Journal of a Mountain Man

Rating:
Summary: The Real Thing
Review: This is one of my favorite books. I just bought one for my cousin and decided to submit a review. If you're looking for a literary masterpiece, go buy Finnegan's Wake. This book is written by a pretty illiterate guy who spent his life exploring the West, back when it was all indians and a few couple white men. The author hiked naked over a thousand miles after he ripped a hole in the back of the Indian tent where he was being held captive, attacked, killed and ate a badger with his bare hands, and was generally the toughest, meanest SOB I've ever encountered. If you're intrigued by the old West, but you're sick of reading and viewing the lightweight fluff, get this book. Its the Real Thing.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Thing
Review: This is one of my favorite books. I just bought one for my cousin and decided to submit a review. If you're looking for a literary masterpiece, go buy Finnegan's Wake. This book is written by a pretty illiterate guy who spent his life exploring the West, back when it was all indians and a few couple white men. The author hiked naked over a thousand miles after he ripped a hole in the back of the Indian tent where he was being held captive, attacked, killed and ate a badger with his bare hands, and was generally the toughest, meanest SOB I've ever encountered. If you're intrigued by the old West, but you're sick of reading and viewing the lightweight fluff, get this book. Its the Real Thing.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent first hand narrative...
Review: We should be grateful that there were such men as Clyman to write down history as they saw it in the early to mid 1800's. Not many mountain men/frontiersmen were literate, and if this wasn't written down back then, it would have just been heresay. Clyman came out with Jedediah Smith in the 1820's as a fur trapper. He records what went on at that time. These couple of chapters are a fascinating read. Then in the early 1840's, he came out with the Oregon Trail emigrants. He was a very observant individual, describing not only the climate, but also geology, flora, fauna, agriculture, etc. along the way. There was a section in the book where he talks about "time and space" which really surprised me about how deep a thinker the man was...he was very intelligent, also writting poetry and prose. If you want to know what it was like then, read this book...it's a good one!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent first hand narrative...
Review: We should be grateful that there were such men as Clyman to write down history as they saw it in the early to mid 1800's. Not many mountain men/frontiersmen were literate, and if this wasn't written down back then, it would have just been heresay. Clyman came out with Jedediah Smith in the 1820's as a fur trapper. He records what went on at that time. These couple of chapters are a fascinating read. Then in the early 1840's, he came out with the Oregon Trail emigrants. He was a very observant individual, describing not only the climate, but also geology, flora, fauna, agriculture, etc. along the way. There was a section in the book where he talks about "time and space" which really surprised me about how deep a thinker the man was...he was very intelligent, also writting poetry and prose. If you want to know what it was like then, read this book...it's a good one!