Regional Reading

I have offered several posts about books published in a series, which generally means the books cover a particular subject. Those interested in the subject, or those looking to collect an entire series, may find them useful. As well, I admit to being curious about the availability of such books in the Western Libraries, where I was once employed. "Regions" and "regional" are relatively amorphous terms, but they usually relate to specific geographic areas. In this post, the books are about regions which are found in 'America", or more correctly, the United States. If you are interested in the political, cultural or literary characteristics of areas in the United States, these books are worth considering. Note that they were written in the last century and are typically historical in nature. That is, they are about a different United States than the one that exists as this is being written. They offer a refuge from our troubled times. Apart from the books, the BONUS includes a reference work about "regional literature". As well, university presses often publish works related to the region in which they are located. See, for example, this post in MM: "Wayne State University Press."

Regions of America (Harper & Bros. and Harper & Row) ‒1959-1980,

Carl Lamson Carmer, Editor.

The book pictured above is the last one of the fourteen books listed below. Each entry includes additional information about the book for those who want to know if the book is worth acquiring. About half of the entries are bolded, indicating that the book is held in the Western Libraries here in London (check the current catalogue to see if book is available.)

1. California: Land of New Beginnings, David Lavender
  (Storage F861 .L38 1972)

California: Land of New Beginnings. By David Lavender. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. Bibliography. Index. Maps. 464 pages. $10.00. 

Reviewed by Donald A. Nuttall, Associate Professor of History, Whittier College, and author of several articles on Spanish California.

   “In California: Land of New Beginnings", prolific David Lavender, adding yet another volume to his already impressive list of works on Western America, has produced a 430 page narrative which traces the Golden State’s past from prehistoric times up into the early 1970s.

   Lavender’s book differs from the type of California history to which we have grown accustomed, for rather than comprehensive, it is selective in its treatment. Lavender views California’s development as essentially the product of constant growth, nourished by an unbridled exploitation of natural resources, motivated by a get-rich-quick philosophy and promoted without regard for potentially disastrous consequences. And in his “account of a beautiful state’s reckless rise to gigantism,” it was that particular story which he primarily strove to relate.

   The effective and thought-provoking manner in which he realized that objective constitutes Lavender’s major contribution. Culminating his basic theme in the last two chapters, he draws a picture of California in the 1960s and 1970s which is both unpleasant and frightening, as he describes and analyzes the numerous developments and conditions which have arisen to plague the state. Constant population growth, massive water projects which threaten ecological disbalance, smog, the product of Californians’ almost obsessive reliance upon the automobile, racial and other problems of inner-city ghettos spawned by the flight to proliferating suburbs, student unrest and riots on university and college campuses, and a “recreational stampede which brings overcrowding and pollution to natural beauty spots are among those upon which he elaborates."

"2. Florida: The Long Frontier, Marjory Stoneman Douglas

  (Storage, F311.D66)
    This is available on the Internet Archive. This review is from Kirkus:
“A competent addition to the Regions of America series. The author, a Miami Herald reporter from 'way back, contends that the frontier has dominated Florida throughout its history, but she lets her views prove themselves with a minimum of editorializing. Much of the book is devoted to colonial history. The Spanish first failed to gain footholds or treasure, then built mission villages and fought the French and British; the latter colonized Florida in 1763, treating the Indians as customers, making St. Augustine an outpost of busy gentility. When the Americans took possession in 1821 they treated the Indians as ""vicious encumbrances"" --another link in the tradition of violence which runs from slavers and pirates to the Civil War, the ""American Siberia"" of turpentine chain gangs, and the rise of the Klan. The book gets skimpier and duller as the citrus industry and the railroad/hotel developers move in. It ends with a short epilogue on the recent past and a plea to save Florida's resources from engineers and investors. Straightforward style, sound emphasis, special interest for the especially interested."

3. The Heartland: Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, Walter Havighurst
  (Storage F479.H28 1974)

"Havighurst was the author of over 30 books, including Pier 17 and Annie Oakley of the Wild West. His writing earned awards from the Friends of American Writers, the American Association for State and Local History and the Rockefeller Foundation. River Road to the West received the American History Prize of the Society of Midland Authors." He also wrote about the Great Lakes - The Long Ships Passing. 

4. Kentucky: Land of Contrast, Thomas Clark

    (Storage F451.C54)

The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Nov., 1968), pp. 641.

   “In this swiftly moving summary of Kentucky history Professor Clark

presents a kaleidoscopic view of events from the shadowy time of

forests, bison, and Cherokee to the modem superhighways and sci-

entific farming. All the old features of the Kentucky story are here, but

fresh material has been added, which brightens up the familiar ac-

count and adds some new accents. All the old heroes are here-the

tragic Mary Ingles, the trail-blazing James Harrod, the galloping

John Hunt Morgan, and, of course, the indestructible Dan'l Boone.

Some attention is given to famous Kentucky families, especially the

Lincolns, the Davises, and, perhaps more important, the Hatfields

and the McCoysl Clark points out that feuding and homicide Ken-

tucky style are not just legend, as many unimaginative people believe,

but fact based on the true stories of numerous mountain families.”

5. Love Song to the Plains, Mari Sandoz. (For a picture of Ms. Sandoz and additional information about her, see the entry for the American Procession Series in MM.)
  "Available from the University of Nebraska Press. Love Song to the Plains is a lyric salute to the earth and sky and people who made the history of the Great Plains by the region's incomparable historian, Mari Sandoz. It is a story of men and women of many hues—courageous, violent, indomitable, foolish—their legends, failures, and achievements: of explorers and fur trappers and missionaries; of soldiers and army posts and Indian fighting; of California-bound emigrants who stopped off to become settlers; of cattlemen and bad men, boomers and land speculators, and their feuds and rivalries. Above all, this is a portrait of the true Plainsman, the man or woman who can stand to have the horizon far off and every day, every year, a gamble.
    Sandoz died in 1966 and her obituary is found here: “Mari Sandoz, Author, 65, Dies; Historian of Nebraska Plains; In Colorful Prose, She Traced Lore of Old West Wrote 'Cheyenne Autumn', NYT, March 11, 1966. Parts are worth quoting:
Mari Sandoz, one of the country's leading regional historians, who wrote extensively of the Nebraska plains, died of cancer yesterday at St. Luke's Hospital. She was 65 years old.

   Miss Sandoz wrote more than a score of books, most of them well received by the critics. Her subjects for the most part were the lore of the American land that stretches from the Mississippi to the Rockies, the Indians and the cavalry, the cattlemen and the homesteaders, the trappers and the oilmen, and the others who conquered the land, exploited it and fought and died there….

Mention of the name Mari Sandoz, an observer noted several years ago, probably would evoke a picture of wide open prairies, steers, broncos and an author-horsewoman riding hell-for-leather across the plains shooting wild game for dinner. Not so, he went on to say. Miss Sandoz “lives better than half the year in Greenwich Village an apartment four flights up, by foot—and gets her dinner from the supermarket.”

Born in Cattle Country

 Both pictures were true. Miss Sandoz, who was born and reared in the Sand Hills cattle country of northwest Nebraska, had written about the Old West for about 30 years. She was a colorful writer and a diligent researcher. Of her prose style it was once said that she wrote "with a savage fury that almost raises blisters on paper."

6. Massachusetts, There She Is-Behold Her, Henry Howe

   “In the second half of the book the author abandons the chronological approach for the topical, the political for the social and economic. What results is a series of essays on various aspects of nineteenth-century Massachusetts history, with a brief summary of twentieth-century changes at the end. Some of these essays

are obviously written con amore and make very pleasant reading indeed; others are less successful." From: The New England Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Sep., 1961), pp. 406-409.

7. Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation, Paul Wallace

   “Should William Penn come to life and read this book he would be some

what surprised by the attribution to his influence of so much of what has

taken shape in Pennsylvania since the 1680's. For indeed the cult of the

influence of the individual in history is as positively set forth here as any

where in modern literature. Penn is characterized as "the most creative

statesman in American history," not alone because of the plans he drew

but because in the long run, it is claimed, the free society which emerged

from his Holy Experiment became the foundation upon which Pennsylvania

and the nation were built. It is an intriguing idea and one which receives
Substantial support in this exceedingly well written and altogether delightful book.” From: Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (July, 1963.)

8. The Rockies, David Lavender
    (Storage F721.L3)
  “DAVID Lavender has written more than a dozen books about the American West during the past twenty-five years, some of which are regarded as in the best tradition of historical writing. Characterized by sound scholarship and exciting prose, The Rockies is one of his finest.” The American Historical Review, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Feb., 1969), p. 1075

9. South Carolina: Annals of Pride and Protest, William Guess

    “This book can never take the place of D. D. Wallace, even less of

Ernest M. Lander's history of the state, 1865-1960, which appeared

too late for the author's use, but it can be a boon to sore-pressed

teachers of South Carolina history who should find that it will prove readable for students, will pique their interest, and more than the standard histories, may even lead some into unaccustomed analysis of their heritage.” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Aug., 1961), pp. 408-410

10.  The Southwest, David Lavender

   First published in 1980 as part of Harper & Row's Regions of America series, this lively account is now available only from the University of New Mexico Press.

11.  State O’Maine, Louise Rich
  From a review in the NYT:
"State O' Maine” is the latest addition to the Regions of America series; its author will be well‐remembered for “The Peninsula” and “We Took to the Woods.” Her new book comes as close as anything has to that perfect Early History of America…Mrs. Rich achieves this delightfully. Yet this isn't a history book. It reveals the spirit and nature of a special people, not as to dates and places and issues and policies, but as to who did it, with attention to why, and the warmer, human details of Down‐East affairs.

12. Ten Flags in the Wind: The Story of Louisiana, Charles L. Dufour
    (DB Weldon)F369 .D8)

   "This book is the latest addition to Harper and Row's Regions of

America series, edited by Carl Carmer, which proposes to "depict our

natural regions, their history, development and character" (p. iii).

Ten Flags in the Wind in every way upholds the standards of excel-

lence set by the previous volumes of the series.

The author, long a leading New Orleans journalist and historian, is

a courageous man. He has attempted the impossible-to tell the long

colorful story of Louisiana from La Salle to the Longs in one short

Volume.” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 34, No. 2 (May, 1968), pp. 334-335

13. Virginia: A New Look at the Old Dominion, Marshall Fishwick

  “ Mr. Fishwick has written a delightful book which is a penetrating

analysis of the story of Virginia. Even though he is an ardent Virginian,

and even though he confesses a lack of objectivity, the volume, in the

opinion of this reviewer, is the most acceptable history of the Old

Dominion. As the first of the new series on the Regions of America

edited by Carl Carmer, the volume sets a high standard. From:
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Nov., 1959), pp. 529-530

14. Yankee Kingdom: Vermont and New Hampshire, Ralph Hill
    (Storage F49.H555 1973)

For a review see: America Magazine: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture, 1960, v. 103, n. 15, p. 440, By:Lucey, William L.

A Bonus:

   A Companion to the Regional Literatures of America, Charles L. Crow, DBW Library PS169.R45.C66 2003. (Also available electronically.) When you click on the link for the e-version you are taken to this title:

"The Blackwell Companion to American Regional Literature is the most comprehensive resource yet published for study of this popular field.

*The most inclusive survey yet published of American regional literature.

*Represents a wide variety of theoretical and historical approaches.

*Surveys the literature of specific regions from California to New England and from Alaska to Hawaii.

*Discusses authors and groups who have been important in defining regional American literature. Here is a review:

Review of: A Companion to the Regional Literatures of America, Jan Brue Enright, Library Journal, No.20, Vol. 128, Dec. 2003.    "Although steeply priced, this lengthy volume offers a much-needed overview for academic libraries currently wanting works that focus on regional literatures of the United States. In his lucid summary editor Crow (American Gothic: An Anthology 1787-1917) introduces the theory and growing popularity of these writings, asserting that they initially gained favor among female writers and are today best defined as pieces that examine "small and private lives," His summary is followed by a series of 30 scholarly essays, contributed by many experts in the field, which are loosely divided into three sections. The first is dedicated to the history and theory of regionalism, the second continues the exploration by "mapping" specific regions (e.g., New England. the Great Plains. Big Sky Country, Texas, and Hawaii), while the third focuses on regionalist masters, featuring chapters on Willa Cather, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Mary Austin. and Wallace Stegner. Students in need of serious academic essays on these authors will not be disappointed. Each essay includes extensive references and further reading lists, and the index is superb." Highly recommended.--Jan Brue Enright, Augustana Coll. Lib., Sioux Fails, SD .

Source: 

   For more about this series and others see: Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: A Descriptive Bibliography: Including Biographies of the Authors, Illustrators, and Editors, by Carol Fitzgerald.