The Beaver Men - 2nd Edition by Mari Sandoz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Covering more than two centuries, The Beaver Men recounts the beginning of the beaver trade along the St. Lawrence to the last great rendezvous of traders and trappers on Ham's Fork, in what is now Wyoming, in 1834. The Beaver Men is the third in Mari Sandoz's trilogy of books narrating the history of the American West in relation to an animal species.

Review Quotes

"A brilliant, dioramic narrative, as vast in scope as the far-flung Great Plains."--Saturday Review of Literature

"Mari Sandoz has brought into focus the materials, written down with power and clarity, of a mighty movement."--J. Frank Dobie, New York Herald Tribune

"This book is not so much a historical study as a careful and intelligently drawn portrait of a world . . . that of the Great Plains during the period 1630-1834. [Sandoz's] point of focus is the hunting of the beaver, but the cumulative effect of the study is much broader than the conventional historical examination. Her essential concern is ecological: the relations of living creatures with each other and with their physical world. It is this perspective, unique among chroniclers of the fur trade, that gives the book its very considerable value. . . . Miss Sandoz's treatment of the Indian role is a good deal more complete than most studies; her sources include Indian documentation as well as the more conventional white man's documentation."--Colorado Magazine

About the Author

Mari Sandoz (1896-1966) is the noted author of The Buffalo Hunters, The Cattlemen, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn (all available in Bison Books editions). Andrew R. Graybill is an associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the author of Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875-1910 (Nebraska 2007).