Publisher, Tantor Audio (May 2010)

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"Rigorously researched and evenhanded, the book paints both the Comanches and Americans in their glory and shame, bravery and savagery." ---Publishers Weekly

"Gwynne doesn't merely retell the story of Parker's life. He pulls his readers through an American frontier roiling with extreme violence, political intrigue, bravery, anguish, corruption, love, knives, rifles and arrows." ---The New York Times

A stunning historical account of the battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West---in the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Few people realize that the Comanche Indians were the greatest warring tribe in American history. Their forty-year battle with settlers held up the development of the new nation. Empire of the Summer Moon tells of the rise and fall of this fierce, powerful, and proud tribe, and begins in 1836 with the kidnapping of a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower blue eyes named Cynthia Ann Parker. She grew to love her captors and eventually became famous as the "White Squaw." She married a powerful Comanche chief, and their son, Quanah, became a warrior who was never defeated and whose bravery and military brilliance in the Texas panhandle made him a legend as one of the greatest of the Plains Indian chiefs.

In this vivid piece of writing, S. C. Gwynne describes in sometimes brutal detail the savagery of both whites and Comanches and, despite the distance of time, demonstrates how truly shocking these events were, juxtaposed against the haunting story of an unforgettable figure of a woman caught between two worlds.

About the Author: S. C. Gwynne is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared extensively in Time magazine---for which he served as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor from 1988 to 2000---and in Texas Monthly, where he was executive editor. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, and California Magazine. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter.

About the Narrator: David Drummond has made his living as an actor for over twenty-five years, appearing on stages large and small throughout the country and in Seattle, Washington, his hometown. He has narrated over thirty audiobooks for Tantor, in genres ranging from current political commentary to historical nonfiction, from fantasy to military, and from thrillers to humor. He received an AudioFile Earphones Award for his first audiobook, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay. When not narrating, David keeps busy writing plays and stories for children.