Men To Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West 1840-1900 [Hardcover]

Irving Stone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2009

Stone has created an interwoven pageant of stories of the great westward drive which, in a few rousing decades, settled a continent and gave the United States dimensions of which its founders hardly dreamed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Irving Stone was born in San Francisco on July 14, 1903. He wrote several books in a genre that he coined the “biographical novel,” which recounted the lives of well-known historical figures. In these novels, Stone interspersed biography with fictional narrative on the psychology and private lives of his subjects. He also wrote biographies of Clarence Darrow and Earl Warren, and short biographies of men who lost presidential elections. He died on August 26, 1989.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 459 pages
• Publisher: Castle Books (August 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785813470
• ISBN-13: 978-0785813477
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable History Lesson, January 8, 2001

By 

"echodell" (Colorado Springs, Co) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Men to Match My Mountains (Paperback)

Irving Stone is known more as a novelist than a historian. Consequently some serious historians have relegated this book to the realm of popular blather. But in spite of the fact that the book is entertaining and readable it is also serious history. Stone conducted extensive research and produced a masterpiece. It has been continuously in print for over 40 years. Its pages encompass the mountain west from Colorado to California and it is populated with heroes, visionaries, eccentrics and rogues. A must have book to be enjoyed again and again.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Readable, Entertaining and Informative History, February 28, 2000

By 

Andrew D. Muhlbach - See all my reviews

This review is from: Men to Match My Mountains (Paperback)

I agree with the previous reviews so I will not duplicate their effort. I too want to emphasize that this book's strength is in its wonderful telling of the stories of western expansion that many Americans know only a piece of. It is an excellent survey with enough detail to do justice to the individual episodes without getting bogged down. Each subject in the book has been treated in more detail elsewhere; where this book shines is in covering them all and deftly weaving them together to give a portrait of 19th-century western America. I think those of us who live in California especially appreciate learning about the people for whom much of our landscape is named. Read it and tell your friends about it.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate story of the settlement of the Far West, March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Men to Match My Mountains (Paperback)

A great deal of primary and secondary research shows in Men to Match My Mountains. The hard work and attention to detail which Irving Stone put into this work is evident. Far from being the typical boring history text, Men to Match My Mountains is liberally salted with amusing anecdotes and captivating details of the lives of those who first settled California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Most of what we know about the West comes from the "cowboy" legends and myths, but Stone focuses on the gold and silver rushes and the Mormon settlement of Utah as the main reasons people went West.