Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters - Softcover

George E. Hyde (author) & Savoie Lottinville (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806115777 ISBN 13: 9780806115771

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968

Synopsis

In this classic of western Americana, George Frederick Ruxton, who died in St. Louis in 1848 at the youthful age of twenty-seven, brilliantly brings to life the whole heroic age of the Mountain Men. The author, from his intimate acquaintance with the trappers and traders of the American Far West, vividly recounts the story of two of the most adventurous of these hardy pioneers - Killbuck and La Bonté, whose daring, bravery, and hair-breadth escapes from their numerous Indian and "Spaniard" enemies were legend among their fellow-frontiersmen.With Ruxton, we follow Killbuck and La Bonté and their mountain companions - Old Bill Williams, "Black" Harris, William Sublette, Joseph Walker, and others - across the prairies and forests, west from picturesque old Bent’s Fort, into the dangerous Arapaho country near the headwaters of the Platte. We share with them the culinary delights of their campfires - buffalo "boudins" and beaver tails - and hear from their own lips, in the incomparable mountaineer dialect, hair-raising stories of frontier life and humorous tales of trading camp and frontier post.Life in the Far West, then, is adventure extraordinary - the true chronicle of the rugged Mountain Men whose unflinching courage and total disregard for personal safety or comfort opened the Far West to the flood of settlers who were to follow. The breath-taking water colors and sketches, which depict with great detail many of the familiar scenes of the early West, were done by one of Ruxton’s contemporaries and fellow-explorers, Alfred Jacob Miller.

About this title

About the Author

George E. Hyde was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1882. As a boy he became interested in Indians and began writing about them in 1910. He has produced some of the most important books on the American Indian ever written, including Indians of the High Plains, Indians of the Woodlands, Red Cloud's Folk, Spotted Tail's Folk, and Life of George Bent, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Hyde died in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1968 at the age of 86.

Savoie Lottinville, editor of four series of books published by the University of Oklahoma Press during his tenure as director from 1938 to 1967, was Regents Professor of History in the University and Director Emeritus of the Press. He was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and of the University of Oxford, England, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806115777
• ISBN 13: 9780806115771
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432