William Clark (2) (1770–1838)
Autor de The Journals of Lewis and Clark {abridged, 1953}
Para otros autores llamados William Clark, ver la página de desambiguación.
Sobre El Autor
Eager to expand the country in the early 1800s, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis, formerly his private secretary, to seek a Northwest passage to the Orient. Lewis and his partner, William Clark, were seasoned soldiers, expert woodsmen, and boatmen. They both kept journals and mostrar más so did four sergeants and a private in the party of 43 men. They started from St. Louis, Missouri, in 1804, heading up to the Missouri River, across the Rockies, and down to the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Indian woman Sacajawea (Bird Woman) gave them valuable help on the hazardous journey, which lasted 2 years, 4 months, and 10 days, and cost the U.S. government a total of $38,722.25. Lewis was the better educated of the two captains, and his account of the expedition has more force, but Clark was a superb observer who wrote in an ingenious phonetic spelling of his own invention. The official edition of the Journals did not appear until 1814, after they had been edited in two volumes by Nicholas Biddle and Paul Allen. This text, a paraphrase of the journals, was used in various editions until 1904, when Reuben G. Thwaites edited an eight-volume edition, published in 1904-1905. Many recent editions have followed the original text, making the journals available in all of their original freshness. Early in 1960 the New York Times announced that Frederick W. Beinecke of New York had given 67 notes written by Clark to the Yale University Library. The finger-smudged documents blotted and blurred with cross-outs consisted of personal observations previously unknown to historians. The documents became the subject of an unusual legal fight. After the Clark notes were found in an attic in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1952, the United States moved to obtain them. The government stated that the documents were part of the official records of Clark while he served the United States. On January 23, 1958, the Federal Court of Appeals in St. Louis dismissed the suit. Libraries, museums and the American Philosophical Society had closely watched the court test. Had the U.S. government been upheld, the custody of similar historical documents would have been jeopardized. Shortly after the end of the expedition, Lewis was appointed governor of the Territory of Upper Louisiana. When he at last took up his post, he was mysteriously killed or took his own life in the lonely wilderness. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Créditos de la imagen: Portrait of William Clark (1770-1838) by Charles Willson Peale, 1810
Series
Obras de William Clark
The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Volume 1: Atlas of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1983) 50 copias
The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark, Vol 4: From Fort Mandan to Three Forks (The Nebraska Edition, Vol 4) (1805) 44 copias
The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark: Nebraska Edition, Volume 3: Up the Missouri to Fort Mandan (1804) 43 copias
The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Vol. 5: Through the Rockies to the Cascades (1805) 41 copias
The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Volume 6: November 2, 1805-March 22, 1806 (1805) 35 copias
The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark, Vol. 7: From the Pacific to the Rockies (1806) 34 copias
The Journals of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark , Vol. 2 (1962) 31 copias
The Journals of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1 (1962) 28 copias
The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark, Vol 13: Comprehensive Index (Nebraska Edition, Volume 13) (2001) 25 copias
The Field Notes of Captain William Clark 1803-1805 Edited with an Introduction and Notes By Ernest Staples Osgood. (1964) 3 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1770-08-01
- Fecha de fallecimiento
- 1838-09-01
- Lugar de sepultura
- Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Caroline County, Virginia, USA
- Lugar de fallecimiento
- Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Kentucky, USA
Missouri, USA - Relaciones
- Clark, George Rogers (brother)
Lewis, Meriwether (colleague)
Miembros
Reseñas
> After writing this imperfect description I again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the scene that I determined to draw my pen across it and begin again, but then reflected that I could not perhaps succeed better than penning the first impressions of the mind. I wished for the pencil of Salvator Rosa or the pen of Thomson [Rosa was known for his wilderness landscapes; Thomson was the author of a then famous poem called “The Seasons,” which is full of natural description], that I might be enabled to give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnificent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless and vain. I most sincerely regretted that I had not brought a camera obscura with me by the assistance of which even I could have hoped to have done better, but alas, this was also out of my reach. I therefore with the assistance of my pen only endeavored to trace some of the stronger features of this scene, by the assistance of which and my recollection, aided by some able pencil, I hope still to give to the world some faint idea of an object which at this moment fills me with such pleasure and astonishment, and which of its kind I will venture to assert is second to but one in the known world [the ‘one’ he refers to is no doubt Niagara Falls, already a famous tourist attraction].
> The next day, the 20th, both Lewis and Clark noted meadow fires that were too large to be accidental; they had been seen, and the Shoshone were warning other members of the tribe that they were a possible Blackfeet raiding party. Clark left his own sign—clothes, linens, paper—to show the Indians that they were white men, not Blackfeet.
> At four p.m. they arrived at the confluence of the two rivers where I had left the note. This note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note. The possibility of such an occurrence never once occurred to me when I placed it on the green pole… (más)
> The next day, the 20th, both Lewis and Clark noted meadow fires that were too large to be accidental; they had been seen, and the Shoshone were warning other members of the tribe that they were a possible Blackfeet raiding party. Clark left his own sign—clothes, linens, paper—to show the Indians that they were white men, not Blackfeet.
> At four p.m. they arrived at the confluence of the two rivers where I had left the note. This note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note. The possibility of such an occurrence never once occurred to me when I placed it on the green pole… (más)
A sometimes interesting but often tedious abridged account. The most interesting aspects for me were the relative ignorance and reliance of the members of the expedition on indigenous peoples for food, shelter and navigation.
There may well be more interesting abridgments, but this version by Anthony Brandt in the National Geographic Adventure Classics is tedious. There's too much repetition of hunting, riverboat navigation, and the like and not enough on the ethnography of the Indian tribes, which would have been a lot more interesting.
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 40
- Miembros
- 3,486
- Popularidad
- #7,298
- Valoración
- 4.0
- Reseñas
- 14
- ISBNs
- 155
- Idiomas
- 3
They were part of the dream that kindled America and that keeps burning.