Western Writers of America Spur Awards Finalist, Best Western
Historical Nonfiction "A GROUNDBREAKING WORK. ... The first
comprehensive history of the legendary transcontinental experiment
in mail delivery in sixty years." -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 The new definitive history of the Pony Express by the #1
bestselling coauthor of American Sniper, illustrated with 50 images
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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