David Lavender
Encyclopedia
David Sievert Lavender was an American historian and writer of the Western United States
. He published more than 40 books, including two novels, several children's books, and a memoir. Unlike his two prominent contemporaries, Bernard DeVoto
and Wallace Stegner
, Lavender was not an academic. He based much of his writing on first-hand practical knowledge of the American west, traveling to the sites of his historical accounts and experiencing the historical realities directly—in the mines, on the trails, in the mountains, or on the rivers. David Lavender was a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize
, and was widely admired by scholars for his accuracy and objectivity.
, a rugged mining town. During his early years, he worked as a silver miner and a cowboy. He helped run his stepfather's cattle ranch until it closed during the Great Depression. His love of the outdoors led to his becoming an avid mountaineer and dedicated conservationist.
Although raised in the rustic mountains of western Colorado, Lavender came from a family that valued education. His grandfather was a Colorado supreme court judge, and both his parents were college-educated. Lavender attended Mercersburg Academy
in Pennsylvania, and later studied the law and liberal arts at Princeton University
. He graduated in 1931, with a love of history and writing, but he returned to western Colorado to help his family run the their cattle ranch.
, where he took a teaching job. During this period of his life, he wrote three novels for young people. He also began to write about the American West
he had experienced growing up – wanting to record a way of life that was slowly fading away. He began to write about his days working in the Camp Bird Mine
near Ouray, Colorado
, as a miner. The result was a memoir, One Man's West, which was published in 1943. That year, Lavender began teaching English at The Thacher School
—a boarding school in Ojai, California—where he encouraged and supported many young writers. Lavender kept his teaching position at the Thacher School until 1970.
The American West of Lavender's early years was still a place of ranchers, miners, cowboys, prospectors, and mountaineers—and for most men, a world of backbreaking, lonely, and dangerous work. But in One Man's West, Lavender remembered "not the cold and the cruel fatigue, but rather the multitude of tiny things which in their sum make up the elemental poetry of rock and ice and snow." Lavender felt compelled to document his experiences in rugged southwest Colorado to preserve this rapidly disappearing way of life. The book is filled with charming memorable characters and personal stories that are captivating and incredible, yet told in a warm conversational style.
In 1948, Lavender followed up his successful memoir with The Big Divide, a history of the Rocky Mountain region that established his reputation as a serious historian. The critical and commercial success of these two books launched Lavender's literary career.
In 1954, Lavender published Bent's Fort, a major historic landmark of the American West on the upper Arkansas River in present-day southeastern Colorado. Built by Charles and William Bent, Bent's Fort was a massive private fort that stood until 1849 as the center of trade with the Indians of the central plains. Lavender's history of these men and their role in opening up the southwestern region of North America has been compared to the works of eminent historians such as Francis Parkman
and William H. Prescott
.
In 1958, Lavender wrote The Trail to Santa Fe, about Zebulon Pike
and his exploration of the American Southwest in present-day Missouri
, Kansas
, Colorado
, and New Mexico
. The book captures the turbulent adventures of the explorers, traders, and fighters who opened up this new country, and the hardships they faced during their westward expansion into unchartered land along the Santa Fe Trail
, which ran from Independence, Missouri
to Santa Fe
.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Lavender wrote a series of highly acclaimed histories of the American West, including Red Mountain in 1963, Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail in 1963, The American West in 1969, and The Rockies in 1975.
In the 1980s, Lavender expanded his focus as an historian, writing about the Pacific Northwest in Fort Vancouver (1981), Wyoming in Fort Laramie (1984), Utah and Arizona in Colorado River Country (1982) and River Runners of the Grand Canyon (1985), California in California: A Place, a People, a Dream (1986) and California: Land of New Beginnings (1987), and Colorado in The Telluride Story (1987). He also produced impressive general histories of the American West in Overland Migrations (1981), Colorado River Country (1982), The Great West (1985), The Way to the Western Sea (1988), and the American Heritage History Of The West (1988).
In 1992, Lavender published Let Me Be Free: The Nez Percé Tragedy (1992), the tragic story of the Nez Percé Indians' flight from their homeland to Canada to escape the United States cavalry. The clash between European-Americans and the American Indians was a subject Lavender covered in many of his previous works.
In the last decade of his life, Lavender's focus turned toward the American Southwest. His books De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: Explorers of the Northern Mystery (1992), The Santa Fe Trail (1995), Pipe Spring and the Arizona Strip (1997), Mother Earth, Father Sky: Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest (1998), and Climax at Buena Vista: The Decisive Battle of the Mexican-American War (2003) were significant contributions to documenting the history of the American Southwest.
David Lavender's first wife, Martha, died in 1959. He was married to his second wide, Martha Moreland, for 25 years before she too passed away. On his 80th birthday he married his third wife, Muriel Sharkey, whom he first got to know on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. In 2003, Lavender's health began to fail.
David Lavender died of natural causes at his home in Ojai, California on April 26, 2003, at the age of 93.
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
. He published more than 40 books, including two novels, several children's books, and a memoir. Unlike his two prominent contemporaries, Bernard DeVoto
Bernard DeVoto
Bernard Augustine DeVoto was an American historian and author who specialized in the history of the American West.- Life and work :He was born in Ogden, Utah...
and Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
, Lavender was not an academic. He based much of his writing on first-hand practical knowledge of the American west, traveling to the sites of his historical accounts and experiencing the historical realities directly—in the mines, on the trails, in the mountains, or on the rivers. David Lavender was a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
, and was widely admired by scholars for his accuracy and objectivity.
Early years
David Lavender was born and raised on a cattle ranch 20 miles north of Telluride, ColoradoTelluride, Colorado
The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
, a rugged mining town. During his early years, he worked as a silver miner and a cowboy. He helped run his stepfather's cattle ranch until it closed during the Great Depression. His love of the outdoors led to his becoming an avid mountaineer and dedicated conservationist.
Although raised in the rustic mountains of western Colorado, Lavender came from a family that valued education. His grandfather was a Colorado supreme court judge, and both his parents were college-educated. Lavender attended Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school for grades 9-12 located in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, United States. The school's mission is:...
in Pennsylvania, and later studied the law and liberal arts at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He graduated in 1931, with a love of history and writing, but he returned to western Colorado to help his family run the their cattle ranch.
Writing career
In 1938, after the cattle ranch failed, Lavender moved to Ojai, CaliforniaOjai, California
Ojai is a city in Ventura County, California, USA. It is situated in the Ojai Valley , surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,461 at the 2010 census, down from 7,862 at the 2000 census.-History:Chumash Indians were the early inhabitants of the valley...
, where he took a teaching job. During this period of his life, he wrote three novels for young people. He also began to write about the American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
he had experienced growing up – wanting to record a way of life that was slowly fading away. He began to write about his days working in the Camp Bird Mine
Camp Bird Mine
The Camp Bird Mine is a famous and highly-productive old gold mine located between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado. The mine is within the Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride mining district in the San Juan Mountains....
near Ouray, Colorado
Ouray, Colorado
The historic City of Ouray is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 813 at the U.S. Census 2000 and 1,000 as of the U.S. Census 2010...
, as a miner. The result was a memoir, One Man's West, which was published in 1943. That year, Lavender began teaching English at The Thacher School
The Thacher School
The Thacher School is a co-educational independent boarding school located on 425 acres of hillside overlooking the Ojai Valley in Ojai, California, United States. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-ed boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The...
—a boarding school in Ojai, California—where he encouraged and supported many young writers. Lavender kept his teaching position at the Thacher School until 1970.
The American West of Lavender's early years was still a place of ranchers, miners, cowboys, prospectors, and mountaineers—and for most men, a world of backbreaking, lonely, and dangerous work. But in One Man's West, Lavender remembered "not the cold and the cruel fatigue, but rather the multitude of tiny things which in their sum make up the elemental poetry of rock and ice and snow." Lavender felt compelled to document his experiences in rugged southwest Colorado to preserve this rapidly disappearing way of life. The book is filled with charming memorable characters and personal stories that are captivating and incredible, yet told in a warm conversational style.
In 1948, Lavender followed up his successful memoir with The Big Divide, a history of the Rocky Mountain region that established his reputation as a serious historian. The critical and commercial success of these two books launched Lavender's literary career.
In 1954, Lavender published Bent's Fort, a major historic landmark of the American West on the upper Arkansas River in present-day southeastern Colorado. Built by Charles and William Bent, Bent's Fort was a massive private fort that stood until 1849 as the center of trade with the Indians of the central plains. Lavender's history of these men and their role in opening up the southwestern region of North America has been compared to the works of eminent historians such as Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman was an American historian, best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and his monumental seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as history and especially as literature, although the biases of his...
and William H. Prescott
William H. Prescott
William Hickling Prescott was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian...
.
In 1958, Lavender wrote The Trail to Santa Fe, about Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. was an American officer and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. As a United States Army captain in 1806-1807, he led the Pike Expedition to explore and document the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase and to find the headwaters of the Red River,...
and his exploration of the American Southwest in present-day Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. The book captures the turbulent adventures of the explorers, traders, and fighters who opened up this new country, and the hardships they faced during their westward expansion into unchartered land along the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
, which ran from Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
to Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Lavender wrote a series of highly acclaimed histories of the American West, including Red Mountain in 1963, Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail in 1963, The American West in 1969, and The Rockies in 1975.
In the 1980s, Lavender expanded his focus as an historian, writing about the Pacific Northwest in Fort Vancouver (1981), Wyoming in Fort Laramie (1984), Utah and Arizona in Colorado River Country (1982) and River Runners of the Grand Canyon (1985), California in California: A Place, a People, a Dream (1986) and California: Land of New Beginnings (1987), and Colorado in The Telluride Story (1987). He also produced impressive general histories of the American West in Overland Migrations (1981), Colorado River Country (1982), The Great West (1985), The Way to the Western Sea (1988), and the American Heritage History Of The West (1988).
In 1992, Lavender published Let Me Be Free: The Nez Percé Tragedy (1992), the tragic story of the Nez Percé Indians' flight from their homeland to Canada to escape the United States cavalry. The clash between European-Americans and the American Indians was a subject Lavender covered in many of his previous works.
In the last decade of his life, Lavender's focus turned toward the American Southwest. His books De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: Explorers of the Northern Mystery (1992), The Santa Fe Trail (1995), Pipe Spring and the Arizona Strip (1997), Mother Earth, Father Sky: Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest (1998), and Climax at Buena Vista: The Decisive Battle of the Mexican-American War (2003) were significant contributions to documenting the history of the American Southwest.
David Lavender's first wife, Martha, died in 1959. He was married to his second wide, Martha Moreland, for 25 years before she too passed away. On his 80th birthday he married his third wife, Muriel Sharkey, whom he first got to know on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. In 2003, Lavender's health began to fail.
David Lavender died of natural causes at his home in Ojai, California on April 26, 2003, at the age of 93.
Works
- One Man's West (1943)
- The Big Divide: The Lively Story of the People of the Southern Rocky Mountains (1948)
- Snowbound: The Tragic Story of the Donner Party (1948)
- Bent's Fort (1954)
- Trail to Santa Fe (1958)
- Red Mountain (1963)
- Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail (1963)
- The American West (1969)
- Penguin Book of the American West (1969)
- California (1972)
- The Rockies (1975)
- Nothing seemed impossible: William C. Ralston and early San Francisco (1975)
- David Lavender's Colorado (1976)
- One Man's West (1977)
- Winner Take All: The Trans-Canada Canoe Trail (1977)
- Land of Giants: Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950 (1979)
- The fist in the wilderness (1979)
- Overland Migrations: Settlers to Oregon, California, and Utah (1980)
- Los Angeles, Two Hundred (1980)
- Fort Vancouver (1981)
- Overland Migrations (1981)
- Colorado River Country (1982)
- The Southwest (1984)
- Fort Laramie: A Guide to Fort Laramie National Historic Site (1984)
- River Runners of the Grand Canyon (1985)
- The Great West (1985)
- Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier (1985)
- California: A Place, a People, a Dream (1986)
- California: Land of New Beginnings (1987)
- The Telluride Story (1987)
- The Way to the Western Sea (1988)
- American Heritage History Of The West (1988)
- Let Me Be Free: The Nez Perce Tragedy (1992)
- De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: Explorers of the Northern Mystery (1992)
- Mask Arts of Mexico (photographer) (1994)
- The Santa Fe Trail (1995)
- Pipe Spring and the Arizona Strip (1997)
- Mother Earth, Father Sky: Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest (1998)
- The Great Persuader (1999)
- Fort Vancouver: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Washington (2001)
- Climax at Buena Vista: The Decisive Battle of the Mexican-American War (2003)
External links
- Obituary at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...