Provides a fascinating biography of François Vallé (1716-1783), placing him within the context of his place and time. Carl Ekberg focuses on Upper Louisiana in colonial times, vividly capturing the ambience of life in the eighteenth-century frontier agricultural society that Vallé inhabited, shedding new light on the French and Spanish colonial regimes in Louisiana.

Carl J. Ekberg is Professor Emeritus of History at Illinois State University. He is the author of several books, including A French Aristocrat in the American West: The Shattered Dreams of De Lassus De Luzières, also published by the University of Missouri Press. He resides in Shepherdstown, WV.

The Missouri Biography Series, edited by William E. Foley