Review of The Plains of North America and Their Inhabitants

Authors

James H. Gunnerson

Date of this Version

1991

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 11:2 (Spring 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Irving Dodge wrote with the easy style of an experienced raconteur, drawing on twenty years of first-hand experience on the Plains. Most of his numerous anecdotes, however, date from the late 1860s and early 1870s. During this period he met an English promoter who encouraged Dodge to write the book. First published in 1876 it quickly went through two editions in England and two in the United States, all substantially edited. The present version, with only errors of spelling and punctuation corrected, is based on an unedited manuscript by Dodge and presents the work as he had envisioned it. Wayne R. Kime meticulously documents variations in the different editions and provides explanatory notes, an informative introduction, and useful commentary.