Although George Frederick Ruxton, a British soldier, hunter, explorer, adventurer, and writer nonpareil, lived only twenty-seven years, he lived bravely and fully and left two remarkable narrative accounts of life in the American West in the years 1846-1847. Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains (1847) and Life in the Far West (1849) have enriched the writing of western history, indelibly shaping the literary and historical image of the mountain man and endearing the young adventurer to western scholars and aficionados alike as Ruxton of the Rocky Mountains.

George Augustus Frederick Ruxton (he generally omitted the "Augustus") was born on 24 July 1821 at Eynsham Hall estate, Oxfordshire, England, the third of six male children born to John and Anna Maria Hay Ruxton. When George was seven years old, the family moved to Broad Oak, near Tunbridge Well, Kent (thirty miles southeast of London). His father died when George was nine years...