Ron, my favorite desert books are a tandem - Manly's "Death Valley in '49" and Johnson's "Escape From Death Valley". Might suggest an ongoing series on desert classics-the desert books that stand the test of time. I would be glad to contribute a few. Cordially, John Robinson

DEATH VALLEY IN '49

One of the greatest of all California desert adventures was the Manly- Lewis trek from Death Valley to Rancho San Francisco, near today's Santa Clarita, in 1849. It took place after a small wagon train, attempting a shortcut to the gold fields, became marooned in the depths of the bleak valley. William Manly and John Rogers volunteered to go for help. In the words of desert bibliographer E.I. Edwards, "These two courageous young men fought their way out of this forbidding desert into civilization; then returned over the long desolate trek to rescue a party of men, women and little children who were unrelated and - with a few exceptions - almost totally unknown to them." 43 years after the event, William Manly, now in his 70s and living in San Jose, wrote a vivid account of the adventure in "Death Valley in '49" (1894 and several subsequent editions). No less an authority than Lawrence Clark Powell, in his "California Classics" (1971), rates Manly's book one of the best on the California deserts, a "rousing adventure" written with "literary power and human interest". Just what route did Manly and Rogers take in their historic trek? Historians and desert enthusiasts, scanning topo maps and driving where their autos could take them, have long disagreed. It remained for a Forest Service geneticist and his wife to solve the mystery. Leroy and Jean Johnson hoisted packs and, with Manly's account in hand, walked the entire distance from Death Valley to Santa Clarita. Often, where Manly's description was vague, they retraced sections of possible route, trying several variations, until they came upon the most likely path. The result was the Johnsons' "Escape From Death Valley: As Told by William Lewis Manly and Other '49ers" (1987), probably the best book written on the California deserts in the last two or three decades. The entire Manly-Lewis route is described and mapped in detail, and as an added bonus are the written accounts of John Rogers, Louis Nusbauiner, Reverend James Brier, as well as Manly's original account written for a San Jose newspaper in 1888, which contains material not found in his book published six years later. This duo of books - William Manly's "Death Valley in '49" and Leroy and Jean Johnson's "Escape From Death Valley" - are my desert favorites. They rank number one as tales of desert adventure, and perhaps only a notch below Mary Austin's "Land of Little Rain" in literary merit. - John Robinson

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