CHAPMAN, ARTHUR. The Pony Express, Putnam's, New York, 1932. Good reading and bibliography.
DOBIE, J. FRANK. Chapter on "Rides and Riders," in On the Open Range, published in 1931; reprinted by Banks Up shaw, Dallas. Chapter on "Under the Saddle" in The Mustangs.
HAPEN, LEROY. The Overland Mail, Cleveland, 1926. Factual, bibliography. OP.
ROOT, FRANK A., and CONNELLEY, W. E. The Overland Stage to California, Topeka, Kansas, 1901. Reprinted by Long's College Book Co., Columbus, Ohio. Basic work.
VISSCHER, FRANK J. A Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony Express, Chicago, 1908. OP. Not excessively "thrilling."
20. Surge of Life in the West
THE WANDERINGS of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, De Soto, and La Salle had long been chronicled, although the chronicles had not been popularized in English, when in 1804 Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark set out to explore not only the Louisiana Territory, which had just been purchased for the United States by President Thomas Jefferson, but on west to the Pacific. Their Journals, published in 1814, initiated a series of chronicles comparable in scope, vitality, and manhood adventure to the great collection known as Hakluyt's Voyages.
Between 1904 and 1907 Reuben Gold Thwaites, one of the outstanding editors of the English-speaking world, brought out in thirty-two volumes his epic Early Western Travels. This work includes the Lewis and Clark Journals, every student of the West, whether Northwest or Southwest, goes to the collection sooner or later. It is a commentary on the values of life held by big rich boasters of patriotism in the West that virtually all the chronicles in the collection remain out of print.
An important addendum to the Thwaites collection of Early Western Travels is "The Southwest Historical Series," edited by Ralph P. Bieber—twelve volumes, published 1931-43, by Clark, Glendale, California.