The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery

This alphabetical primer on all things Lewis and Clark is comprehensive but not exhaustive. Both novices and scholars will benefit from the cogent entries, intended ""to synthesize the mass of the existing knowledge about the Lewis and Clark expedition into a single unified volume."" The authors intend their book to be consulted by Lewis and Clark students who are reading the explorers' journals, which explains why there are such entries as ""dog"" (193 of which were purchased for consumption on the expedition) and ""gill,"" the daily ration of whiskey allotted to the corps of men on the journey. Tubbs, who was an assistant researcher on her historian father's biography of Nixon and serves on the foundation board of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, and Jenkinson, a Thomas Jefferson scholar, have concentrated on synthesis rather than original research; the steadily mounting accretion of Lewis and Clark scholarship has necessitated such a guide, which touches on everything from what the voyagers ate to the places they explored and the people they encountered. This handy volume, timed for publication as the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition opens, has the virtue of teaching the student while helpfully reminding the scholar. 16 b&w photos. (June)