Table of Contents

Author's Note
Introduction
Chapter 1. An Unexpected Proposal
Chapter 2. Early Life
Chapter 3. The Threat of War
Chapter 4. Jefferson's Choice
Chapter 5. Cocaptain
Chapter 6. Doctrine of Discovery
Chapter 7. Under Way
Chapter 8. The Teton Sioux
Chapter 9. Fort Mandan
Chapter 10. A "Darling" Project
Chapter 11. Across the Rockies to the Pacific
Chapter 12. The Return
Chapter 13. Unspeakable Joy
Chapter 14. Philadelphia Interlude
Chapter 15. A Classic Cast of Characters
Chapter 16. Land of Opportunity
Chapter 17. Honor Questioned
Chapter 18. Defamed
Chapter 19. Jefferson's Letter
A Selection of Plants Collected by Meriwether Lewis
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

Through a retelling of Lewis's life, from his resourceful youth to the brilliance of his leadership and accomplishments as a man, Patricia Tyson Stroud shows that Jefferson's unsubstantiated claim of his protégé's suicide is the long-held bitter root at the heart of the Meriwether Lewis story.

About the Author

Patricia Tyson Stroud is an independent scholar. She is author of Thomas Say: New World Naturalist, The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World, The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph, and, with Robert McCracken Peck, A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, all of which are available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reviews

"This book is well worth adding to a Lewis and Clark library or an early national period shelf more generally. One learns many small details here that have escaped even the specialists among us."
*South Dakota History*

"Bitterroot offers a refreshing and overdue new perspective on the complicated and often contradictory life of Meriwether Lewis. Patricia Tyson Stroud carefully separates the verifiable facts from the quick judgments of history that have obscured Lewis's character for more than two centuries. This is an arresting portrait that challenges the conventional wisdom and makes a compelling case to restore Lewis's reputation to the luster he enjoyed in his lifetime."
*Landon Jones, author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West*

"Bitterroot is a learned account of the heroic and tragic life of Meriwether Lewis set in the historical context of early America. In his amazing career as soldier, explorer, and pioneer naturalist, and later as politician, he had to deal with unsympathetic government bureaucrats and the animosity of scoundrels in all walks of life."
*Alfred E. Schuyler, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University*

"Rich in analysis, Bitterroot: The Life and Death of Meriwether Lewis provides a candid look and adds provocative insights into the historical conversation surrounding Meriwether Lewis."
*Jay H. Buckley, author of William Clark: Indian Diplomat*