Into The Wilderness Dream

by Donald A. Barclay, Peter Wild, James H. Maguire

Not just an exploration of our early Western European roots, these rich chronicles read as literature, first-person narratives of the greatest exploration adventures in historic times. From the Platonic vision of Atlantis to Arthur’s Avalon, pre-Columbus Europeans imagined fabulous lands to the west—and after 1492, initial reports of a new world filled with golden El Dorados, warrior queens, and Fountains of Youth merely provided confirmation. Although these dreams were soon tempered by reality, explorers continued to set off with expectation that shaped what they say, how they saw, and how they reacted. This complex of attitudes continues to affect the way we view our world, and these accounts provide an excellent source for insight into the metaphorical systems that have permeated European and American writing about the West since the Sixteenth century. Into the Wilderness Dreams draws from the best of three dozen accounts by the Spanish, French, English, and American explorers who came before Lewis and Clark, and explores the roots of present Western Euro-American culture.

416 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

Donald A. Barclay has been an academic librarian since 1990, holding library positions at New Mexico State University, the University of Houston, the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center, and the University of California, Merced. His interests in librarianship include the history of print and digital information, the role of information in the Digital Age, and the evaluation of information. At UC Merced he was instrumental in planning the library for the first (and, to date, only) new U.S. research university of the twenty-first century.

During his career Donald has published numerous books and articles on such topics as fake news, library construction and maintenance, library management, and the literature of the American West. His books include:

--Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age

--Serving Online Customers: Lessons for Libraries from the Business World

--The Library Renovation, Maintenance, and Construction Handbook

--Into the Wilderness Dream: Exploration Narratives of the American West, 1500-1805

--A Rendezvous Reader: Tall, Tangles, and True Tales of the Mountain Men, 1805-1850

Besides working as a librarian, Donald has taught college English and worked as a fire fighter on a U.S. Forest Service hotshot crew.