Published Account
History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark (Biddle Edition)
The first comprehensive published account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Nicholas Biddle from the original journals and published in two volumes in 1814 by Bradford and Inskeep in Philadelphia. This edition shaped public understanding of the expedition for decades but omitted much of the scientific data and personal observations found in the original journals.
After Lewis’s death in 1809 left the journals unpublished, Clark entrusted them to Biddle, who produced a readable narrative from the raw journal entries. The two-volume work included Clark’s map but omitted most scientific observations. It was not a commercial success, partly because eight years had passed since the expedition’s return and public interest had waned. Only 1,417 copies were printed, and the publishers went bankrupt. Despite its initial poor sales, the Biddle edition remained the standard account until the Thwaites scholarly edition of 1904-1905.
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