John Xantus was a bit of a charlatan; of that there is little doubt. He lied about his exploits, joined the US Army under an assumed name, and managed to alienate most of the people he met. Yet he became one of the Smithsonian Institution's most successful collectors of natural history specimens. Ann Zwinger has assembled Xantus's unpublished letters into a book that documents his trials and triumphs in the field and reveals much about his dubious character.