The Splendid Wayfaring: The story of the exploits and adventures of Jedediah Smith and his comrades, the Ashley-Henry men, discoverers and exp (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781449978495)

Johnathan Neihardt (January 8, 1881 - November 24, 1973) was an American author of poetry and prose, an amateur historian and ethnographer, and a philosopher of the Great Plains. Born at the end of the American settlement of the Plains, his attention was nevertheless drawn to the experiences and memories of those who had been a part of the European migration as well as the American Indian cultures they displaced. Neihardt endeavored to preserve the memories of America's pioneer past in books that range across a broad variety of styles, from pleasant travelogue to epic poetry to extended narration of the dreams of a shaman. In 1921 the Nebraska Legislature elected him as the state's poet laureate, a title he held for fifty-two years until his death.