In 1930, four decades after the surrender of Geronimo, anthropologist Grenville Goodwin headed south in search of a rumored band of "wild" Apaches in the Sierra Madre. Goodwin's journals chronicling his epic search have been edited and annotated by his son, Neil, who was born three months before his father's tragic death at the age of thirty-three. Neil Goodwin uses the journals to engage in a dialogue with the father he never knew.

Grenville Goodwin (1907–40) was a well-known and respected ethnographer of the Apaches. Neil Goodwin is an independent filmmaker and the president of Peace River Films. He has produced the documentary Geronimo and the Apache Resistance, as well as other films for public television.

"Goodwin provided a many-layered and fascinating account of his quest to make sense of his father's engagement with the Apaches. The book is both a well-told detective story and a moving story of one man's search for his past. It is also a valuable addition to literature on the Apaches."—Times Literary Supplement

"Part history, part anthropology, part archaeology—and in large part a fascinating travel adventure set in a relatively inaccessible mountain range just south of the border—The Apache Diaries is one of the most engaging contributions to the literature on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and the Apache culture in years."—The Bloomsbury Review

"Rarely do anthropology books provide such abundant historical and research information while furnishing the reader with an in-depth understanding of their authors."—Library Journal

"This work provides pathos, suspense, insight, high drama, moral prescription, heart-wrenching tragedy, and an intimate entrée into a world of discovery and loss."—Choice

"A fascinating piece of detective work. One that blends scholarship, human emotion, and mysetery; one that emphasizes historic ties between the American Southwest and northern Mexico."—Southwest Historical Quarterly