The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Penguin nature classics) - Softcover

In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank - not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward and that a national "Voyage of Discovery" must be mounted to determine the nature and accessibility of the frontier. He commissioned his young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an intelligence-gathering expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis, accompanied by co-captain William Clark, the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, and thirty-two men, made the first trek across the Louisiana Purchase, mapping the rivers as he went, tracing the principal waterways to the sea, and establishing the American claim to the territories of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Together the captains kept a journal, a richly detailed record of the flora and fauna they sighted, the Indian tribes they encountered, and the awe-inspiring landscape they traversed, from their base camp near present-day St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. In keeping this record they made an incomparable contribution to the literature of exploration and the writing of natural history.

John Bakeless was born in 1894 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He earned a master's in philosophy and a PhD in English philology from Harvard University. During this time he earned several awards and honors for his essays and dissertation on Christopher Marlowe. Bakeless went on to teach at New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Finch College before retiring from teaching in 1953 in order to focus more on writing his books. Having also had a successful military career that included winning a Bronze Star, Bakeless often wrote on war, expedition, espionage, and America's pioneers.

Landon Y. Jones is an American editor and author. He is a former managing editor of People and the author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West and Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation.