Gloryland by Shelton Johnson

Signed by the author!

Gloryland is the fictional memoir of a buffalo soldier - a black U.S. cavalryman and the son of slaves, who finds true freedom when he is posted to patrol the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903.

Born and raised in Detroit, Shelton Johnson has worked in Yosemite for the past 15 of his 22 years in the Park Service. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English literature, won a Major Hopwood Award in poetry, taught school in Liberia with the Peace Corps, and has performed at the International Storytelling Center in Tennessee. Johnson has presented his original living-history program about a buffalo soldier at venues around the country and has received many honors and awards for this work, which has also been widely covered in the media; and he is featured in the Ken Burns documentary film The National Parks: America's Best Idea.