The Last Canyon »

John Vernon is the author of the novels La Salle, Lindbergh's Son, Peter Doyle, and All for Love: Baby Doe and Silver Dollar. The recipient of two NEA fellowships, he teaches at SUNY Binghamton. His work has been published in Harper's Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, and The Nation. The author currently resides in Vestal, New York.

A novel of one of the most treacherous river expeditions ever undertaken, THE LAST CANYON takes us deep into the heart of the elements, portraying in vivid detail the human quest to understand nature at all costs. In 1869 a one-armed Civil War hero named John Wesley Powell launched four boats on the Green River in Wyoming Territory, undertaking what would be the last major voyage of discovery in American history, through the country's only remaining terra incognita: the remote and barren course of the Colorado River.
At the outset of his journey, Powell believed the inaccessible canyons of the Colorado were uninhabited. He was wrong. What he called "the great unknown" was in fact well known by a band of Paiute Indians who had lived on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for centuries. In John Vernon's hands, the story of Powell's voyage of exploration is two converging stories: that of Powell and his crew, and that of a family of Paiute making their own harrowing circuit of the Grand Canyon in an attempt to rescue a kidnapped girl. Told in alternating chapters, THE LAST CANYON deftly leads us into perilous geographical and emotional territory, culminating in Powell's struggle to finish his voyage with only two boats, not four, and five men out of the original nine.
Powell's adventure is a story of triumph, hardship, bravery, and ultimate tragedy. THE LAST CANYON traces simultaneously a voyage of discovery and a chronicle of loss, an exploration of both unknown land and the unplumbed human spirit.

Publishers Weekly

When historical novels are produced by writers whose expertise in the field is matched by vivid storytelling skills, the results as in this novel are generally outstanding. With this 10th book (after A Book of Reasons), veteran novelist Vernon reimagines the first full-length exploration of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River by white Americans in 1869. Maj. John Wesley Powell former Union Army officer, one-armed engineer and scientist led the harrowing expedition to map the territory. With nine men in four boats, Powell began a saga of discovery that took 100 days, covered 1,000 miles and cost the lives of a third of his men. Two converging plot lines provide dramatic tension. One focuses on Powell and his men as they battle deadly rapids, heat, near-starvation, isolation, despair and each other. The other tells of a destitute party of Paiute Indians desperately struggling to survive in the hostile environment of the deserts on the canyon rim. Powell's party is in trouble from the start, with a wrecked boat, lost food and equipment, and the realization that not all the men are competent or emotionally suited for such a rigorous and hazardous journey. Powell's leadership is tested time and again, until mutiny and desertion leave him with just two boats, six men and no food. The Paiutes, too, are in grave trouble and a chance meeting with white men only aggravates their nearly hopeless situation. The story of Powell's remarkable journey evokes a rugged time in our nation's history when men in search of knowledge or glory would willingly subject themselves to grueling hardship and privation. The publisher has a chance here to seize on readers' appetites for outdoors adventure, thoughsome may think the Paiute subplot is a distraction from the central tale. (Oct. 16) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.