The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Lewis & Clark Expedition)

This one-volume edition of Lewis' and Clark's masterpiece is outstanding in every way. Edited by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bernard DeVoto (1897-1955), it allows the reader to gain a fuller understanding of the Lewis and Clark expedition through the words of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark themselves.

Lewis and Clark's expedition begins in 1804, taking the 33-person Corps of Discovery from St. Louis, Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back again (a distance of over 8,000 miles). Among other things, it results in the initial exploration and mapping of the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest, and the description and classification of over 100 never-before seen species of flora and fauna. In addition, it dispells the myth of a northwest passage to the orient, and opens up the vast central and western regions of the continent to commerce with the United States.

Captain Meriwether Lewis, the commander of the Corps of Discovery, is instructed by President Thomas Jefferson to keep a journal of the daily events, scientific observations, and measurements of latitude and longitude along the way. Both he and his co-commander, Captain (in reality Lieutenant) William Clark follow Jefferson's instructions, although not always faithfully.

Lewis and Clark return from their 30-month long expedition as national heroes. Jefferson expects Lewis to oversee the quick publication of the Journals, but Lewis, for a variety of reasons, disappoints the President. He fails miserably as governor of the Louisiana territory; he suffers from depression and alcoholism. In 1809, he (it is surmised by historians) takes his own life, never having submitted so much as one page of the Journals' manuscript to an editor. After Lewis' suicide, Clark teams with editor Nicholas Biddle and completes a short, narrative version of the Lewis and Clark journals. Published in 1814, it contains none of the scientific data compiled during the expedition. Not until 1904 are the Journals of Lewis and Clark published in their entirety, with all of the explorers' scientific observations included.

Bernard DeVoto begins this volume with a well crafted 60-page introduction that explains the historical background to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Then, DeVoto gets out of the way and allows Lewis, Clark, and, on occasion, other members of the Corps of Discovery, to convey with their own words the drama, excitement and high adventure of this magnificent undertaking. Most of the more routine scientific data has been edited out, leaving behind Lewis and Clark's outstanding descriptions of the expedition's key events. It is not easy to forget Lewis' florid prose, through which he so emotionally and enthusiastically describes his initial sighting of the Great Falls of the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, or his encounters with the Nez Perce' and Blackfoot native tribes. DeVoto does, however, keep in a few of the more famous journal entries dealing with scientific observations. Lewis' descriptions of the wildlife, plants and physical geography along the route of the expedition show him to be a gifted naturalist, perhaps one of the finest in history.

One not of caution: while they are very enjoyable, "The Journals of Lewis and Clark" have a tendency to make for taxing reading. This is because the editor left Lewis' and Clark's grammar and spelling almost completely intact. (Both men had an excellent ability to hold their readers' interest with their colorful and dramatic prose, but they were both atrocious spellers.)

This edition of "The Journals of Lewis and Clark" is highly entertaining and well researched. It's the best and most essential volume for those who do not wish to read the complete multi-volume version of this work. I highly recommend this outstanding book!


What a wonderful book, tremendous courage, modestly told!   March 12, 1999
C. H Mitchum (Chelmsford, MA USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

In this day of overblown hype with every event, no matter how trivial, being glorified mostly by those envolved, The Journals are refreshingly different. These brave men,and one woman, faced danger on a daily basis, and yet, almost always reacted exactly right. If you want to learn about the most famous American expedition, what better way than in their own words, superbly edited by DeVoto. Their unassuming and matter of fact reporting leaves it to the reader to imagine the courage of these great explorers. My favorate book of 1998 and 1999.


One great American story   November 1, 1998
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

Fascinating personal day-by-day account of the journey of Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Territory. As you read, you feel yourself slowly seeing the American west as it was seen by those who first wrote of its magnificence, the customs of the natives, the wildlife, and climate. You see it for what it was, and for its possibilities. This edition has been edited from the individual journals of both Lewis and Clark and some of the others. It has been made more compact by putting in only passages that tell the story, but with no sentence restructuring or spelling corrections. Sometimes this requires you to figure the meaning out, but is never a big problem. The chapter length was perfect for reading a chapter a day which means 33 days. The only bad chapter was 31, which was a summary of one leg lifted from DeVoto's The Course of Empire, which I felt was harder to understand than the journals. The appendix includes Jefferson's Instructions, list of personnel, and specimens returned.


Recommended "short version" of Lewis & Clark Journals   October 1, 2003
Sissalou (SAINT CLAIR, MI USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This book is not a novel. This book is an excerpt of the version of the Lewis and Clark journals edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites in 1903-04. Thwaites's version was based on material from the paraphrased Biddle version of 1814. There is an excellent modern non-paraphrased 13-volume version of the journals edited by Dr. Gary Moulton based on original Lewis and Clark materials--also available through Amazon.com. I recommend this book and Dr. Moulton's books.

Bakeless chose entries that reflected the broad scope of Captain Meriwether Lewis's mission. Captain Lewis was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and Congress in 1803 to conduct an official army expedition across the North American continent to search for a practical trade route. He was to sail up the Missouri River, cross the Rocky Mountains, and sail down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. This feat had never been done before, and Lewis and his army detachment were the first citizens of the United States to cross all the way across from the land east of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

Bakeless's selection of journal entries gives the reader a very balanced sense of the expedition. We can appreciate the mundane day-to-day activities such as guard duties, court-martials, hunting expeditions, weather reports, as well as exciting entries such as when the men were chased by grizzly bears, nearly fell over cliffs, were nearly drowned, or when confronted by unfriendly westerners (only twice--most of the Native Americans were exceedingly helpful to the expedition and many times, the expeditionaries lives depended on the Native Americans help), and even when Meriwether Lewis was accidentally shot. We even find out which Captain liked to eat dog meat.

Considering the wealth of information that the Captains brought back from their journey, Bakeless did an excellent job of choosing what we should read to get a balanced picture of the enormous job those men undertook in one small volume.

This is an excellent "beginners" Lewis and Clark Journal. Once you read this book, you will feel compelled to read more. When you do, I recommend editor Dr. Gary Moulton's 12 volume set.

This book is not a "childrens" book. It is a nonfiction book for adults or young adults that can appreciate real life adventure.

The bottom line is, do you want to buy this book? Yes, you do.


Dazzling, legendary   February 27, 2003
William J Higgins III (Laramie, Wyoming United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

There is not much new that I can add which has not already been said of the Journals. Simply put, fantastic! I have read some excellent books regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but reading the actual journals themselves makes one feel as though they are right there alongside them. Names such as John Colter, the Fields brothers, George Drouillard, Peter Cruzatte, Touissant Charbonneau and his wife Sacajawea, John Ordway, George Shannon, and many of the others in the journal become so familiar, it's as if the reader is a "fly on the saddle" (so to speak) during the entire expedition. Every chapter, every leg of the journey, has something relating to the hardships, sacrifices, conjectures, speculations, survival strategies, Indian confrontations and appropriate manners of behavior, along with wonderful descriptions of landforms, Indian culture, animals, plants, climate, etc. A truly gripping, meaningful look at early western U.S. exploration. DeVoto's introduction and editing is extremely well done.