Everett Ruess—a bold teenage adventurer, artist, and writer—tramped around the Sierra Nevada, the California coast, and the desert wilderness of the Southwest between 1930 and 1934. At the age of 20, he mysteriously vanished into the barren Utah desert. Ruess has become an icon for modern-day adventurers and seekers. His search for ultimate beauty and adventure is chronicled in two books that contain remarkable collections of his writings, extracted from his journals and from letters written to family and friends. Both books are reprinted here in their entirety.