Kirjahaku

The Champion Buffalo Hunter is the fascinating memoir of one of the most legendary frontiersmen of the early West, “Yellowstone Vic” Smith. Born Victor Grant Smith in 1850, he lived a colorful life across the American frontier from the 1870s to 1890s. A classic frontiersman, he was a trapper, dispatch rider, scout, trick shot—and, yes, buffalo hunter extraordinaire. Discovered in Harvard University’s Houghton Library in 1990, this remarkable autobiography—which Smith wrote in the third person—is comparable to Andrew Garcia’s Tough Trip through Paradise, but, notes the editor, “without the melodrama.” Written in a matter-of-fact, often humorous style, it will engage and entertain all those interested in the lives and times of the men who wandered the West, following the great herds and settling only long enough for the snows to melt. This new edition includes a revised and updated foreword by Jeanette Prodgers based on new research into the life of Yellowstone Vic.

This is an extraordinary collection of great bear stories from the early American West. Here are little-known tales of grizzly and black bears and the people such as hunters, cowboys, settlers, and naturalists, who encountered them. The stories are always exciting, sometimes tragic, and occasionally humorous. Together, they vividly illustrate the behavior of bears and people as the frontier was settled and they capture both the fascination and fear that pioneers experiences with bears, especially the grizzly, the great bear that inspired awe and respect from all who encountered it.