Devotion and study such as this deserve high praise in themselves and "The Wake of the Prairie Schooner" is a valuable addition to the printed lore of the West. Research students will welcome it for its factual content and for its previously unpublished material. It is to be doubted if the casual reader, or even the seasoned historian, will exult in its style. For, regrettably, "The Wake of the Prairie Schooner'' is much too long and its content is so confused that even those accustomed to delving in the bottomless depths of Western history will have trouble disentangling dates and names.