This illuminating reference collects the journals Captain William Clark kept from December 1803 to April 1805 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It includes the Dubois Journal (December 13, 1803 to May 14, 1804) that Clark kept at the expedition's winter quarters opposite the mouth of the Missouri River and the River Journal (May 14, 1804, to April 3, 1805), which tracks the journey from Camp Dubois to the Mandans. Together they comprise an incredible chronicle of the day-to-day minutiae of the historic expedition. There are extensive notes by Ernest Staples Osgood in the margins, providing further information and context. Black and white facsimiles of the primary documents are included as well. As Staples writes in his introduction to the text, "These records are more than written words on paper. The stained and worn notebook, the ragged and torn bits of paper are in themselves a tangible record. Words are blotted and crowded together, for often the pen faltered and the mind clouded with fatigue. To hold in one's hand such documents, to examine them and discover in them something more than the information that the words convey, brings one closer to the event, and to the men who wrote them. The records are in a very real sense living history." Number 5 in the Yale Western Americana Series. Hardbound in green and black cloth with gilt titles on spine and Clark's gilt signature on front cover. 335 pp.

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Condition: B+

Contents tight with some very minor toning and a few insignificant manuscript notations. Covers have minor shelf wear and light soiling on the spine.