The Essential Lewis and Clark

This is an important part of our American history. Traveling up the Missouri was the "easy" part of the trip, but even more than 200 years later I think it would be quite an adventure. Of course finding the headwaters of the Missouri and a path to the Pacific was a physical challenge with many hardships. This book made the story come alive for me with vivid details of the food and physical demands.

I rated this book a three, not because of the effort put forth by Landon Y. Jones, but because of the content of these two explorers diaries.

Mr Jones make a valiant effort to piece together a readable abridgement of two large volumes of personal writings documenting William Clark's and Meriwether Lewis' expedition to the Northwest.

Having had grown up on the Clark Fork River and learned about them superficially in middle school history class, I had hopes of learning more about them, in their own words, via this book. The editor explained that he only selected observational diary entries and excluded the overly scientific.

Unfortunately, the writing, inconsistent spelling and frankly boring intervals between more interesting entries could show more not keep my attention through its entirety. Is it an important historical document, absolutely. Is it a sit down and read book for the average reader, probably not. show less

I bought this audio book 7 years ago - I think as a result of an intriguing interview on the radio. So when it finally got to the top of my "Audible.com pile" I wasn't sure what to expect. Mostly - I was expecting to be bored. Man - was I surprised.
This is an abridged/edited version of the diaries of Lewis and Clark as they crossed the country and reached the Pacific ocean. It's read by two narrators - one for each explorer and one of them is Tom Wopat (Luke Duke for you 70s TV fans) and they really give a realistic feel to the experience.
The descriptions are truly fascinating - from the incredibly beautiful natural wonders they encountered to the numerous encounters with Native Americans. There's even humor. The description of an show more incident where Lewis is accidentally shot by one of his own men is actually quite amusing.

I strongly recommend this book - with one reservation. I'm wondering how much of my enjoyment had to do with the fact that it was an audiobook. Perhaps actually reading it might not have been as interesting. The experience I had made me feel like I was sitting by a campfire listening to two old adventurers recount their travels to me in person. Very cool! show less

Culled from the original, voluminous journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, "The Essential Lewis and Clark" is a slim volume of highlights: encounters with various Indian tribes, navigating rivers and forging trails across mountains, sighting and preserving specimens of 'new' animals and plants, fighting bears, glimpsing the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The book preserves the original style of writing and spelling used by the two explorers, which can seem odd, but also, I think, enhances the reader's feel for the time and place. If you're interested in learning firsthand about Lewis and Clark, in their own words, this book is a great resource, an 'undaunting' place to start.

This is a book of "distilled" journals from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1803-1806. Since it's extracted, it's very abbreviated and, supposedly, the boring parts are left out. I discovered a few things about the expedition that I did not know: the Missouri country was also populated with white people (trappers), venereal disease existed among the Indians, Clark was never commissioned a "Captain" by Congress, Lewis got shot on the way back...just to name a few. Good reference if you don't want to study the entire voluminous set.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would! What a great insight in to the exploration of early North America. The adventures were interesting and exciting, and the narration on the audiobook was excellent.

Edited version of the adventure. A little too edited for my taste.