Yellowstone, Land of Wonders
Promenade in North America's National Park
Jules Leclercq author Janet Chapple translator Suzanne Cane translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Nebraska Press
Published:1st May '13
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In the summer of 1883 Belgian travel writer Jules Leclercq spent ten days on horseback in Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, exploring myriad natural wonders: astonishing geysers, majestic waterfalls, the vast lake, and the breathtaking canyon. He also recorded the considerable human activity, including the rampant vandalism. Leclercq’s account of his travels is itself a small marvel blending natural history, firsthand impressions, scientific lore, and anecdote. Along with his observations on the park’s long-rumored fountains of boiling water and mountains of glass, Leclercq describes camping near geysers, washing clothes in a bubbling hot spring, and meeting such diverse characters as local guides and tourists from the United States and Europe. Notables including former president Ulysses S. Grant and then-president Chester A. Arthur were also in the park that summer to inaugurate the newly completed leg of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
A sensation in Europe, the book was never published in English. This deft translation at long last makes available to English-speaking readers a masterpiece of western American travel writing that is a fascinating historical document in its own right.
“What a delightful discovery this book is. Jules Leclercq is the kind of writer we love to travel with—enthusiastic, energetic, observant, curious, and companionable. Janet Chapple and Suzanne Cane have produced a splendid translation and well-researched edition.”—Robert Root, author of Postscripts: Retrospections on Time and Place
“This lost jewel by an overlooked but wonderful explorer reads like a Jules Verne novel and is astonishing in its poetic descriptions of the raw nature of Yellowstone in the nineteenth century. A beautiful, evocative work on those early days in the American wilderness, it is like a literary Ansel Adams.” —Peter Schulman, translator, author, and professor at Old Dominion University
“A very welcome addition to Yellowstone’s historical literature, this book presents a late–Victorian European visitor’s lively impressions of the park, its science, its lore, and its literature.”—Paul Schullery, author of Searching for Yellowstone and coauthor of Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park
“Yellowstone, Land of Wonders is as enjoyable a narrative tour of Yellowstone now as it was 130 years ago. This book—both the clear descriptions and the lovely woodcuts—illustrates the timelessness of this remarkable place.”—Michael J. Yochim, senior project manager at Yosemite National Park and author of Yellowstone and the Snowmobile: Locking Horns over National Park Use
ISBN: 9780803244771
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
288 pages