# The Explorer King: Adventure, Science and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence King in the Old West

Robert Wilson discussed his new biography, "The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence King in the Old West," in a program sponsored by the Center for the Book. "The Explorer King" (Scribner, 2006) examines the life of Yale-educated Clarence King, who helped create the new American West of the 19th century. King went west in 1863 at age 21 as a geologist-explorer. During the next decade, he scaled the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada; published a popular book, "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada," now considered a classic of adventure literature; and initiated a major land survey of the American West. In 1872 King uncovered one of the greatest financial frauds of the century, The Great Diamond Hoax, in which claims of a diamond field in Wyoming turned out to be bogus.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2006
- By: Library Of Congress. Center For The Book
- Genres: Science, History, Adventure
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687739/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687739?play=1)