Men to Match My Mountains: The Monumental Saga of the Winning of America's Far West

by Irving Stone

Overview

Acclaimed author of biographical and historical fiction Irving Stone turns his magnificent talent to telling America’s most colorful and exciting story—the opening of the Far West.

Men to Match My Mountains is a true historical masterpiece, an unforgettable pageant of giants—men like John Sutter, whose dream of paradise was shattered by the California Gold Rush; Brigham Young and the Mormons, who tamed the desert with Bible texts; and the silver kings and the miners, who developed Nevada’s Comstock Lode and settled the Rockies.

America called for greatness...and got it. There is nothing in history to match the stories of these men who braved wilderness to bring new nation to the shores of the Pacific.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425105443
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/15/1987
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	208,873
Product dimensions:	5.47(w) x 8.18(h) x 1.53(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Irving Stone was born in San Francisco on July 14, 1903. He wrote several books in a genre that he coined the “biographical novel,” which recounted the lives of well-known historical figures. In these novels, Stone interspersed biography with fictional narrative on the psychology and private lives of his subjects. He also wrote biographies of Clarence Darrow and Earl Warren, and short biographies of men who lost presidential elections. He died on August 26, 1989.

Table of Contents

Book 1	Revolt in Paradise
I	The Time, the Place, the Cast	3
II	One Man Wants a Wilderness ...	4
III	A Good Soldier Is Embarrassed	8
IV	Heroic Frauds, or None at All	11
V	An Honest Scoundrel Thickens the Plot	15
VI	The Time of Action Begins	18
Book 2	The Opening of a Land
I	John Sutter Takes the Big Plunge	25
II	"The state of society is exceedingly loose"	29
III	"The difficulty of coming here is imaginary"	32
IV	Schoolteacher Bidwell Lands in Jail	37
V	A Fort Plays Host	40
VI	The Scene Shifts to Colorado, "a Legal Fiction"	42
VII	"There is no man to whom I owe as much as Fremont"	46
VIII	Commodore Jones Goes out on a Yardarm	48
IX	[pound]1,000,000 to Drive out the Americans	51
X	Wagons? Impossible!	54
XI	The Men Match the Mountains	57
XII	Larkin Becomes Consul with a Gold-headed Cane	60
XIII	Seed Wheat of the Western Migration	64
XIV	A Democratic Army, Out for No Good	68
XV	The Rugged Individualist Train	73
XVI	"Why is Captain Fremont here?"	77
XVII	Confidential Agent	82
XVIII	Paradise Grows a Trifle Ugly	88
XIX	"There's that damned flag again!"	94
XX	Armed Conflict	98
XXI	The Furies Pour Their Pent-up Vengeance	104
XXII	"It is enough. This is the right place."	116
XXIII	A Curse Is Removed, San Francisco Is Born	123
XXIV	"It's GOLD!"	128
Book 3	Color in a Country
I	"A frenzy seized my soul"	133
II	It's as Easy to Find Gold as Steal It	138
III	What Gambler Ever Refused to Play?	143
IV	Dedicated Saints	148
V	Give Colorado Back to the Indians	151
VI	The Men Do Not Match the Mountains	152
VII	"How do we get to the gold?"	158
VIII	New States for the Union	164
IX	Death Valley Earns Its Name	170
X	Nevada and Colorado Show Their Color	176
XI	Gold and Mormonism Settle a Land	181
XII	Rise of the Vigilantes	185
XIII	The Glory of Polygamy	189
XIV	Enterprising and Excitable Young Men	193
XV	For Los Angeles, Neither Boom Nor Bust	200
XVI	"Don't shoot, I am unarmed!"	204
XVII	"You have struck it, boys!"	209
XVIII	The Mountain Meadows Massacre	217
XIX	"There is gold in Colorado. We saw it ourselves!"	225
Book 4	The Building of a Civilization
I	Pike's Peak or Bust!	235
II	"Crazy" Judah and the Big Four	243
III	The Civil War Makes Its Way West	249
IV	The Comstock Has as Many Troubles as It Has Prospectors	254
V	You Have to Get Up Early to Beat Brigham Young	261
VI	Inside the "Twin Relic of Barbarism"	270
VII	... With Presses Ready at the Drop of a Frontier	277
VIII	"They built the Great Wall of China, didn't they?"	283
IX	The Saturnalia of Virginia City	290
X	Billy Ralston's "crackling, pleasure-loving town"	298
XI	Manana Land Gets Itself Subdivided	305
XII	The Sweatbox of Ralston's Ring	312
XIII	The Saints War with the Gentile Merchants	324
XIV	It Is Hard for a Land to Be Born	333
XV	A Polished Laurel Tie, and a Solid Gold Spike	347
Book 5	Giants Stalk the Land
I	The Tiger and the Octopus	355
II	Four Miles to the Mineral Belt	366
III	Four Irishmen Become Silver Kings	373
IV	A Run on the Bank	380
V	Nevada Cycle of Life and Death	389
VI	"Only force can settle the Mormon problem"	399
VII	For Brigham Young, Time Runs Out	412
VIII	Colorado Is a Character	424
IX	"Come provided with a pair of navy revolvers"	435
X	Baby Doe Finds H.A.W. Tabor	442
XI	The Climate Is Perfection ...	450
XII	They suffered; they wept; sometimes they died ...	455
Book 6	An Era Ends, a New Story Begins
I	Southern California Has Its Eighty-Seveners	469
II	The Southern Pacific Loses Its Fence	477
III	"This sure is some Cripple Creek!"	481
IV	H.A.W. Tabor Completes His Cycle	491
V	The Saints Come to Judgment Day	497
VI	Utah, Forty-fifth State	504
VII	The Rose of Sharon	512
VIII	The Far West Sits for Its Portrait	519
IX	The Time, the Place, the Cast	526
	Acknowledgments and Bibliography	527
	Source of Quotations	537
	Index	551