The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth - (Bison Book S) by James P Beckwourth (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Throughout his long and lusty life, James P. Beckwourth epitomized much of the best and the worst of a fabulous breed, the mountain men of the early West. Trapper, hunter, guide, horse thief, Indian fighter, and Indian chief, he also took part in the Seminole and Mexican wars and the California gold rush before he dictated his memoirs to an itinerant newspaperman, Thomas D. Bonner. Beckwourth was the only black mountain man to record his story; his autobiography, first published in 1856, is a classic of its kind, the western adventure story par excellence. But because it mixes fact and fiction it has long been regarded with suspicion. This edition reproduces the original 1856 printing, and adds notes and an epilogue by Professor Delmont R. Oswald to assist the reader in sifting Beckwourth's life from the legend Beckwourth preferred to create.

Review Quotes

"Another value to this new edition is that it once more makes readily available to students of the American West a book which was important in manufacturing the literary views of the fur trade which appear in the later nineteenth century. Beckwourth's biography is one of the source books to which many writers of both fur trade history and fiction turned in their quest for a little ready-made blood and thunder.--New Mexico Historical Review

"It remains what it always has been since its first appearance in 1856--a rousing adventure story in which Jim Beckwourth plays the leading role."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Making use of recent discoveries, Oswald corrects many factual errors and proves that much more of this classic autobiography is true than had been supposed."--The American West

"This is a book of great importance to an understanding of the mountains, plains, and Great Basin West."--California Historical Quarterly