Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West - Hardcover

Jenish, D'Arcy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803226004 ISBN 13: 9780803226005

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2004

Synopsis

Epic Wanderer, the first full-length biography of mapmaker David Thompson (1770–1857), is set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries against the broad canvas of dramatic rivalries between the United States and British North America, between the Hudson’s Bay Company and its Montreal-based rival, the North West Company, and among the various First Nations thrown into disarray by the advent of guns, horses, and alcohol.

Less celebrated than his contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Thompson spent nearly three decades, beginning in 1784, surveying and mapping more than 1.2 million square miles of largely uncharted Indian territory. Traveling across the prairies, over the Rockies, and on to the Pacific, Thompson transformed the raw data of his explorations into a map of the Canadian West. Measuring ten feet by seven feet and laid out with astonishing accuracy, the map became essential to the politicians and diplomats who would decide the future of the rich and promising lands of the West. Yet its creator worked without personal glory and died in penniless obscurity.

Drawing extensively on Thompson’s personal journals, illustrated with his detailed sketches, intricate notebook pages, and the map itself, Epic Wanderer charts the life of a man who risked everything in the name of scientific advancement and exploration.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"D'Arcy Jenish tells Thompson's story in a dramatic and entertaining way that keeps the pages turning. . . . This well-fashioned account should do much to introduce a remarkable Canadian to the public at large."
-- The Globe and Mail

"His brilliantly evocative Indian Fall . . . established Saskatchewan's D'Arcy Jenish as a fine popular historian. Jenish's new book is just as good. . . . Jenish's marvellous effort has resurrected Thompson's accomplishments as a great explorer and mapmaker."
-- Winnipeg Free Press

"D'Arcy Jenish makes the flat statement that David Thompson remains 'one of the most remarkable figures in Canadian history' and then sets out to demonstrate this view. . . . He skilfully and quickly takes readers into this account in a stirring narrative."
-- Edmonton Journal

About the Author

D’Arcy Jenish is the author of Indian Fall: The Last Great Days of the Plains Cree and the Blackfoot Confederacy and the best-selling The Stanley Cup: A Hundred Years of Hockey at Its Best.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0803226004
• ISBN 13: 9780803226005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320