With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: A Reading and Book Signing with Will Bagley

Thursday, October 4, 2012 | 7:00 – 9:00PM

Ken Sanders Rare Books is pleased to announce a reading and book signing with Will Bagley on Thursday, October 4th at 7:00PM at our downtown bookstore (268 South 200 East, Salt Lake City). Copies of Will Bagley’s new book 'With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852' will be available for signing and purchase at the event ($25, Hardcover, University of Oklahoma Press).

'With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852' is the second of four scheduled volumes in Bagley’s acclaimed series, 'Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails'. The first volume of this series, 'So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848' was the recipient of several awards including Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010 and the 2011 Western Heritage Award. So Rugged and Mountainous was also featured as the Editor’s Choice in the September 2011 issue of The Atlantic magazine, where reviewer Ben Schwarz gave Bagley high praise:

“[…] Such careful archival research yields vivid storytelling, and Bagley’s account is fascinating in its details, whether that means dissecting such familiar but controversial episodes as the Donner Party’s ordeal in the Sierras and the Whitman massacre at Walla Walla, or describing such quotidian features of trail life as meal preparation (the author notes “the total absence of fruit, vegetables, and dairy products from most supply lists”) or the high number of fatal mishaps. This book stands on the shoulders of one of the great works of post-war American historical scholarship, 'The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–60' (1979), by John D. Unruh Jr. (The Atlantic, September 2011).” (To read Schwarz’s full review, follow this link: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/bitter-crossing/308610/)

With narrative scope and detail unmatched by earlier histories, 'With Golden Visions Bright Before Them' picks up where 'So Rugged and Mountainous' left off, retelling this classic American saga through the voices of the people whose eyewitness testimonies vividly evoke the most dramatic era of westward migration. Traditional histories of the overland roads paint the gold rush migration as a heroic epic of progress that opened new lands and a continental treasure house for the advancement of civilization. Yet, according to Bagley, the transformation of the American West during this period is more complex and contentious than legend pretends. The gold rush epoch witnessed untold suffering and sacrifice, and the trails and their trials were enough to make many people turn back. For America’s Native peoples, the effect of the massive migration was no less than ruinous. The impact that tens of thousands of intruders had on Native peoples and their homelands is at the center of this story, not on its margins. Beautifully written and richly illustrated with photographs and maps, 'With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852' continues the saga that began with Bagley’s highly acclaimed, award-winning 'So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812–1848', hailed by critics as a classic of western history.

Will Bagley is an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company’s documentary history series, 'KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier'. Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hannah, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. 'Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows' has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. 'With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852' is the second of four volumes of 'Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails'.

For more information about this event:

Ken Sanders Rare Books

268 South 200 East, SLC, UT

801-521-3819

www.kensandersbooks.com

books@dreamgarden.com

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