author
John Gregory Bourke
1846–1896
A soldier, diarist, and sharp observer of the American West, he left behind vivid firsthand writing shaped by war, frontier life, and years of close attention to Native and borderland cultures. His work still stands out for the sheer range of what he saw and recorded.
4 Audiobooks
On the Border with Crook
by John Gregory Bourke
Scatalogic Rites of All Nations A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe
by John Gregory Bourke
The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))
by John Gregory Bourke
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1846, John Gregory Bourke served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later received the Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Stones River. After the war he attended West Point and went on to a long Army career in the American West.
Bourke became especially known for the journals and books he produced alongside his military service. He served with General George Crook during campaigns in the West and wrote extensively about the frontier, Native communities, and everyday life on the borderlands. His writing combines the eye of a participant with the habits of a careful note-taker, which is one reason historians still return to it.
He also developed a strong interest in ethnology and folklore, including studies of Apache life and Hispanic traditions in South Texas. Bourke died in 1896, but his diaries and published works continue to offer a detailed, often vivid window into nineteenth-century America.