Post masters of the range

The Pony Express operated for a mere 18 months back in 1860-1861, yet the epic bravery of the 80 riders and 400 relay horses who carried the locked leather mailbags 2,000 miles from St. Louis to San Francisco are forever etched in America’s imagination.

Ralph Moody catapults us into the saddle with these hard-riding, gutsy cowboys as they scrabble over ice-packed Sierra peaks, dodge Paiute arrows on the ambush trail at Quaking Aspen and outrun hungry wolves in the Badlands.

To whip up public interest, businessman William Russell created a death-defying competition between riders from the East and West, guaranteeing the mail would arrive in 10 short days.

But a lot more was at stake than letters; the flames of the Civil War were rising, and Californians feared that without close communication with the Union, the wealthy state would be lost to the Confederacy. Terse, muscular prose, dramatic illustrations and detailed maps make this volume a heck of a ride.

-- Susan Dworski