In this fascinating, epic biography, award-winning historian Stephen G. Yanoff vividly narrates the adventurous life-journey of John Charles Frémont, the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time. This is history on a grand scale -- a book about discovery and exploration, but also about human character, virtue, ambition, love, and sacrifice. Above all, WONDER OF THE WEST is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most courageous and important Americans of the 19th century -- an illegitimate child who rose to become "The Conqueror of California," Civil War general, two-time Republican presidential candidate, pathfinder of the West, and husband to the extraordinary Jessie Benton Frémont. "WONDER OF THE WEST is a lucid and compelling biography... John C. Frémont's life is one every American should know well, and it has not been told better than by Mr. Yanoff." - Renegade Reviews