What to Read during Social Isolation?

[ADK Bigfoot]

Last time I endured a "lockdown" (six months' recovery from a heart attack) I read seventeen books written about the F&I Period, including all of those listed above. It is very interesting to spend a solid period of time reading about one period in great depth. Although some were redundant to others, they all gave different perspectives on the people, placed, and events. Devito's COURSE OF EMPIRE puts it all into perspective as a first, or final, read.

ADK Bigfoot

Spell check. people, places, and events......DeVoto's Course of Empire. damn spell check.

 

[LuVerne Schumann]

Anything by Hariette Simpson Arnow. Seedtime on the Cumberland and Flowering on the Cumberland are brilliant period history.

 

[toot]

being from NEW ENGLAND, RHODE ISLAND,two books on KING PHILIPS WAR come to mind - FLINT LOCK & TOMMAHAWK and ASK NO QUARTER, both will be hard to put down.

 

[mushka]

Broke out my old copy of the "Spoon River Anthology." An interesting read.

 

[Cobra6]

For those of you that like Civil War "stuff" read; Rebel, "The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby." He was a Northern Virginia patriot, and while employing gorilla tactics drove the Union Army nuts. Good period reading and adventure. Nonfiction and historical.

Cobra 6

 

[Marshhawk]

For fiction re: the French and Indian War, you might like "Three Thousand Days and Nights," by Benjamin Farley. Quite entertaining.

 

[toot]

FARLEY, is a great read. thanks for turning me onto it!!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Looking for good fiction from the Rev War up through the fur trade era.

Well I'm sure folks have mentioned the books by Allan Eckert. Wilderness War, Wilderness Empire, The Frontiersman.....etc
Rabble in Arms by Kenneth Roberts (who also wrote North West Passage) Roberts also penned, the year before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
Oliver Wiswell. Which is a pretty amazing book considering it tells the side of the American Revolution from the point of view of a Loyalist, and it was a success in America just as WW2 was kicking off around the globe.
Drums Along The Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds is also good.

LD

 

[BullRunBear]

This thread is getting a bit expensive. Just ordered a copy of "Three Thousand Days and Nights".

Once the local used book store re-opens I'll check for the books on King Philip's War. I grew up in Rhode Island. In grade school we learned about it as local history although not really covered in our history books. This was back during the Eisenhower administration. They probably don't do that anymore.

Jeff

 

[Marinekayak]

Just got Ambroses’ “Undaunted Courage” as an e book from the library. Going to tackle it this weekend.

 

[DAKurth1]

Books on deck to read are "Buffalo soldier Tragedy 1877" 2004, "All the Brave Rifles" 1929, and the one you listed “Chief of Scouts piloting emigrants across the plains of 50 years ago”, by Captain William F. Drannan. 1910.

With your referring to Capt Drannan, I had to pull out my copy i snagged off of Amazon used seller list, and was tickled with what received ! 1910 1st edition. Open the book and there is the person who may have owned it first ! from Manhattan Montana ( iknow the location well) and then inside I find a Author Autograph ? If anyone else has this edition please look and see if this was a "print" added or the real deal !

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I have the same hard bound edition and although mine does not have the signature of the first owner, like yours does, the photo page of the author has the same signed photo as yours!

 

[SamTex1949]

I have the same hard bound edition and although mine does not have the signature of the first owner, like yours does, the photo page of the author has the same signed photo as yours!

AH ! well it does appear that his "signature " was part of the printing process as I try to compare our pictures, still interesting !

 

[tenngun]

The Prairie Traveler by Marcy written in 1859. Memoirs tend to be episodic. Histories and narratives look at event leading up to and after some historical significant thing.
This is a day by day guide. What you need in your wagon, repairs in the field, where livestock is cheapest.
Written by an army officer that traveled the trails he speaks from hard won experience.
One of the things that I had to find so interesting was the time it was written. Written just eighteen years after the ‘last‘ rendezvous. In that time frame one could expect to resupply as needed along routes.

 

[BullRunBear]

For those interested, Marcy's "The Prairie Traveler" is available for free as an ebook on Amazon. Just started it but the text looks good so far.

Jeff

 

[Thlayli]

Lonesome Dove is probably McMurtry's best, but Dead Man's Walk has the most action and is the funniest. Right now I'm reading A Life Wild and Perilous; Mountain Men and the Path to the Pacific, by Robert Utley.

A book I read when I was 10 that I still read almost every year is Big Red, by Jim Kjellgaard. Great book about a dog. And I really like Watership Down by Richard Adams.

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

Four Years in the Rockies. The Adventures of Isaac P. Rose
It's an archived public domain book written in 1884 available free Here

 

[rdlowe]

A. B. Guthries The Big Sky, The Way West, and Fair land Fair Land. Elmer Kelton has several westerns including early days in Texas.

I can second the books by AB Guthrie. The Big Sky is a great story and gets into nice details like the decisions people had to make about whether to stick with their flinters or convert to the new cap locks out in the wilderness. It’s a melancholy story that’s masterfully written.