A Remarkable Curiosity
368 pages, 5 7/10 x 8 7/10
Hardcover
Release Date:31 Oct 2008
ISBN:9780870819261
A Remarkable Curiosity
Dispatches from a New York City Journalist's 1873 Railroad Trip across the American West
Compiled by Jerald T. Milanich
University Press of Colorado
Collected in this volume for the first time are Cummings's portraits of a land and its assortment of characters unlike anything back East. Characters like Pedro Armijo, the New Mexican sheep tycoon who took Denver by storm, and more prominently the Mormon prophet Brigham Young and one of his wives, Ann Eliza Young, who was filing for divorce at the time of Cummings's arrival.
Although today he is virtually unknown, during his lifetime Cummings was one of the most famous newspapermen in the United States, in part because of stories like these. Complete with a biographical sketch and historical introduction, A Remarkable Curiosity is an enjoyable read for anybody interested in the American West in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Take a pinch of Mark Twain, add a dash of Studs Terkel, and you'll have the recipe for Amos Jay Cummings' westward-ho dispatches for the New York Sun... This collection brims with anecdotes about the American originals who settled West - farmers, gamblers, townsfolk, scoundrels, Native-Americans, prospectors, gunslingers, and Mormons - brought to life by one sharp newspaper man.'
—ForeWord
A fun, engaging read for anybody interested in the Old West. Thanks to Milanich's desire to share these dispatches and his appreciation of Cummings's literary and linguistic value, a forgotten journalist can absorb an audience again.'
—Newwest.net
This remarkable book provides a rare, intimate look at the American West as it was evolving during the years immediately following the Civil War.'
—Larry Cox, The Tucson Citizen
Curator in archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History and professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at the University of Florida, Jerald T. Milanich has written over twenty books and has received a number of awards, including the James Mooney Book Award, the Rembert Patrick Book Prize (twice), and the American Association for State and Local History Book Award.
