Top 3 to 5 Books?

[Quirt Evans]

Hey guys!

I would truly be honored if you all would do me a huge favor and get me pointed in the right direction. I don't have unlimited financial funds nor time...so I'd like to hear from those of you who are prolific readers, have read/studied about the time period and have formed a literature review/biblo for someone starting out...

Therefore, in your opinion if you could only read between 3 to 5 books in your life time what would be the 3 to 5 absolute best books on the Mtn Man era based upon the three criteria outlined below?

Top 3 to 5 in each of the categories:

Fiqure Category - books about historic individuals and their lives

Hardware Category - books about period firearms, knives, hawks, axes, traps, clothes, and other gear

Primative Living (How to) - books about how the Mtn Men used the wild and technology to start fires, stay warm at night, survived harsh conditions, and avoid detection from and/or fought against rogue indians and other trappers.

 

[nchawkeye]

Most of my reading is on Colonial America, but I have done some reading on the Mountain Man era...

The 2 best that I know of are:

"Journal of a Trapper" by Osborne Russell

"Firearms Traps and Tools of the Mountain Man" by
Carl Russell

 

[nchawkeye]

I just thought of another...It's a little earlier, but the Journals of Lewis and Clark are also very interesting...

 

[Kwahe]

My $0.02 on books:

Big Sky (and sequel books The Way West and Fair Land Fair Land) by Guthrie

Journal of a Trapper by Russell

Ruxton of the Rockies by Ruxton

Beaver Men by Sandoz

 

Top 3 to 5 in each of the categories:

Fiqure Category - books about historic individuals and their lives

Hardware Category - books about period firearms, knives, hawks, axes, traps, clothes, and other gear

Primative Living (How to) - books about how the Mtn Men used the wild and technology to start fires, stay warm at night, survived harsh conditions, and avoid detection from and/or fought against rogue indians and other trappers.

If you limit your first category to first hand literature as opposed to post-hoc biography or fiction then:
-Garrard's 'Wa-to ya'
-Russell albeit dry and boring
-Rufus Sage
-Warren Ferris
-Zenas Leonard
-Issac Rose's biography by Marsh if you can find it
And that would just get you started but check out your online resources at: http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/amm.html

On the hardware category, I will disagree with the others in that I think Russell's 'Firearms, Traps and Tools' is too dated and poorly cited. I prefer:
-Hanson's Hawken rifle and its place in history and the Northwest gun
-The sketchbooks put out by James A Hanson (still have some problems, but they are cheap)
-Book of Buckskinning VII (Chapter 1 is the best source on mtn man clothing out there.
-The Cayuse Handbook by the Upper Missouri Outfit (best source on horse gear out there)
-The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly and back issues

On category #3, you can glean a lot of that info from category #1. That's always the best because it is first hand and free of reenactorisms other than those you impose yourself. However, both the Cayuse Handbook and UMO handbook have a lot of good info. Look up the Barren River Party and the Manuel Lisa Party on the web. Both of their web pages have a lot of good info and they are free. Also, while a bit late for the period Randolph Marcy's book "Prairie Traveler' has a lot of good stuff in it. There's a link to an online version of it in the library on the Xmission page that I mentioned above.

Hope that helps, and don't limit yourself to 3-5. Also the one thing I did not give you was an overall history of the period book. There are several out there. One of the classics is DeVoto's 'Across the Wide Missouri'.

Sean

 

[crockett]

One really good tactic is to buy used Books. You'll save a lot of money. Try Barnes & Noble, Abe, Ebay (half.com), albris.

1. The classic history of the American Mountain Man is a two volume set by Hiram Martin Chittenden, "The American Fur Trade of the Far West". The two volumes consist of 991 pages. Just about everything you'll ever want to know on the history of the companies, etc is there. I got one volume for $4.00 used and waited awhile until the second volume showed up at a price I liked, again about $4.00.
Another pretty good, general history is Don Berry's "A Majority of Scoundrels". It focuses on the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.Another book, this one by Bernard DeVoto, is "Across the Wide Missouri". It is a history of the American Fur Company in the Rockies but I found DeVoto's book a little dry and a lot of information on the missionaries, etc that I thought was a waste of time, at least to me.
2. Firearms, Traps, & Tools of the Mountain Men by Carl P. Russell. This is was written back around 1960 and since then a lot of what he wrote has proven incorrect. For this reason the book is not favorably viewed. However....if you are willing to accept the fact a lot of material is a little off, it still isn't too bad a pick in the respect it covers a lot of ground. First there is some general info on firearms, quite a bit on beaver traps, a lot on knives, a lot on axes and hatchets- maybe too much.
2. As far as Journals written by actual mountain men, I think Warren Angus Ferris is tops but you'll have to read it at the xmission site Sean mentioned. Osborne Russel is a good choice as well. Sage is 1841 but he traveled with pre-1840 people and he actually hunted, etc and is a good read, so Sage has value.
On all the ways mountain men survived- I don't know if there is a particular book on that. I think most of us just read a lot of books and each book has a little here or there that adds to this subject. You could probably ask lots of questions on this forum to get answers.
A couple of others:
The Adventures of Captain Bonneville by Washington Irving. Irving conferred with Bonneville and used Bonneville's notes so it is pretty much first hand as Bonneville reviewed what was to be written.
The Plains Rifle by Hanson, some post 1840 but most if very good- only on the various rifles, etc.

 

[Joe Wolf]

A suggestion for you, sir. You can probably check out books through the Interlibrary Loan system at your nearest public library. I do it to find out if it's a book I want to have on my bookshelf. They can typically be held out for 3 or 4 weeks. I buy a lot of books thru Amazon's listings of used books.

I agree with someone's recommendation on reading about the Voyage of Discovery. Try Steven Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage". You probably know that the first American trapper was John Colter, who left the V of D on the return trip to St. Louis. There is not a whole book on him because he left the mountains in 1810, fought in the War of 1812, and died of jaundice in 1813.

I have a list of about 20 fur trade books that I will email you.

The first one is Across the Wide Missouri. It's a 1948 publication that kindled interest in the fur trade era. I bought a hardcover first edition thru Amazon for $8.

The second is the pair of Chittenden's books mentioned previously.

Grey Wolf
[email protected]

 

[Rod Lassey]

There are two book length treatments of Colter, one by Burton Harris, and another by one of his decendants http://johncolter.org/

You guys have about covered my short list--my only other bit of advice would be to subscribe to the Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly http://furtrade.org/

Better yet would be to aquire the full set of quarterlies. I have, over time---it took awhile (I couldn't afford the whole batch at once), but it's very well worth it.

Rod

 

[AaronT]

For original accounts try Archive.org . They have an amazing number of books available to either read online or download for free. They all are in the public domain, so you don't have to worry about the legality!

They also have some neat old Last of the Mohicans radio plays and other free stuff.

 

[g.willikers]

"Caesars of the Wilderness", by Peter Newman.
Hudson Bay and Northwest Company fur trade wars.

William Johnstone novels - check the long list at amazon.com.

 

[paulmarcone]

My personal two favorites are:

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher

and

Crow Killer by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker

Both these books were used by the screenwriter for the movie "Jeremiah Johnson".

Mountain Man is a novel and one of the best novels I've ever read.

Crow Killer is a bio of Liver-Eating Johnson. An interesting read itself.

Just my two cents...

 

[jbg]

"Give Your Heart to the Hawks" by Winfred Blivins is my all time favorite book abou the Mountain Men.

 

[jimpickens]

I have read Give your Hearts To The Hawks and it's a great book. I've recently read Camp Life in the Woods and tricks of Trapping by W. Hamilton Gibson, Mountain man Crafts & Skills by David Montgomery, Firearms Traps and Tools of the Mountain men by Carl P Russell, and Cowboy Lingo by Ramon F. Adams.

 

[Freedom]

Russel Ossborne...Journal of a Trapper. This Is A GREAT Book!! it is written as a journal from day to day out in the mountains of the Rockies.

Journals of Lewis and Clark....This is a MUST read for anyone interested in the way things were.