The Oregon Trail

On April 28, 1848, two years after his graduation from Harvard, Francis Parkman left St. Louis for his first adventure in the American West. The Oregon Trail is the gripping account of renowned historian Francis Parkman's journey west across North America in 1846. After crossing the Allegheny Mountains by coach and continuing by boat and wagon to Westport, Missouri, he set out with three companions on a horseback journey during which he lived with the Dakota Sioux and passed through the Rockies. It was a journey that would ultimately take him over two thousand miles. This recording was named a 1996 "Best Audio for Memoir/Autobiography" by Publishers Weekly. Francis Parkman (1823-1893) was an American historian, best known as author of The Oregon Trail and his monumental seven volume France and England in North America.These works are still valued as history and especially as literature, although the biases of his work have met with criticism. He was also a leading horticulturist, briefly a professor of horticulture at Harvard University and the first leader of the Arnold Arboretum, originator of several flowers, and author of several books on the topic. Acclaimed narrator and veteran actor Frank Muller's background includes many years on the New York stage at the Riverside Shakespeare Company, the Roundabout Theater, and the New York Shakespeare Festival, among others. Television audiences will remember him from Law and Order, Life Goes On, Harry and the Hendersons, and All My Children. Muller divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.