The Lost Guide: The Man Behind the Lewis and Clark Expedition

by Richard Hetu, Bianca Zagolin (Translator)

A fresh and lively retelling of one of the most momentous journeys in American history -- by one of French Canada's most respected journalists. Grounded in the best scholarship, "The Lost Guide" reconstructs the Lewis and Clark expedition, with all its romance, heroics, and heartaches, from the point of view of Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea's "husband," a man much maligned by historians and novelists. Hired as a guide and interpeter, Charbonneau played a crucial role in this unforgettable odyssey. Without him, Lewis and Clark would never have met Sacagawea, the Indian woman who would later become a legendary figure, nor would their expedition, in all likelihood, have crossed the rocky Mountains and reached the Pacific. Heir to a proud tradition, that of the "coureurs de bois" Toussaint Charbonneau was one of many French-Canadians who ventured in the early Far West as pioneers of the fur trade. Born in Boucherville, Canada, he was living among the Hidatsas, an Upper Missouri tribe, at the time of his meeting with the American expedition. In the Great Plains, he gained quite a reputation as a ladies man, as befits his favorite Indian name -- One Whose Man-Part Is Never Limp. Written with intelligence and humor, "The Lost Guide" is a historical novel that gives Charbonneau his due at last, after two centuries of neglect. On the occasion of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial picaresque hero deserves to be remembered not as a coward or a fool, as he is often portrayed, but as the true precursor of Jack Kerouac -- a free-spirited French-Canadian who went west to discover a new way of life in America.

302 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004