The legendary mountain men-the fur traders and trappers who penetrated the Rocky Mountains and explored the Far West in the first half on the nineteenth century-formed the vanguard of the American empire and became the heroes of American adventure. This volume brings to the general reader brief biographies of eighteen representative mountain men, selected from among the essay assembled by LeRoy R. Hafen in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West ten volumes, 1965-72. The subjects and authors are Manuel Lisa Richard E. Oglesby Pierre Chouteau Jr. Janet Lecompte Wilson Price Hunt William Brandon William H. Ashley Harvey L. Carter Jedediah Smith Harvey L. Carter John McLoughlin Kenneth L. Holmes Peter Skene Ogden Ted J. Warner Ceran St. Vrain Harold H. Dunham Kit Carson Harvey L. Carter Old Bill Williams Frederic E. Voelker William Sublette John E. SunderThomas Fitzpatrick LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen James Bridger Cornelius M. Ismert Benjamin L. E. Bonneville Edgeley W. Todd Jose