author
Edwin James
1797–1861
A doctor, botanist, and explorer of the early American West, this restless 19th-century scholar helped record the Rocky Mountains for a wider public. He is especially remembered for leading the first documented ascent of Pikes Peak by a Euro-American expedition and for writing about the journey with a scientist’s eye and a reformer’s conscience.
4 Audiobooks
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1
by Edwin James, Stephen H. (Stephen Harriman) Long, Thomas Say
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 4
by Edwin James, Stephen H. (Stephen Harriman) Long, Thomas Say
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 2
by Edwin James, Stephen H. (Stephen Harriman) Long, Thomas Say
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 3
by Edwin James, Stephen H. (Stephen Harriman) Long, Thomas Say
About the author
Born in Vermont in 1797, Edwin James trained in medicine but ranged far beyond it. He became a botanist, geologist, linguist, and writer, and joined Stephen H. Long’s 1820 expedition to the Rocky Mountains. James is widely remembered for climbing Pikes Peak during that journey and for editing the expedition's account, which introduced many readers to the landscapes, plants, and peoples of the region.
His interests were not limited to science. Sources describe him as unusually engaged with Native languages and cultures, and later in life he was also known for antislavery convictions. That mix of scientific curiosity and moral seriousness gives his work a distinctive tone: observant, energetic, and often ahead of its time.
James died in 1861. Though he is not as famous as some frontier figures, his writing and fieldwork remain an important part of the record of early western exploration in the United States.