight years as a trapper working for several of the big fur companies before becoming an independent trapper working out of Fort Hall on the Snake River. Opportunely for us, when Osborne first went to the mountains with Nathaniel Wyeth's expedition in 1834 at age twenty, he began keeping his journal.
   
   After leaving the mountains in 1843 to settle in the Willamette Valley in Oregon Osborne used his journal to compile a manuscript for publication. From that manuscript the present book has been built. Osborne wrote in the fashion of the day, despite Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary; spelling rules had not yet been standardized as hard and fast, and writers often used a variety of spelling in the same text. Osborne had a tendency to run sentences together and to present unusual language usage, plus, Osborne as journalists then and now tended to abbreviate and use his own form of shorthand, all of which editor Aubrey Haines has kept in this text. Reader's quickly gets used to it Osborne's style and his style is what makes the text such interesting reading.
   
   Working from the original handwritten manuscript housed in The William Robertson Coe Collection of Western Americana at Yale University, Aubrey Haines' edition represents one man's enormous effort for getting Osborne's work to the people. For a step back to life as it was before the Interstate, McDonalds, shopping malls, and rockets in space, Osborne Russell's Journal of a Trapper can carry the reader to the open clear sky of the Rocky Mountains and to the camp of the fur traders who were an important component of our collective history. Excellent read, excellent resource, Happy to recommend.
   
   Molly Martin
   Reviewer



4. I have been an avid reader of American history, especially that related to mountain men and Western exploration. This is one of the top three books that I have read over the past 10 years because it is based on fact rather than folklore. If you have interest in knowing how these men really survived, this is a book for you.



5. Osborne Russell paints a heartbreakingly beautiful picture of America before settlers moved in and changed the landscape. Oh, how badly I wish I could see what this country looked like when he saw it: thousands of buffalo and mountain sheep (goats?) in many different places--thousands of sheep covering the snow capped mountains he climbed to overlook endless mountain ranges and prairies rolling as far as they eye could see against bright blue skies, bountiful game and untouched, pristine valleys that may not yet have been visited by any white man. An Indian tribe coming to the fort to trade, erecting hundreds of tepees outside the fort -- try to picture what an amazing sight that must have been. What a thoughtful man and unusual life he led. As I was reading this book, I kept thinking of a line from Dances with Wolves, where Kevin Costner's character says that he wants to go to the West because he wants to see the Frontier before its gone forever. I oftentimes wondered what life would be like back then, the people, the untouched areas that are now covered by cities and highways...People and their way of life back then interest me because I wondered if they were at all like us, given their life situations but people are the same in some respects no matter what the era, I noticed this on Page 20 "...Here a dispute arose about the part of the country we were in. Our Leader maintained that this was a branch of the Yellow Stone River but some of the trappers had been in this valley before and knew it to be a branch of Wind River, pointed out their old encampments and the beaver lodges where they had been trapping 2 years previous. But our man at the helm was inflexible, he commanded the party and had a right to call the streams by what means he pleased as a matter of course this was called the Yellow Stone. Three of the party however called it Wind River and left us but not before one of them had given our Charge d'affairs a sound drubbing about some small matters of little importance to any one but themselves..." Sounds like some of todays's workplaces. Other books I've read made passing references to fur trappers but I never appreciated the rugged, dangerous lives they lived. Theres a poignancy about the solitary existence of an individual fur trapper, going days or weeks without encountering another human in the wilderness. This is a great, great piece of American literature thats surely overlooked but priceless and unforgettable.