A biography of the leader of the first group of European Americans to explore the wonder he named - the Grand Canyon. Upon his return to Washington, he oversaw federal bureaus and began his advocacy for the West that lasted the remainder of his life.
John Wesley Powell, the great American explorer and environmental pioneer, embodied the energy, optimism, and westward impulse of the young United States. "A River Running West" is a gorgeously written, magisterial account of this towering figure, a true story of undaunted courage. 42 halftones. 7 maps.
"Thought-provoking.... Powell's public activities, in the American West and in the mires of Washington, supply readers with an unusually interesting and instructive tale.... The surrender of self-righteousness would be an enormous boon to the environmental cause. Acknowledging the unedited, complicated, utilitarian John Wesley Powell as an ideological parent would be a big step in that laudable direction, and it is this step that Worster's thorough and empathetic biography makes possible."--Patricia Limerick, Los Angeles Times Book Review
