About this item
A life of adventure and military daring on violent frontiers across the American West, Africa, Mexico, and the Klondike.Frederick Russell Burnham's (1861-1947) amazing story resembles a newsreel fused with a Saturday matinee thriller. One of the few people who could turn his garrulous friend Theodore Roosevelt into a listener, Burnham was once world-famous as "the American scout." His expertise in woodcraft, learned from frontiersmen and Indians, helped inspire another friend, Robert Baden-Powell, to found the Boy Scouts. His adventures encompassed Apache wars and range feuds, booms and busts in mining camps around the globe, explorations in remote regions of Africa, and death-defying military feats that brought him renown and high honors.
About the Author
I've been a freelance journalist for more than 30 years. My most recent book, A Splendid Savage: the Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton, January 2016) , is the biography of a man once world-famous as "the American scout."
My previous book, A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton, 2012) , is about Heinrich Barth, one of Africa's greatest explorers yet nearly forgotten today. The book is a nonfiction historical adventure that recreates Barth's incredible five-year, 10,000 mile journey in the 1850s. The Boston Globe named Labyrinth one of the best nonfiction books of 2012.
I've written for many national publications, including Smithsonian, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Wall Street Journal, and BBC Wildlife.
I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, got a degree from the University of Detroit, then taught literature and writing at the University of Connecticut while earning a Ph.D. I live in Connecticut.
My website: www.stevekemper.net
My blog: http://blog.stevekemper.net
