Lewis & Clark - Hardcover

Ambrose, Stephen E.; Abell, Sam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792270843 ISBN 13: 9780792270843

Publisher: National Geographic, 1998

Synopsis

A distinguished historian and noted photographer join forces to chronicle the epic journey of Lewis and Clark across uncharted wilderness to the Pacific Ocean, in a compelling narrative that incorporates entries from the explorers' journals and some two hundred magnificent photographic images. 100,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

In his preface, Stephen E. Ambrose describes the expedition of Lewis and Clark across the North American continent and back (from May 1804 to December 1806) as "the greatest camping trip of all time, and the greatest hunting trip. And one of the greatest scientific expeditions ever." It's a trip that Ambrose and his family often emulate, camping in the same lands the expedition first encountered nearly two centuries before them. In 1997, he was accompanied by National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. Some of these stunning pictures lead off the account of the journey presented here, and then pepper the second half of the book, which is also filled with period illustrations and maps. Ambrose has told the story of Lewis and Clark before, in the bestselling Undaunted Courage; the version he tells in Voyage of Discovery is shorter, but is also filled with his own contemporary reflections upon the men and the lands they traveled. This coffee-table book will delight lovers of history and nature alike, and may well inspire you to pack up your gear and hit the trail.

From Booklist:

Don't expect Ambrose's second treatment of the Lewis and Clark expedition to retread his Undaunted Courage (1996), a huge-selling biography of Meriwether Lewis. An inspection of both books reveals only tiny verbatim repetition, and the cause soon becomes clear: whereas the biography held to the form's stricture that the author be detached from his subject, this photo album proclaims Ambrose's 20-year-long personal obsession (as he puts it) with the epic story. Since 1976 he and his family have spent their summers along the route taken by the Corps of Discovery; some family members have even moved to Montana because of their devotional interest in Lewis and Clark. Ambrose, drawing on his hikes and canoe trips to all the monuments between St. Louis and Fort Clatsop associated with the explorers, melds his memories and own journal entries with a new Lewis and Clark narrative spiced by entries from their journals. Akin to religious pilgrims, Ambrose and companions (including Dayton Duncan and film producer Ken Burns) often re-read passages from those journals at the locale an entry was written, allowing Ambrose to comment on the place's contemporary appearance, whether pristine (Gates of the Rocky Mountains), or altered (the dammed-up Missouri River). The visual difference between Duncan and Burns' Lewis & Clark (1997) and this Ambrose treatment is notable: the former uses nineteenth-century paintings; the latter contemporary National Geo-style photographs of the vistas. Ambrose remarks that his obsession changed his life, and surely his travelogue/tribute will change the vacation plans of some readers as well. Popular, beyond doubt. Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0792270843
• ISBN 13: 9780792270843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256