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IRL (In Real Life) => Books & Reading => Topic started by: TacticalWargames on January 18, 2016, 08:23:59 AM

Title: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: TacticalWargames on January 18, 2016, 08:23:59 AM
After watching The Revenant I'd love to read some more on the frontiers men. So does anyone know of any books worth reading on the subject?

Thanks
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Nefaro on January 18, 2016, 08:47:40 AM
Quote from: TacticalWargames on January 18, 2016, 08:23:59 AM
After watching The Revenant I'd love to read some more on the frontiers men. So does anyone know of any books worth reading on the subject?

Thanks

You talking about pre-settlement Trapper types?

I'm not sure if there is much in the way of autobiographies for those guys.  Being the type of people they were, so long ago, they probably weren't often very literate or inclined to write much.


Here's an e-book, an old pre-ACW thing written by a "travel writer" of the period. 

Trappers In The West

http://www.amazon.com/Trappers-Far-West-Thrilling-Adventures-ebook/dp/B019VU5946/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453124336&sr=8-3&keywords=trappers+in+the+west

Another that may be better:

Some True Adventures in the Life of Hugh Glass, a Hunter and Trapper on the Missouri River (which is what the movie was based on)

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Glass-Hunter-Trapper-Missouri-ebook/dp/B0190QJE1A/ref=pd_sim_sbs_351_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51I9Rt0xOyL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR111%2C160_&refRID=19YJY8E6YNJ1MCA8FKSR

Being in the public domain, it costs little for the kindle version.  I'd be wary taking the literature, directly from the period, at face value.  Will probably be full of exaggerations.  The Travel Writers, and Frontiersmen themselves, had a reputation for telling some pretty tall tales.

There are some other more modern writings on Fur Traders & such.  Not sure which would include tidbits of biographical stories, though.


There are probably a few other oldies like those, from the period, available on Amazon & elsewhere.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: bbmike on January 18, 2016, 08:59:59 AM
The movie Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford was based on Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker as well as Vardis Fisher's Mountain Man. I haven't read either but Jeremiah Johnson was good.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: eyebiter on January 18, 2016, 09:01:55 AM
Lord Grizzly
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Nefaro on January 18, 2016, 09:07:48 AM
There was some "buried treasure" legend from the period IIRC. 

After the party burying the box(es) of coins somewhere in Colorado (?) was killed by natives and one wounded dude managed to escape back to civilization.  People went back out to try finding it.  Probably a book about it somewhere.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 18, 2016, 10:15:39 AM
Flashman and the Redskins.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: TacticalWargames on January 18, 2016, 12:30:54 PM
Looking I suppose a book about their lives, exploration, trading companies etc ec.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Gusington on January 18, 2016, 01:37:53 PM
Stephen Ambrose does Lewis & Clark in Undaunted Courage:

http://smile.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferson-American/dp/0684826976/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453142242&sr=1-3&keywords=stephen+ambrose
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: MetalDog on January 18, 2016, 07:04:50 PM
Although it's fiction, Jack London's Call of the Wild might be something you are interested in.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Bison on January 18, 2016, 07:14:14 PM
Quote from: Gusington on January 18, 2016, 01:37:53 PM
Stephen Ambrose does Lewis & Clark in Undaunted Courage:

http://smile.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferson-American/dp/0684826976/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453142242&sr=1-3&keywords=stephen+ambrose

Awesome book.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: besilarius on January 18, 2016, 08:56:37 PM
Nefaro, that sounds like the Lost Dutchman mine in the Superstition mountains.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiWrdbb4rTKAhVEJiYKHebWBKwQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLost_Dutchman%27s_Gold_Mine&usg=AFQjCNGbN2GQNIIvnWbaGOvtvhcY9mZFrA&sig2=Sy57xV4If8WlukCg6z5H7g
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: TacticalWargames on January 19, 2016, 10:21:50 AM
Thanks everyone.

Saying I want Non Fiction I've come across this fiction book on Amazon.

The Frontiersmen: A Narrative by Allan W. Eckert

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0945084919?colid=2VYVCXQRXDQX1&coliid=I3AAKBGVG0DC3G&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0945084919?colid=2VYVCXQRXDQX1&coliid=I3AAKBGVG0DC3G&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl)
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Sir Slash on January 20, 2016, 11:43:31 AM
How about, " The Real Unexplored Territory-- My Life in the Bush" by Starfury. It's SCARY.  :2funny:
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Gusington on January 23, 2016, 01:28:17 PM
^That's no bush.
Title: Re: Recommendations wanted..
Post by: Nefaro on January 30, 2016, 02:03:05 AM
Quote from: besilarius on January 18, 2016, 08:56:37 PM
Nefaro, that sounds like the Lost Dutchman mine in the Superstition mountains.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiWrdbb4rTKAhVEJiYKHebWBKwQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLost_Dutchman%27s_Gold_Mine&usg=AFQjCNGbN2GQNIIvnWbaGOvtvhcY9mZFrA&sig2=Sy57xV4If8WlukCg6z5H7g


Not the one I was talking about. 

Lost Dutchman's Mine is in AZ or NM iirc.   This one wasn't a mine but a large buried cache supposedly in CO. 

One survivor makes it out and then the quest to go back & get it turns into another treacherous kill-fest for the next party.  And so on.