Across America on an Emigrant Train [Hardcover]

Jim Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

An account of Robert Louis Stevenson's twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879, interwoven with a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-In 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson journeyed from Scotland across the Atlantic and then by train across the United States to join the woman he loved in Monterey, California. Murphy has drawn from the writer's journal to provide a fresh, primary-source account of transcontinental train travel at that time. Choosing by necessity the cheapest passage, Stevenson traveled with other newcomers to the U.S. who had not yet reached their final destination. He describes his companions, the passing countryside, the interior of the railroad cars, and daily life aboard a train. Into these journal entries, Murphy has woven meticulously researched, absorbing accounts of the building of the railroad and its effect on the territory it crossed: the disruption and destruction of Native American life, the slaughter of the buffalo, accidents, the development of the Pullman car, the towns that quickly came and vanished as the construction crews moved on, the snowsheds built to protect the trains in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Abundant, carefully selected period photographs, engravings, and lithographs are every bit as intriguing as the text. Appended is a lengthy bibliography with some original source material. This work supplements Leonard Everett Fisher's more extensive Tracks Across America (Holiday, 1992); it is a readable and valuable contribution to literature concerning expansion into the American West.
Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5 and up. As he did in The Boys' War (1990) and The Long Road to Gettysburg (1992), Murphy draws on memoirs and letters to humanize history. This time his main source is the journal of the great writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who traveled in 1879 from Scotland to the woman he loved in California, first on a crowded boat and then on a series of crammed, painfully uncomfortable trains on the transcontinental railroad. Murphy weaves together Stevenson's perilous journey with a general history of the railroad--how it was planned and built, who built it, what it was like to ride it if you were rich and if you were poor, and how it changed the country and those who lived there. Murphy's style is plain: facts and feelings tell a compelling story of adventure and failure, courage and cruelty, enrichment and oppression. The handsome book's design includes lots of white space, two endpaper maps, and many prints, drawings, and black-and-white photographs, carefully captioned to make you pore over the details. The direct quotations from Stevenson show him as observer and participant. This was before he became famous, and he identifies with the emigrants' painful struggle as well as their hope. He's excited by the diversity in America (he loves the place names that express how "all times, races, and languages have brought their contribution"); at the same time, he's appalled at the treatment of Native Americans ("I was ashamed for the thing we call civilization"). Murphy provides no direct documentation (often the source is "one passenger recalled," "some historians have speculated"), but the very long bibliography will be a starting point for those stimulated to read further. The experience of ordinary people revitalizes the myths of the West. Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; First Printing edition (October 18, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395633907
• ISBN-13: 978-0395633908
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Children's Books > Transportation > Trains

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, April 1, 2006

By 

Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Across America on an Emigrant Train (Hardcover)

This is a short easy and fun history book that blends excerpts Robert Louis Stevenson's "Amateur Emigrant" and "Across the Plains" with Jim Murphy's prose and descriptions. I was expecting a kids book but far from it - while not academic or even pretentiously so, it's on par with a PBS episode of "American Experience" and reminds me of how fun history can be. The historical photo's are excellent, numerous and tightly connected to the text. Highly recommended for anyone interested in RLS, American history and the immigrant experience of the late 19th century. Jim Murphy has written about a dozen books like this including some Newbury award winners, hope to read some more, the language and prose is easy and leaves a strong impression of time and place, very enjoyable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Across America on an Emigrant Train., April 10, 2010

By 

B. Inman "wiredgrower" (Westport, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Across America on an Emigrant Train (Paperback)

This was a wonderful over view of the hardships endured by our ancestors as they made their way west. There is not really to much information out there about the emigrant trains and this one helped reinforce my own research of my own Grandfather's trip to the west coast with his family from West Virginia as a boy.

Highly recomend for anyone interested in Pioneer times and life.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anonymous_tsimp_dtown, March 29, 2000

By 

"anonymous_tsimp_dtown" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Across America on an Emigrant Train (Hardcover)

A very interesting book with all you need to know about the railroad, transcontinental or Robert Louis Stevenson. Very descriptive, Great Literature.