A Rendezvous Reader Tall, Tangled, and True Tales of the Mountain Men 1805-1850 Edited by James H. Maguire, Peter Wild, and Donald A. Barclay
The accounts of mountain men are spun from the experiences of a nation moving westward: a trapper returns from the dead; hunters feast on buffalo intestines served on a dirty blanket; a missionary woman is astounded by the violence and vulgarity of the trappers' rendezvous. These are just a few of the narratives, tall tales, and lies that make up A Rendezvous Reader.
The writers represented in this book include dyed-in-the-wool trappers, adventuring European nobles, upward-gazing Eastern missionaries, and just plain hacks who never unsheathed a Green River knife or traveled farther west than the Ohio River. What these writers have in common is that all helped create a uniquely American icon --- the mountain man.
A Rendezvous Reader brings together the liveliest, most readable accounts by and about the mountain men. Whether you sample or devour this anthology of mountain horrors and delights, it is a book guaranteed to entertain.
Paperback, c1997, xix,348 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-337) and index.
