Quarterdeck and Saddlehorn: The Story of Edward P. Beale, 1822-1893

Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark, 1983. Hardcover. Fine. Volume XX in the Western Frontiersmen Series. 300 pp. Fine copy with original prospectus laid in. Beale was a sailor, solder (and hero of the Mexican War), explorer, and Indian superintendent who shared friendship and adventures with John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, and Ulysses S. Grant, among others. He helped charter a new, more humanitarian policy toward native Americans in the 1850s, supervised the construction of a transcontinental wagon road, and experimented with the use of camels in the Southwest. The prospectus says of this volume: "While the book constitutes an objective appraisal of Beale and the time in which he lived, the authors succeed in presenting much more than a dry tabulation of facts. They have brought forth his humor, his instinctive sense of fairness, and his foibles as well as his fortunes.