Synopsis
USA Today bestseller!
Cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime, boldly illuminating both our mythic fascination with the Pony Express, and how its spirit continues to this day.
The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West—the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance—akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow—and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.
Though the Pony Express has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, among the authors that have attempted to encapsulate it, none have ever ridden it themselves. While most scholars would look for answers inside a library, Will Grant looks for his between the ears of a horse. Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, all of whom traveled throughout the developing West, Will Grant returned to his roots: he would ride the trail himself with his two horses, Chicken Fry and Badger, from one end to the other. Will Grant captures the spirit of the West in a way that few writers have. Along with rich encounters with the ranchers, farmers, historians, and businessmen who populate the trail, his exploits on horseback offer an intimate portrait of how the West has evolved from the rough and tumble 19th century to the present, and it’s written with such intimacy that you’ll feel as though you’re riding right alongside of him. The result is an extraordinary portrait of the treacherous and, at times, thrilling landscape of the known and unknown American West, and the people who populate it.
The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.
“Spellbinding." —Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God
“Completely fascinating." —Elizabeth Letts, author of The Ride of Her Life
Selected by the Smithsonian as a Best Travel Book of the Year
About the Author
Will Grant was born and raised outside Denver, Colorado. After college, he worked as a cowboy and a horse trainer in Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas, where he apprenticed under the legendary horseman Jack Brainard. In 2008, he pivoted to a career in journalism. His writing has appeared in Outside magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, as well as regional publications throughout the West. His efforts to combine horses and storytelling have included a 600-mile horse race across Mongolia, an expedition to find gold in Arizona, and two trips to Kyrgyzstan to play the most dangerous horseback game on the planet, kok boru. The Last Ride of the Pony Express is his first book, and he currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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