Imagine Frank X Walker as a little boy in Kentucky, second oldest of 11 children, getting up early to read books when the household is still quiet. Now know the man, former athlete, scholar, professor, and author of the books others will wake up to read in the early light. His poems about Medgar Evers will teach more than any history book. His poems about York, slave to William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, tell how it all feels. We know what the explorers wrote—now we know more— the truth of the experience.