Tubbs to sign Lewis and Clark book event

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs is visiting the UW–Madison campus to sign her recently published book, “The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery.”

The signing is 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, in Room 1100, Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave.

Tubbs, daughter of the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose, co-wrote “The Lewis and Clark Companion” with Clay Straus Jenkinson. The book, four years in the making, is a synthesis of information from hundreds of sources, including letters, books and oral histories. It is published by Holt & Co.

“I’m really proud of what it is,” she says. “The book is intended not only for newcomers to the story and the trail, but also for scholars who need a ready reference on subjects they may already know a great deal about.”

Tubbs will be introduced by UW–Madison History Department Chair Steve Stern, who also will give an update on the Ambrose/Hesseltine Chair. Stephen Ambrose initiated the chair in honor of William B. Hesseltine, the professor who inspired Ambrose to change his major to history and later supervised Ambrose’s doctoral program.

Tubbs is the eldest of the five Ambrose children. In 1976, at age 16, she and her family accompanied her father on the first of many trips exploring the Lewis and Clark trail. Like her father, she was bitten by the history bug.

The following year, she met her husband-to-be, John Tubbs, the son of the tour boat operator at the Gates of the Mountain, the headwaters of the Missouri River. In 1983, they were married on the tour boat at one of the campsites of the Corps of Discovery.

Later, she helped with the research that would lead to her father’s book “Undaunted Courage.” She went on to major in history at the University of Montana, where she earned two degrees, wrote articles on local and state history, and assisted her father in researching material for his biographies.

Before he died in October 2002, Ambrose crafted an introduction to “The Lewis and Clark Companion.” In it, he wrote: “The Companion to the Lewis and Clark Expedition gives descriptions covering a bit of everything in the journals. At one point, I taste the boudin blanc and smell the beaver castor thanks to the thorough text.”