best mountain man book of all time?

[Old Charlie]

I just ordered Give Your Heart to the Hawks". It being one I have not yet read,but then you guys keep finding a new one I have not. So keep up the good work. :bow:
Old Charlie

 

[Kentuckywindage]

The lives of Mountain Men- Bill Harris

 

[Tumblernotch]

As mentioned by others, Journal of a Trapper by Osborne Russell, and an obscure one that I found a few years ago called Thirty One Years on the Plains and In the Mountains by William F. Drannan, written in 1899. I have a First Edition that is pretty much falling apart. He may be drawing the long bow in some places (but who am I to know?), but it is quite full of detail and covers the adventures of Drannan from 1847 to 1877 as a trapper and scout as well as part of his life afterward. It also gives a great deal of information about Kit Carson who gave Drannan his start as a frontiersman and was one of his closest friends.
:thumbsup:

 

[Old Charlie]

I found Thirty One Years on the Plains and In the Mountains on line as an E-Book, for $4.49.
Old Charlie

 

[Tumblernotch]

Give it a read. It's a good book. He may have embellished some of the events, but I don't know. He seems pretty straightforward about it. If I remember right, I found it in an antique store several years ago and the pages are very brittle. I found another copy later that was missing the hard cover, but the paper is in a little better condition. I had never heard of Drannan or his book until I ran across it.

 

[Old Charlie]

I just got that E-Book down loaded. After several tries on my very slow dial up! Finally loaded it in the middle of the night last night. It took over four hours.
What I have read of it is pretty good.
Old Charlie

 

[wil]

WOW!! I cant't beleve no one mentioned Edward Warrenby William Deummond Stewart. And I was going to say that anyone of Mike Moore's books are great. Also the 1837 Sketchbook by Rex Norman, In the Image of A.J. Miller by Shawn Webster, and Wa-to-yah and the Taos trail by Lewis Garrard. Also Ruxton of the Rockies. Just a few of my favorites. :wink:

 

[Tumblernotch]

I just got that E-Book down loaded. After several tries on my very slow dial up! Finally loaded it in the middle of the night last night. It took over four hours.
What I have read of it is pretty good.
Old Charlie

Been there with the dial-up! After getting high speed I'm spoiled. I can download a large book in less than a minute and in some cases, seconds. Nope, I don't miss dial-up.

I think it's a pretty good book myself. My favorite part is probably at the beginning when he gets revenge on old Mammy! :rotf:

 

[Kentuckywindage]

Wheres the link to this online book that i can download?

 

[Tumblernotch]

You'll have to ask Old Charlie. I have an old First Edition.

You could probably just type in the title in your browser and find it and probably some used books in hard copy.
:thumbsup:

Hey, just looked it up on my web browser. Here's the URL for the e-book:
www.gutenberg.org/etext/5337

Try that and see if it works.

 

[mark starr]

Lord Grizzly by fredric manfred fictional account of hugh glass Great Read :thumbsup:

 

[hornetk4]

I got two great reads for ya guys first is John Coulter his years in the rockies , next is A Most Desperate Situation about a scout in the 1858 to 1864 by two dot books the first was by Burton Harris these both are very good reads.

 

[RJL]

You might want to find "the morning river" by W.Micheal Gear. he also has the follow up book "coyote summer". both are great reads I wish there were more in series.

 

[colmoultrie]

Are we all just assuming that in the fiction category, everybody's already read Guthrie's The Big Sky? That is certainly one of the classic Mountain Man books, and one of the best!

 

[El Lobo]

I second the suggestion of A Majority of Scoundrels, by Don Berry. I recently reread it and found it fascinating and at times, hilarious.

A more recent book that I can recommend is A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. This is an ambitious history of the early explorers and trappers, from John Colter's adventures to the last days of Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. It focuses on the contributions made by the mountain men to the understanding of the landforms of the American west. Check it out. I recently found a copy for a friend on "that auction site" for two bucks.

And The Big Sky, of course. Dick Summers rocks.