Fantastic adventures of Frederick Catherwood and John Loyd Stephens - started when Frederick was about 21 until he died at about 54 - John died at 47 but both men packed ten lifetimes into one and John was the founder of the Panama Railway. Very little is known about Catherwood except what can be deduced through the writings of John and others and through the letters Catherwood sent to his friends. He was plagued with problems throughout his life such as loaning many of his works to a friend and never getting them back; building a panorama building in New York and filling it with his works and then it burning to the ground; contracting malaria and finally loosing his life on a sinking ship and not even listed among the dead until an investigation found that he had also died. Very interesting life and work and I highly recommend this book and will try to buy the others mentioned that were written by John Stephens as well as buy the rare and hard to find lithographs that remain from the 300 folios Catherwood had printed with 26 drawings in each one. I never wanted them before but now that I've read this book I want them all.