Customer Reviews

Journals of Lewis and Clark (National Geographic Adventure Classics)

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It's no secret that the only narrative available from Lewis and Clark themselves was one they wrote in raw form while on their journey. While this offers a certain "real time" value, it is a value best appreciated by researchers and not your average reader. I was intrigued enough by other books in this series to want to hear about Lewis & Clark's adventures in their own words, but not to read details of every single day of their journey which, by its very nature, can't help but be monotonous.
This book, on the other hand, gave me a true sense of what their journey was like, and what they were like without giving me the details of each morning's breakfast menu.
And that sense, by the way, was conveyed without any sense of abruptness or with any apparent gaps in the narrative. This book was a joy insomuch as it delivered the experience smoothly in their own words without the kind of puzzling pauses which accompany writings in broken English.
In much the same way that this exploration opened the west, this book opened my eyes to this exploration. It is absolutely worth the read.

Brandt's abridgment of these important historical documents will be the one that lasts for years to come. He makes these journals accessible to the everyday historian, who is interested in what the Corps of Discovery actually did, and saves us from having to struggle with quaint and erroneous spelling.

Interestingly, Lewis and Clark themselves never meant the journals to be published just as they wrote them. The editor Brandt has done us a great service by cleaning up the language, making the text flow seamlessly, and leaving out the boring parts.

There are those who will carp over his correction of the spelling (pedants who read Virgil in the original), but the rest of us are grateful. Brandt's talent as a writer shines through the work as he connects the journal sections with elegantly crafted passages.

After trying (trying is the operative word here) to slog through the journals in the original spelling and with little or no punctuation, it was a real joy to read this version edited by Anthony Brandt. The stories of their encounters with natives tribes, grizzley bears and of their day-to-day lives make for a compelling adventure story. And unlike the previous editions, Brandt summarizes those sections that are not included in well-crafted prose that keep the story flowing. This reads like the true adventure story it was and is destined to be a classic in the American history literature.

This is an outstanding read made possible by excellent editing and editorial comment. Some have criticized the editor for modernizing and correcting the spelling and even interpreting the notes found in of Lewis and Clark's journals. Frankly I think that this is will make this edition of their journals more accessible to the masses. Their continental crossing and return is one of the greatest stories ever told and thank goodness they documented it so carefully.

The journey and this book have inspired me to make a trip or two next year to see for myself some of the places they saw and documented for the first time only two hundred years ago. Great editorial notation on places, animals, and people to give the modern reader some reference along with beginning chapter notes. Jefferson's amazing directive in its entirety is included. I liked reading it and referencing some good maps so I could vicariously place myself with the expedition. The Corps of Discovery was made up of great American heros. This riveting journey is a must read for all ages.

If you don't enjoy thrashing through the "interesting" spelling found in the original journals, this is the book for you. It's been well "translated" into modern American. Some lengthy portions of the journals are merely summarized, so you really only get a partial picture, but the parts you do get are crystal clear. Well worth the read for the Lewis & Clark fan.

This book consists of actual journal entries (with spelling and grammar corrections) and offers interesting insights into the day-to-day rigors of their travels, as well as a unique historical perspective into their journey. Many days were just plain boring- hunted some more, walked some more, saw some more buffalo, etc.- but you really get the feeling of being there.

Best read with maps and additional pictures/illustrations offered in other books in order to get the complete story. Ranked #2 by National Geographic on their list of the Top 100 Adventure Books of all time. I certainly wouldn't rank it that high having read many other books on the list, but it is a must-read nonetheless.

You already know who they are and what they did. Now read a day by day account made while on the voyage westward. From relations with the Indians, to the flora and fauna of the virginal American continent, the conduct of the men and the mercurial nature of the weather, this record of the most famous exploration in US history is a must for historians and casual readers alike.

I recalled studying the journey in my 5th grade class and creating a sprawling map as a project that took months.
I read this book three times over the last several years and was sad each time it ended. I wanted to read it in their own words, rather than someone else' interpretation. I will read it again I'm sure.

This book uses the text from the journals of Lewis and Clark to engage the reader in the day-to-day experiences during the trek westward. Using entries from both Lewis' and Clark's journals Anthony Brandt paints a picture of the scenery, wildlife, waterways, mountains, and peoples met along the way to the Pacific coast. Both men journaled daily and frequently spoke about different findings. This book beautifully combines both men's journals to give the reader a full understanding of the trials and hardships encountered. This is not a "dry" historical accounting, but a colorful, realistic depiction of the great expedition by the Corps of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark. This is an excellent resource and very "reader friendly".

When I was about halfway through this abridgment, I compared it in a bookstore to the abridgment by Gary Moulton (The Lewis and Clark Journals (Abridged Edition)), editor of the complete edition of the Journals. Whereas Brandt, the editor of the text under review, "modernizes" the language, correcting the spelling and syntax, and combining fragments into grammatically correct sentences, Moulton leaves the spelling and syntax untouched, and only abridges the text to compress the Journals into a single volume.

I expected to prefer Moulton's version, simply because it was less altered, truer to the authors' intent. But, of course, Lewis and Clark did not intend to misspell words - some words in multiple ways - or to use odd, jarring punctuation. The Journals as published by Moulton are Field Drafts, unaltered, which would have been corrected and refined before publication, had Lewis lived to do the necessary work. But yet, there is something robust, vivid and historically present about the uncorrected text; and if the abridgments were equivalent in content, I may have discovered a preference for Moulton's over Brandt's.

But I found Brandt's abridgment more interesting in content - and naturally less linguistically obtrusive. In the section I randomly compared (I don't remember which), Brandt excluded far less than Moulton, and the extent of the exclusions by Moulton were not apparent from the text, leaving the impression that only a sentence or two may have been excised, when in fact full, rich paragraphs were missing from the page.

It isn't that I don't have complaints about Brandt's choices. He often summarizes what he excludes, and many times I wished he had left in what he kept out. There are other abridgments of the Journals in print and whether one is "better" than another, I cannot say. This one, however, is good, and if you're looking for an abridgment to read that reads smoothly and doesn't require decoding skills you might certainly have but would rather not use, consider this edition. When you're finished you might find yourself wanting to read the entire multi-volume Journal, misspellings, sentence fragments, and all.

The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark, 7-volume set

The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 13-Volume Set