Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark

by William Clark, James J. Holmberg (Editor)

Over the course of his career, American explorer William Clark (1770–1838) wrote at least forty-five letters to his older brother Jonathan, including six that were written during the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition. This book publishes many of these letters for the first time, revealing important details about the expedition, the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis, the status of Clark’s slave York (the first African American known to have crossed the continent from coast to coast), and other matters of historical significance.

There are letters concerning the establishment of the Corps of Discovery’s first winter camp in December 1803, preparations for setting out into the country west of Fort Mandan in 1805, and Clark’s 1807 fossil dig at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. There are also letters about Lewis’s disturbed final days that shed light on whether he committed suicide or was murdered. Still other letters chronicle the fate of York after the expedition; we learn the details of Clark and York’s falling out and subsequent alienation. Together the letters and the richly informative introductions and annotations by James J. Holmberg provide valuable insights into the lives of Lewis and Clark and the world of Jeffersonian America.


Published in association with The Filson Historical Society

353 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2002

About the author

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This is William^^Clark.

William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor.

A native of Virginia, he grew up in prestatehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder.

Reviews

[Brook Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a WEALTH of information.

Now, that being said, it's a book for research purposes and for people who have specific interest in William Clark, his world, and relations. Though it's fantastically informing, it's not easy reading. Mr. Holmberg's notes are frequent and complete, and you will find yourself flipping back and forth from pages to read Clark's letters and along with Holmberg's notes on certain things. For me, garnering such factual, well-researched information was well-worth the effort.

Holmberg and the Filson are a treasure-chest of facts on Clark's life and what the early 18th century frontier was like. Being an author embarking on writing a novel on this period, this book was simply invaluable and has alredy pointed me to other sources of vital reference.

Dr. Holmberg should be praised for such an exhaustive resource on Clark, his style of penmanship, his life history, acquaintances... I could go on and on. I won't, but will end here by saying that it was a fabulously challenging and intriguing read.

[Esther Steiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into the man himself, not only the letters he writes to his brother Jonathan, but to his other brother, his sister Fanny and his nephew. This goes well with the Journals of the Expedition, showing his personality and character.

[David Dickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book that fills in some information about Clark's relationship to his family. The editor's notes give you more information about the people of the time than the letter's.

[Rick Saunders · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest it held little interest for me. I was hoping for more insight to their travels but there was more emphasis on before and after. If I had been interested I would rate it much higher. Well written with a great depth of detail, it simply wasn't what I was looking for.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

[edit]
Definitely worth a read but William Clark’s command of grammar and English , as noted by James Holmberg, is “creative” and ‘“of the moment”. That presents challenges and time must be taken in reading

The approach I took, was to first read the footnotes, the the letter and reread the referenced footnotes as needed.

I found it difficult to follow the described family relationships and including a family tree would be helpfu