He did not learn to read or write until he was a grown man, but he did keep an expedition journal -- as was required of all sergeants. Unless he later reconstructed the portion predating his becoming sergeant on August 4, 1804, he must have started it even earlier when the expedition set out on May 14.
In 1807, his journal was the first to be printed. However, it was rewritten into formal prose. Gass' published journal maddened Meriwether Lewis, who had not yet had his account published. The captain raised a public fuss with exchange of angry letters between Lewis and the book's publisher, David McKeehan of Pittsburgh. Lewis argued that Gass' journal was unauthorized.
Six other publishers soon picked up Gass's book. As usual for the time, the publishers, rather than the author, were the ones who made the profit.
Gass's journal, for all its shortcomings was the only authentic account of the expedition in print until Nicholas Biddle's paraphrase of the captains' journals came out in 1814.
--Brock-Perry
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