About this item

Six years after Lewis and Clark's began their journey to the Pacific Northwest, two of the Eastern establishment's leading figures, John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson, turned their sights to founding a colony akin to Jamestown on the West Coast and transforming the nation into a Pacific trading power. Peter Stark recreates this pivotal moment in American history for the first time for modern readers, drawing on original source material to tell the amazing true story of the Astor Expedition.



About the Author

Peter Stark

Peter Stark is an adventure and exploration writer and historian. Born in Wisconsin, he studied English and anthropology at Dartmouth College, took a master's in journalism from the University of Wisconsin, and headed off to the remote spots of the world writing magazine articles and books. With a home base in Missoula, Montana, he and his family periodically have lived abroad for a year, most recently in a small town in Northeast Brazil.His forthcoming book, "Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father," tells the story of a young and struggling George Washington in the Ohio wilderness of the 1750s. It will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins on May 1st, 2018.His previous book, "Astoria," tells the gripping story of John Jacob Astor's hugely ambitious wilderness expedition to establish the first American colony on the West Coast and a global trade empire. A New York Times bestseller, it received a PEN USA literary award nomination, and has been adapted into an epic, two-part play by Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon. A long-time correspondent for Outside magazine, Stark's articles and essays have also appeared in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Men's Journal, and many others.



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.