West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express
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On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation's two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men with colorful names like "Bronco Charlie" and "Sawed-Off Jim" galloped at speed over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just eighteen months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. Jim DeFelice's brilliantly entertaining West Like Lightning is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life, and legacy into the full context of the American story.
The Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company—or "Pony Express," as it came to be known—was part of a plan by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell to create the next American Express, a transportation and financial juggernaut that already dominated commerce back east. All that stood in their way were almost two thousand miles of uninhabited desert, ice-capped mountains, oceanic plains roamed by Indian tribes, whitewater-choked rivers, and harsh, unsettled wilderness.
The Pony used a relay system of courageous horseback riders to ferry mail halfway across a continent in just ten days. The challenges the riders faced were enormous, yet the Pony Express succeeded, delivering thousands of letters at record speed. The service instantly became the most direct means of communication between the eastern United States and its far western territories, helping to firmly connect them to the Union.
Populated with cast of characters including Abraham Lincoln (news of whose electoral victory the Express delivered to California), Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody (who fed the legend of the Express in his Wild West Show), and Mark Twain (who celebrated the riders in Roughing It), West Like Lightning masterfully traces the development of the Pony Express and follows it from its start in St. Joseph, Missouri—the edge of the civilized world—west to Sacramento, the capital of California, then booming from the gold rush. Jim DeFelice, who traveled the Pony's route in his research, plumbs the legends, myths, and surprising truth of the service, exploring its lasting relevance today as a symbol of American enterprise, audacity, and daring.
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Jim DeFelice. (2018). West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Jim DeFelice. 2018. West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Jim DeFelice, West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express. HarperCollins, 2018.
MLA Citation (style guide)Jim DeFelice. West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express. HarperCollins, 2018.
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Jim DeFelice is the co-author, with former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, of the multi-million-copy bestseller American Sniper, the source for Clint Eastwood's film starring Bradley Cooper. His other books include Omar Bradley: General at War; Rangers at Dieppe; and West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express. He lives in upstate New York.
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- The #1 New York Times–bestselling coauthor of American Sniper details the history of the nineteenth-century express mail service that spanned the American west.
On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation's two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men with colorful names like "Bronco Charlie" and "Sawed-Off Jim" galloped at speed over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just eighteen months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. Jim DeFelice's brilliantly entertaining West Like Lightning is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life, and legacy into the full context of the American story.
The Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company—or "Pony Express," as it came to be known—was part of a plan by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell to create the next American Express, a transportation and financial juggernaut that already dominated commerce back east. All that stood in their way were almost two thousand miles of uninhabited desert, ice-capped mountains, oceanic plains roamed by Indian tribes, whitewater-choked rivers, and harsh, unsettled wilderness.
The Pony used a relay system of courageous horseback riders to ferry mail halfway across a continent in just ten days. The challenges the riders faced were enormous, yet the Pony Express succeeded, delivering thousands of letters at record speed. The service instantly became the most direct means of communication between the eastern United States and its far western territories, helping to firmly connect them to the Union.
Populated with cast of characters including Abraham Lincoln (news of whose electoral victory the Express delivered to California), Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody (who fed the legend of the Express in his Wild West Show), and Mark Twain (who celebrated the riders in Roughing It), West Like Lightning masterfully traces the development of the Pony Express and follows it from its start in St. Joseph, Missouri—the edge of the civilized world—west to Sacramento, the capital of California, then booming from the gold rush. Jim DeFelice, who traveled the Pony's route in his research, plumbs the legends, myths, and surprising truth of the service, exploring its lasting relevance today as a symbol of American enterprise, audacity, and daring. - reviews
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"West Like Lightning is sure to stand amongst the great popular histories of the west. ... A wild ride." — Tombstone Epitaph
"A groundbreaking work on the Pony Express. ... The first comprehensive history of the legendary transcontinental experiment in mail delivery in sixty years. ... Like the Pony Express riders themselves, DeFelice paces the dramatic story with alacrity and diligence." — True West
"This rollicking account of the daring enterprise known as the Pony Express brings its era and its legendary characters to life." — San Francisco Chronicle
"Incredible true stories of [Pony Express] riders' exploits and more." — New York Times
"The most romantic chapter of the Old West may well be that of the Pony Express. The story of intrepid young riders dashing across the prairie, pitting themselves against Indians, accidents and bad weather never fails to thrill readers. West Like Lightning ... takes on the whole Western frontier." — Denver Post
"DeFelice shares how he retraced the Pony's steps, fully immersing himself into the lore and legends of hte historic ride. ... On his journey, he manages to separate fact from fiction—and uncover a darker side to the venture." — Parade
"West Like Lighting reads like the title—a fast-paced narrative of the Pony Express. ... One can hear horse hooves pounding across the prairie and sense the fear and courage and excitement of dashing young men." — TOM CLAVIN, New York Times-bestselling author of Dodge City and co-author of The Heart of Everything That Is
"A wild ride ... rendered in fine, thrilling detail.. ... Delightful." — Publishers Weekly
"This wonderfully vivid, accessible, and documented account of the Pony Express is a legendary American adventure story. Highly recommended." — Library Journal
"DeFelice brings [the Pony Express] to galloping life. ... Fans of frontier history and lore will relish the incomparable stories he relates." — Booklist
"A lively history of the short-lived but much-evoked Pony Express. ... Good stuff for Western history buffs." — Kirkus Reviews
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March 19, 2018
With breezy efficiency, DeFelice (American Sniper) traces the life and death of the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company, commonly known as the Pony Express, or the Pony. The legendary cross-country mail service, the creation of businessmen William Russell, William Waddell, and Alexander Majors, was established in April 1860 and lasted for a mere 18 months. DeFelice argues that the Pony “existed on the cusp of great change, partook of that change, and both affected and was consumed by it.” The sheer force of the narrative, however, overshadows the argument, and it’s a pretty wild ride. DeFelice frames his story with the six-day November 1860 trip that brought news of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential victory from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif., the Pony’s main route. The ride, including employees’ encounters with feuding settlers in Kansas, bison stampedes, and hostile Native Americans, is rendered in fine, thrilling detail. DeFelice debunks oft-told stories about the Pony, especially the involvement of “Wild Bill” Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. He peppers the narrative with details about the cost of the service (initially $5 for a letter weighing up to half an ounce), the procedure for changing horses, specifications of the riders’ mail pouches (called mochilas) and guns, even the kinds of food the riders ate. Fans of the Old West will find many delightful nuggets in this fast-moving story. Illus.
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March 15, 2018
Of thundering hooves and priority mail: a lively history of the short-lived but much-evoked Pony Express.As novelist and pop historian DeFelice (The Helios Conspiracy, 2012, etc.) acknowledges throughout, there's not much that we know with absolute certainty about some of the players and events in the Pony Express effort, a private enterprise for which records are not always available. The service was fast--a letter could cross half the continent in 10 days thanks to the relay system of riders and fast horses--but "the idea of speed was really the important thing" in a time when telegraph lines were going up and plans for a transcontinental railroad were being conjured. The key players were an unlikely mix of slaveholders, frontiersmen, freighters, and entrepreneurs who saw opportunity in providing a communications infrastructure to a military stretched out across a vast, sparsely settled region. But there's much more to the Pony Express than just business history, for it threads into a landscape populated by young legends-to-be like Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, whose stories DeFelice happily weaves into the narrative: Courage and stamina were desiderata, of course, but as he notes, "if gunplay figured into it, so much the better, but you didn't have to be literally wild to be celebrated. Being tenacious and undaunted in the face of myriad hardships would do." There's plenty in the memories of supposed riders like Cody to suggest truth but not much hard evidence to say that they were actually onboard, which lends a nice hazy touch to the whole legend. Soon enough--in just a couple of years--the likes of Western Union, founded by an associate of Samuel Morse, "whose greatest genius was his ability to acquire and merge the various small companies operating local lines," would put an end to the Pony Express, but for all that, it lives on in memory.Good stuff for Western history buffs, to say nothing of fans of the Post Office.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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April 1, 2018
American schoolchildren learn a highly romanticized version of the Pony Express, its riders and horses passing into the realm of myth. In fact, the enterprise lasted less than two years before it was quickly overtaken by a newer technology, the transcontinental telegraph. At the Pony Express' inception, people marveled in stupefaction that a letter could pass from the banks of the Missouri River to Sacramento, California, in 10 days. The Pony Express' organizers put not only physical resources in place (horses, stables, equipment) but tried to control riders' behaviors as well, demanding abstention from swearing, fighting, and drinking?commonplaces in lawless western regions. Meanwhile, riders faced threats from nature and political instability in areas such as the Utah Territory. DeFelice, the veteran author or coauthor of both suspenseful crime novels (Drone Strike, 2014) and thrilling nonfiction (Fighting Blind, 2016), brings to galloping life characters from the Pony Express, meticulously debunking exaggerations and outright lies that have grown over the years. Fans of frontier history and lore will relish the incomparable stories he relates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
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June 1, 2018
Getting mail cross country in ten days despite the 1,500 miles of searing deserts, snow-glazed mountains, and resistant Natives in the American West, the Pony Express became a part of America's mythology. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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June 1, 2018
Conceived in 1860 as a means of getting mail across America despite the 1,500 miles of searing deserts, snow-glazed mountains, and understandably angry Indians, the Pony Express quickly became a part of America's mythology. It lasted barely two years (the telegraph took over), but it was a glorious demonstration of American vitality. With a 75,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2017.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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- The #1 New York Times–bestselling coauthor of American Sniper details the history of the nineteenth-century express mail service that spanned the American west.
On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation's two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men with colorful names like "Bronco Charlie" and "Sawed-Off Jim" galloped at speed over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just eighteen months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. Jim DeFelice's brilliantly entertaining West Like Lightning is the first major history of the Pony... - sortTitle
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