Collected Works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Volume 6: Dispatches from the Wild West: From Brigham Young to Mark Twain

Literary Nonfiction. DISPATCHES FROM THE WILD WEST: FROM BRIGHAM YOUNG TO MARK TWAIN covers Fitz Hugh Ludlow's newspaper reports from an American West on the cusp of its full settlement and exploitation. He covered life on The Overland Stagecoach amidst buffalo hunts and Civil War refugees. Ludlow also explored the gold mines of Colorado, still in full production. He brought back the first fascinating views of bigamy in the new Mormon Zion of Utah. And at the west coast end of the journey, Ludlow stumbled upon and encouraged the coming master of American literature, Mark Twain, and published alongside Twain and other worthies in San Francisco's first literary weekly, the Golden Era. Ludlow burst on the literary scene in 1857 with the unlikely best seller THE HASHEESH EATER. Written when he was just 20 years old, the book swept him into a career as a prolific novelist, short story author, arts critic, travel writer, journalist and editor. His friends and colleagues ranged from Walt Whitman to Brigham Young to Mark Twain. The material published in Ludlow's COLLECTED WORKS displays a depth of observation, a breadth of erudition and an appetite for extreme experience applied to the emerging modern American nation.

Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1836-1870) was an American writer of travelogues, short stories, novels, art criticism, science and drug literature related to hashish and opium cures. He is mostly known for THE HASHEESH EATER and Across the Continent, his description of and Overland Stage journey with the painter Albert Bierstadt. His friends and acquaintances ranged from Mark Twain to Brigham Young to Walt Whitman, and he was an integral part of the creation of the Bohemian scene in New York City.