Norman Clyde


Book Description

This riveting account of one of the most notable personalities of the mountain climbing world reconstructs the life of legendary mountaineer Norman Clyde (1885-1972). He made his mark on history with more than one hundred and thirty first ascents throughout western North America, and many believe he knew the High Sierra better than anyone else, including John Muir. Part of his mystique comes from participating in high-profile mountain rescues and recoveries, in which he is credited with saving a number of lives. Those who had the good fortune to meet him-often with a ninety-pound pack on his back that included an anvil for boot repair, fishing rods, cooking pots, and books in Greek and Latin-never forgot the experience. Biographer Robert C. Pavlik uses Clyde's own words, along with recollections from his family, friends, fellow climbers, and acquaintances, to capture the experiences of a remarkable man and a bygone time "between the pioneers and the rock climbers."




Early Days in the Range of Light


Book Description

“A splendid chronicle of early climbing in the Sierra Nevada.” —Royal Robbins It’s 1873. Gore–Tex shells and aluminum climbing gear are a century away, but the high mountains still call to those with a spirit of adventure. Imagine the stone in your hands and thousands of feet of open air below you, with only a wool jacket to weather a storm and no rope to catch a fall. Daniel Arnold did more than imagine—he spent three years retracing the steps of his climbing forefathers, and in Early Days in the Range of Light, he tells their riveting stories. From 1864 to 1931, the Sierra Nevada witnessed some of the most audacious climbing of all time. In the spirit of his predecessors, Arnold carried only rudimentary equipment: no ropes, no harness, no specialized climbing shoes. Sometimes he left his backpack and sleeping bag behind as well, and, like John Muir, traveled for days with only a few pounds of food rolled into a sack slung over his shoulder. In an artful blend of history, biography, nature, and adventure writing, Arnold brings to life the journeys and the terrain traveled. In the process he uncovers the motivations that drove an extraordinary group of individuals to risk so much for airy summits and close contact with bare stone and snow. “Ever wish you could travel back to climbing’s early days and follow the earliest first–ascent visionaries? This fantasy comes to life . . . in this elegant narrative.” —Climbing Magazine




My Life with Bonnie and Clyde


Book Description

Bonnie and Clyde were responsible for multiple murders and countless robberies. But they did not act alone. In 1933, during their infamous run from the law, Bonnie and Clyde were joined by Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche. Of these four accomplices, only one—Blanche Caldwell Barrow—lived beyond early adulthood and only Blanche left behind a written account of their escapades. Edited by outlaw expert John Neal Phillips, Blanche’s previously unknown memoir is here available for the first time. Blanche wrote her memoir between 1933 and 1939, while serving time at the Missouri State Penitentiary. Following her death, Blanche’s good friend and the executor of her will, Esther L. Weiser, found the memoir wrapped in a large unused Christmas card. Later she entrusted it to Phillips, who had interviewed Blanche several times before her death. Drawing from these interviews, and from extensive research into Depression-era outlaw history, Phillips supplements the memoir with helpful notes and with biographical information about Blanche and her accomplices.




Missing in the Minarets


Book Description

This riveting narrative details the mysterious disappearance of Peter Starr, a San Francisco attorney from a prominent family, who set off to climb alone in the rugged Minaret region of the Sierra Nevada in July 1933. Rigorous and thorough searches by some of the best climbers in the history of the range failed to locate him despite a number of promising clues. When all hope seemed gone and the last search party had left the Minarets, mountaineering legend Norman Clyde refused to give up. Climbing alone, he persevered in the face of failure, resolved that he would learn the fate of the lost man. Clyde's discovery and the events that followed make for compelling reading. Recently reissued with a new afterword, this re-creation of a famous episode in the annals of the Sierra Nevada is mountaineering literature at its best.




Clyde Warrior


Book Description

The phrase Red Power, coined by Clyde Warrior (1939-1968) in the 1960s, introduced militant rhetoric into American Indian activism. In this biography of Warrior, the author presents the Ponca leader as the architect of the Red Power movement, spotlighting him as one of the most significant and influential figures in the fight for Indian rights.




The Lives and Times of Bonnie & Clyde


Book Description

The author carefully gleaned materials from obscure locally published accounts, previously untapped court records, and archived but unpublished oral history accounts from some sixty victims, neighbors, relatives, and police who were involved in the exploits of the infamous duo. Using this information, he traces the violent path of Bonnie and Clyde until May 23, 1934, when they die in an ambush.




The Floatplane Notebooks


Book Description

This novel set in North Carolina is “warmly humorous, gossipy, and rich―a book with the soul of a family reunion” (The New York Times Book Review). The Copeland family goes back a long way in North Carolina. Albert Copeland keeps a written record, of sorts, in some notebooks he bought back in 1956 to log the flights of his home-built floatplane. He embarked on that project when the kids were still little, but now they’re all grown: Thatcher has a son of his own; Meredith and Mark are back from Vietnam; and Noralee is off dating hippies. The notebooks are thick with the floatplane’s failures to lift off, and bulging with color Polaroids of the wisteria blossoms near the family plot, favorite family dogs, and Thatcher and Bliss’s wedding; records of Noralee’s height and weight; a diagram of the graveyard; a newspaper story about wild-child Meredith’s many backfired schemes. This novel travels back in time more than one hundred years, to the Copeland bride who first planted the wisteria by the back porch that would take over the surrounding woods, and then back to the present again to show how even though times change, people are pretty much the same. “Among the wisest, most heartfelt writing to emerge from the South in our generation . . . Meredith Copeland’s first-person account of his Vietnam experience, homecoming, and physical paralysis in North Carolina is breathtakingly stark, full, and real.” ―Los Angeles Times “The Floatplane Notebooks has all the marks of a master storyteller going straight for the mystery itself. All the marks, that is, of a new American classic.” ―The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “A wonderful celebration of family and tradition, with warts, humor, tragedy, and triumph . . . An exceedingly rich book, a celebration of the human spirit that is brilliantly conceived, structured, and executed.” ―The Cincinnati Post




Legends & Lore Along California's Highway 395


Book Description

Stretching from Victorville to Carson City, Highway 395 offers a snapshot of California's diverse landscapes - and oddities. Tales of skinwalkers and sasquatch sightings flourish among the bones of ghost towns, and stories of the elusive Lone Pine Mountain Devil ignite the curiosity. Far from fiction, the Sierra Phantom lived among the hills for fifty years, and Mountaineer Norman Clyde used his skills to find lost hikers and climbers. Rumors of the Lost Cement Mine, with a rich vein of gold, lures people in, and the Tuttle Creek Ashram, built high above Lone Pine, offers peace. Author Brian Clune explores the strange and fascinating side of the majestic mountains and lonely deserts along the El Camino Sierra.







The High Sierra


Book Description

This new edition of the only guide to detail all the known routes on 570 peaks in the Sierra is completely reorganized to be even more user friendly and includes more than 100 new routes, route variations and winter ascents.The most popular guidebook to the magnificent Sierra mountains has been expanded and improved. There is 30 percent new content in this edition, including new route descriptions, additional peaks described, more historical information, and GPS-enabled driving directions. The content has also been completely rearranged to keep roads and trails, and passes and peaks together, making the book easier to use. Four of the 30 maps have been revised."The Sierra climbing bible" (The Los Angeles Times)"The best field guide to the region." (Men's Journal)"The guide to the Sierra nevada high country." (Climbing magazine)




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