Ambrose left novel for youth

Historian Stephen E. Ambrose died last October but left behind a novel that Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers plans to publish in September.

“This Vast Land: A Young Man’s Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” is described as a fictional diary of George Shannon, the 19-year-old who was the youngest member of the famous Lewis and Clark party that explored the Pacific Northwest.

Ambrose’s nonfiction works include “The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won,” “Band of Brothers,” “The Wild Blue” and “Undaunted Courage,” which also dealt with Lewis and Clark.

From a Times staff writer