cover image Westward: The Epic Crossing of the American Landscape; Se Book Club

Westward: The Epic Crossing of the American Landscape; Se Book Club

Gerald Roscoe, David Larkin. Monacelli Press, $60 (240pp) ISBN 978-1-885254-09-2

Recreating the trailblazing expeditions of Lewis and Clark, John Fremont, Zebulon Pike and other explorers, this magnificent album celebrates the beauty and still-untamed spirit of the American West. Among the 20 exploits documented are trader-trapper Jacob Fowler's opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821; intrepid, one-armed John Wesley Powell's 1869 trek through the Grand Canyon; and the first emigrant party to California in 1841, led by Kansas schoolteacher John Bidwell and Ohio adventurer Nicholas Dawson. The text by freelance journalist Roscoe (author of four books on Buddhism) weaves historical narrative with excerpts from the explorers' journals, letters, notebooks and autobiographies, as well as their original maps. Spectacular photographs by Larkin and Rocheleau (who collaborated on Farm and American Colonial) capture historic locations at the times of day and seasons of the year corresponding to the pioneers' journeys. This is a distinctive gift book. (Feb.)