Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc., May 21-October 16, 1839,

Farnham, Thomas Jefferson, 1804-1848Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 712K words
Chapters: 72

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc., May 21-October 16, 1839,Author: Farnham, Thomas Jefferson, 1804-1848,Language: English, Class: F590.3: United States local history: The West. Trans-Mississippi Region. Great Plains, Release Date: Jan 22, 2015

Editor's review

First published in 1849, this is a travel account of the American West in diary form, recording what Farnham saw and experienced between May and October 1839 while crossing the prairies west of the Mississippi. A representative work of early nineteenth-century western exploration literature, it preserves extensive first-hand observations of the geography and vegetation of the Great Plains, the lives of Indian tribes, and the fur-trade routes, and is of documentary value for the study of the ecology and human conditions of the early westward movement. The prose has the directness and curiosity characteristic of travelers of that era; its descriptions of landscapes are detailed, and its records of encounters with different peoples have a strong sense of immediacy. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book, the original English text is freely available. It suits readers interested in the history of the American West, frontier literature, or nineteenth-century travel writing, and can also serve as supplementary material for environmental history and ethnographic research. Readers are advised to consult a map alongside the route and to note the inevitable period prejudices in the author's account.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of the westward movement and frontier history
Readers who enjoy nineteenth-century travel diaries and exploration literature
Researchers interested in ecological change and environmental history of the Great Plains
Readers seeking free public-domain historical sources in English

Not a good fit for

General readers who prefer Chinese translations and are unaccustomed to English originals
Travelers expecting a modern guidebook or practical tips
Readers seeking a systematic dynastic history rather than personal observations

Reading tips

Begin with the preface and table of contents to grasp the timeline from May to October 1839 and the geographical span.
Keep a map of the American Midwest at hand and mark the author's approximate daily positions as you read.
For passages involving Indian tribes, read critically alongside contemporary ethnographic sources.
If English reading is difficult, start with introductory articles on Farnham's life and writing background.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What does this book mainly record?

The book records in diary form the author's journey across the Great Plains from May 21 to October 16, 1839, including the terrain, climate, plants, and animals along the way, as well as contacts with Indian tribes and observations of the fur trade. It is a nineteenth-century American travel narrative of the West.

Is this a Chinese book or an English book?

This is an English public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg; the original book was written in English and no Chinese translation is included. Readers need a certain level of English reading ability or should use a dictionary and translation tools.

What should be noted when reading it?

The author lived in the nineteenth century, and the narrative carries the racial attitudes and sense of civilizational superiority of that era; passages involving Indigenous peoples should be read critically. The book also lacks modern annotations, so it is advisable to read it alongside maps and relevant historical background materials to understand the journey and events more accurately.

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About the author

Farnham, Thomas Jefferson, 1804-1848 Author · American · 1804–1848

Thomas Jefferson Farnham (1804–1848) was an American traveler and pioneer in the West. He is best known for his travel account of a journey across the Great Western Prairies from May 21 to October 16, 1839, in which he recorded his observations and experiences in the Rocky Mountain region. Public information about his life is limited, and his reputation rests chiefly on this travel narrative. Written from a firsthand perspective, the work depicts the landscapes of the western prairies and mountains and serves as both a travel record and a document of the pioneering era, offering later readers primary material on the geography and travel conditions of the nineteenth-century American West.