John Xantus: The Fort Tejon Letters, 1857–1859, Ann Zwinger

From his station at Ft. Tejon in Californias Tehachapi Mountains, X ntus carried on a lengthy correspondence with Spencer Baird at the Smithsonian, to whom he shipped the specimens he had trapped or shot in the surrounding sierra and deserts. A prolific letter writer, X ntus faithfully reported his findings as he bemoaned his circumstances and worried about his future.

Working from Smithsonian archives, natural history writer Ann Zwinger has assembled X ntuss unpublished letters into a book that documents his trials and triumphs in the field and reveals much about his dubious character. The letters also bring to life a time and place on the western frontier from which X ntus was able to observe a broad panorama of American history in the making.