A Tramp Across the Continent

by Charles F. Lummis

Book Overview

When young Charles Lummis heard about a job in the small town of Los Angeles more than a century ago, he walked all the way to it--across the plains, up Pike's Peak, down Devil's Gorge, through the Grand Canyon, over the desert. It was, by conservative estimate, one of the grandest hikes in American history. With no reason to be modest, Lummis called his "unpretentious" account of it "the wayside notes of a happy vagabonding."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803279086
• ISBN13: 9780803279087
• Release Date: April 1982
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Being There in the Wilds of Western America

My son ended up having to read this book for a college history class. I picked it up and thumbed through it and was immediately drawn into Lummis' explanation of the fluidness and even reverence with which the New Mexican of his time could curse all things. I read this book in one day. This true (I guess) narrative of Lummis' hike in the late 19th century westward to California has it all: Frontier adventures, bungled robberies, hunting, winter survival, humorous observations of human nature, confessions of weakness, personal examination of bigotry. Lummis' wit is liberally sprinkled throughout this book and his sarcasm isn't bitter, but sassy and refreshing. He truly came to love the people he ran across, and I can't help but imagine that the hospitality he frequently found himself receiving from others was a reflection of his worthiness of it. Highly recommended as a piece of cross-genre Americana. Lummis' prose isn't buried in the 19th century, although some aspects of his wordsmithing bear the marks of that age. This is an accessible work for the literate modern reader.

hilarious and true adventure tales

Lummis was a real character with a 'perfect body and awakened mind' who walked from Cincinnati to his new job in Los Angeles in winter of 1884-1885. His adventures are terrific and his self-confidence supreme and enabling of his success. He was open and accepting of all people, flamboyent, bombastic and an asset to the development of Los Angeles, its library, the Southwest Museum and the peaceful relocation of the native Americans to reservations. (He had been appointed to that task by his Harvard classmate, Teddy Roosevelt. Clean, funny and very well written!