Publisher's Synopsis
Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928) was an American journalist and Indian activist. He is also acclaimed as a historian, photographer, poet and librarian. Lummis enrolled in Harvard and was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, but dropped out during his senior year. While at Harvard he worked during the summer as a printer and published his first work, Birch Bark Poems, a small volume of his works printed on paper thin sheets of birch bark, winning him acclaim from Life magazine and recognition from some of the day's leading poets. In 1884, Lummis was working for a newspaper in Cincinnati when he was offered a job with the Los Angeles Times. Lummis decided to make the 3,500 mile journey from Cincinnati to Los Angeles on foot, taking 143 days, all the while sending weekly dispatches to the paper chronicling his trip. In 1892, his writings during the trip were published as a book, A Tramp Across the Continent. His other works include: The Land of Poco Tiempo (1893), The Spanish Pioneers (1893) and General Crook and the Apache Wars (1966).