Past Tents
The Way We Camped

Susan Snyder

An affectionate portrait of early camping in the West, Past Tents is a light-hearted look at American's infatuation with the great outdoors by the award-winning author of Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly. Snyder mines the vast archives of the Bancroft Library to create this cheeky yet accurate history of camping in the West.

Full of photographs and evocative descriptions of family outings in the nineteenth century, then in the early days of the automobile, of campgrounds and campfires against the familiar backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, of the remarkable gear and "helpful" hints that accompanied outings to our newly minted state and national parks and forests. Easy to pick up, hard to put down, it's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever been in the thrall of redwoods, s'mores, and Smokey the Bear.

160 pages, 9" x 8", full-color cover, 93 black & white photographs, 17 other illustrations. Published by Heyday Books in association with the Bancroft Library.
ISBN 978-1-59714-039-3 trade paper

$17.95