The American Forts Series

This will be the last post about a "Book Series" that is based on the bibliography compiled by Carol Fitzgerald and found in, Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980. I plan to say more about her work at a later date. The subject is forts, and like the other posts about books published in a series, it should be of use to book collectors since reviews are provided along with the bibliographic information.

Those focused on Canadian history will find three of the nine books to be of particular interest: Louisbourg: Key to A Continent, Three Flags at the Straits: The Forts of Mackinac, and Thundergate: The Forts of Niagara. (None of those books are listed in the bibliography, Canadian Forts.) Those interested in "Postcolonialism" will likely find these fort books easy to attack, since the books were written in less enlightened times and for the general reader. Let us hope that the books have not been removed from libraries for being too 'hurtful'. Perhaps they will be of some use to the growing number of "Preppers." I was pleased to see that almost all of these books are available in the Western Libraries, although they are in storage, at least for now. If you are a real fan of forts, this book is also available in Weldon Library: Forts of the United States: An Historical Dictionary, 16th Through 19th Centuries, by Bud Hannings.

There are likely many of you who are attracted more to books with interesting characters than to books about old, inanimate objects. In that case, see Sutter's Fort. The author, Oscar Lewis, was an anthropologist, who wrote books about poverty, one of which, La Vida..., won a National Book Award. John Sutter, for whom the fort was named, was a Swiss immigrant who attempted to establish a New Helvetia, remnants of which can be found in Sacramento.

"Stewart Holbrook, a widely respected regional writer, conceived and planned the "American Forts Series" in the early 1960s. Although he died before the first volume was published, he had planned eight of the nine books. In his words, it would be “a series of historical works centered around forts in the United States and Canada that were of significant importance to American history.” Prentice-Hall published the nine books between 1965 and 1973. Like many other Series Americana, the American Forts Series presents a wide swath of American history, spanning as it does nearly four centuries and focusing on many separate regions." (The above is from the introduction provided in Series Americana.)

Guns at the Forks, O'Meara, Walter.
“The American Forts Series”, edited by Stewart H. Holbrook, is introduced by a volume of particular interest to Pennsylvanians. More important, Mr. O'Meara's Guns at the Forks is lively, intelligent, and informative in content, well illustrated, and attractively printed.

   "The Forks" of the title are the forks of the Ohio River, at the present Pittsburgh, and the guns are those of the five forts that have stood there, identified by Mr. O'Meara as Fort Prince George, Fort Duquesne, Mercer's Fort, Fort Pitt, and Fort Fayette. Other writers have dealt with all these posts, but this is the first volume devoted explicitly to their successive

histories. The scope of the study is sufficiently broad to include colorful and explanatory background material that places the succession of forts in historical perspective.”Source: Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (July, 1966), pp. 377-378.

Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians, Nadeau Remi. 

   “This volume in "The American Forts Series," however, has much more to say about Indians, primarily the Sioux and to a lesser extent the Cheyenne and Arapaho, than about Fort Laramie. The theme is the eternal conflict between the red man, on the one hand, and the army, traders, and pioneers, on the other. Using a chronological approach to his narrative, the author pens accounts of the Grattan incident, the Sand Creek massacre, the fight for the Platte River Bridge, the Fetterman massacre, the Battle of the Rosebud, the ghost dance craze, the Battle of Wounded Knee, and many other dramatic incidents.” Review by: W. Turrentine Jackson, Source: The American Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Oct., 1967), pp. 228-229.

Sentinel of the Plains: Fort Leavenworth and the American West, Walton, George.
  [This one was panned.] Since the "American Forts Series" contains earlier works written by reputable historians, it is difficult to account for the acceptance and publication of this book.”Review by: Otis E Young, Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Jun., 1974), pp. 211-212

Louisbourg: Key to A Continent, Downey, Fairfax.

This one is available in the Internet Archive. For an interesting discussion and maps of this fort see: "Streets Paved with Gold: Fortress of Louisbourg on Early Maps," J.Victor Owen, Mercator's World, Vol.8. No.2. March/April 2003. It begins with this quotation by Washington Irving: "The walls of an impregnable fortress, like the virtue of women, have their weak points of attack." "Considered the greatest fortress on the North American continent in 1744, the newly completed Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island was thought to be impregnable, a monument to French engineering and territorial dominance in eastern Canada. It took a group of bold New Englanders to prove this wrong."

Three Flags at the Straits: The Forts of Mackinac, Havighurst, Walter.

  ‘Planned by the late Stewart H. Holbrook, "The American Forts Series" appears to have been designed to give the layman a readable, accurate, one-volume history of each of the major strongholds that occupied strategic points on our frontiers.

Oscar Lewis' Sutter's Fort, published earlier in the series, is full of interest for

the reader. The narrative is lively, and it is based on the most important sources

and secondary materials. The present volume generally follows such a pattern.   The author has covered a number of midwestern themes in his previous volumes of fiction and history and is qualified to undertake a history of the rise and fall of Mackinac missions and forts. His book carries the story of events at the straits from the seventeenth century to modern times during successive decades of French, British, and American occupation. Close examination of chapters on the French period reveals the shadow of Francis Parkman's great history looming in the background, as, for example, in Havighurst's narration of Pontiac's Conspiracy. In later chapters there are generous quotations from the writings of such varied individuals as Robert Rogers, Jonathan Carver, and Henry Schoolcraft, whose careers touched the complex history of the straits. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at Sault Sainte Marie in the 1830's, loved the wild beauty of the area and was fascinated by his native wards. In 1845 the youthful Parkman marked the rotted stumps of Mackinac Island's old palisade. Today on Mackinac Island buildings of the fort are part of a historical museum portraying the romantic story of the past. Here, then, is an interesting, skillfully written book for the general reader. The bibliography covers the high lights of literature on the subject.

Review by: Wilbur R. Jacobs, The American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Apr. 1967), pp. 1074-1075. For Canadian reviews see: Calgary Herald, Jan.13, 1967 & The Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 4, 1967.

 

Thundergate: The Forts of Niagara, Howard, Robert.
"Thundergate, at the waterfall of the Niagara River, has been the site of twelve forts, a large number of battles, and incessant drama extending over several centuries. Robert West Howard tells the story of the Indians, French, Dutch, English, and Americans who lived and fought here and skillfully gives life to the dramatis personae of the drama. He covers a period from the sixteenth century up to the Fenian raids against Canada in the post-CivilWar period. The author of over twenty books, Mr. Howard presents his story in eminently readable and well organized prose. He lists his sources in a chapter by chapter bibliography at the end of the book and ends the volume with a very helpful chapter, "The Memory Place," which is directed to modern readers who would visit the Niagara region. Wendell Tripp, New York History, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Jan. 1969), pp. 105-110.

Sutter’s Fort: Gateway to the Gold Fields, Lewis, Oscar. (See the introduction above.)

Forts of the Upper Missouri, Athearn, Robert.
This is available in the Internet Archive

 

Vincennes: Portal to the West, Derleth, August

  “With this volume August Derleth adds to his extensive bibliography and also adds another title to the American Forts series. Not intended for the specialist, these volumes are by competent writers who have made good use of source materials. Derleth's book meets these requirements and compares favorably with others in the series.”

Review by: Alan S. Brown, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 35, No. 2 (May, 1969), pp. 255.

Mainstream of America - Book Series

Introduction:
   For those who have resolved to read more in 2026, here is another book series. It consists of twenty 'popular' histories relating to a country that is, as of this writing, rather unpopular. Some of the authors of these works were also 'popular', for example, Dos Passos, C.S Forester (Horatio Hornblower), Irving Stone (Van Gogh & Michelangelo) and Stewart Holbrook, known for his books about the Northwest, including Canada. The name, "Hodding Carter" will be recognized by those who are old enough to remember the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
   Reviews are provided to assist you with your decision-making and all 20 of the books are available in the Western Libraries. Even though the books were published during the 1950s-60s, some are fully available in the Internet Archive. 

   When introducing the "Mainstream of America Series" Doubleday "noted that each volume would present the past “in terms of people and their stories” without “dull dates, dim figures, lists of battles,” and vowed that the series would make history “as moving and lively as the finest fiction.” The series encompasses a vast range of American history, from the European discovery of America and early exploration to the American Revolution, westward expansion, and industrial development." Enjoy.

                    The Mainstream of America, Lewis Gannett, Editor. 1953-1966

The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812, Forester, C.S.
"Like the other volumes of this series, this book lacks the formal parapher-

nalia of learning with which scholars usually buttress their findings, and to which it is popularly supposed the average reader objects. This may be forgiven; what cannot be pardoned is the absence of suitable maps and charts other than the two inadequate end maps. If the reader is interested in the larger picture of the War of 1812 and the relation of sea power to the history of the age, he will go directly to Mahan, or perhaps even to Roosevelt, rather than dally with Forester; but if he wants sheer enjoyment, he can do no better than renew acquaintance with his old friend Captain Hornblower speaking with a Yankee accent and sailing Joshua Humphreys' frigates.” George F. G. Stanley, The Canadian Historical Review, Volume 38, Number 3, September, 1957, pp. 248-249.

The Age of The Moguls, Holbrook, Stewart H.
"This work by Oregon journalist and historian Stewart Holbrook (1893-1964) profiles various capitalist tycoons of the late 1800s and early 1900s, including John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Thomas Mellon, Samuel Insull, and more, focusing primarily on how they managed to acquire their vast fortunes. Holbrook professes to using "neither gilt nor whitewash. Nor tar" in his discussions, but does argue that "no matter how these men accumulated their fortunes, their total activities were of the greatest influence in bringing the United States to its present incomparable position in the world of business and industry."
Reference & Research Book News,(Vol. 25, Issue 3).

The Angry Scar: The Story of Reconstruction, Carter, Hodding.

"Bad Times Not Forgotten; THE ANGRY SCAR: The Story of Reconstruction. By Hodding Carter. Mainstream of America Series. 425 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $5.95. NYT By C. Vann Woodward, Feb. 1, 1959

" Hodding Carter does not charge like a bull into this china shop of myth and history, but he is clearly not disposed to preserve all its contents uncritically. Although he lives in Mississippi and edits a newspaper in Greenville, he thinks of himself as a liberal and a moderate. Alert to the uses his opponents have made of Reconstruction legend, he is on guard against their stereotypes and their unconscious bias. It is his purpose, he writes, “to separate truth from myth and to link significant past events with the present legacies of those events." This is surely a praise worthy undertaking, but it is also a most difficult one."

Dreamers of the American Dream, Holbrook, Stewart H.

This is available in the Internet Archive.

   "Stewart Holbrook, who wrote the 2nd in the Mainstream of America Series books, The Age of Moguls, has added a 10th volume with his assembly of personalities who left their mark on America. Visionaries, crackpots, fanatics, dreamers, suffragettes, temperance workers, be-sloganned devotees of betterment in marriage, religion, sex, alcohol, labor relations, penal codes & the treatment of mental illness rub shoulders in a book which encompasses the American dream of Utopia, sobriety & the pursuit of happiness. The shouting & axe-swinging reformer, Carrie Nation, splintered saloon mirrors. At Sherrill, NY, John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Putney Corporation of Perfectionists, fostered "complex marriage"--an apt description, since fidelity & exclusiveness in matrimony were frowned upon. Laura Bridgman, Louis Dwight, Dorothea Dix, Susan B. Anthony & Mrs Stanton fought their mercurial & protracted battles--usually in defense of the rights of others: the deaf, the blind, the insane & the weaker sex. Holbrook's summation of these prophets of Excelsior should interest anyone with even a flickering interest in the history of the country & the evolution of the society we know.--Kirkus

Experience of War: The United States in World War II ,Davis, Kenneth S.
“In his prefatory note, Davis writes that his book is "not designed to be

a formal academic history, though every effort has been made to assure

its factual accuracy. Rather, its essential purpose is literary in that it attempts to rescue from the erosions and abstractions of time something of what Webster's Dictionary, in the definition of 'experience,' calls the, 'actual living through an event or events; actual enjoyment or suffering.' "Review by: A. Russell Buchanan. Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Mar., 1966), pp. 862-863

The French and Indian Wars: The Story of Battles and Forts in the Wilderness 
Hamilton, Edward Pierce
This is in the Internet Archive

"Colonel Hamilton is the first to bring to these colonial wars a full understanding of the technology and to combine with it a felicity of expression. His descriptions of the colonial militia and the European armies does much to correct the erroneous impression that Englishmen never learned the lesson of fighting in the woods and does something to deflate thereputation of the militiamen as the superiors of the regulars. Robert Rogers and his rangers, too, come in for some sound re-evaluation. From these pages, there comes a much clearer appreciation of the ways in which colonial wars were fought, the hardships involved, and the real magnitude of the Anglo-American accomplishment in driving France from the continent”. Review by: Lawrence H. Leder, Source: New York History, Vol. 44, No. 1 (January, 1963), pp. 82-84.

From Lexington to Liberty: The Story of the American Revolution, Lancaster,    Bruce.
This is available in the Internet Archive

Glory, God and Gold: A Narrative History, Wellman, Paul I.
"The publishers announce Mr. Wellman's book as an informal history of the Southwest. At least the term "informal" seems to be applicable and it may be conceded at once that this is a pleasantly readable volume, whatever may be its shortcomings." Review by: Rufus Kay Wyllys. Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Feb., 1955), pp. 80-81.

The House Divides: The Age of Jackson and Lincoln: From the War of  to the Civil War, Wellman, Paul I. 
This is available in the Internet Archive.

Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950, Lavender, David
"DAVID LAVENDER'S Land of Giants will not disappoint those acquainted with his earlier works, such as Bent's Fort. As a popular, readable, generally accurate, one-volume account of the Pacific Northwest it meets a definite need."
Review by Kenneth Wiggins, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol.60.

The Land They Fought For: The Story of the South as the Confederacy 1832-1865, Dowdey, Clifford.
"The author's insight into human nature and adeptness at portraiture enable him in a few pithy sentences to characterize discerningly and vividly such diverse personalities as John Brown, William L. Yancey, Robert Toombs…”

Review in the New York Times, by Bell Wiley, June 12, 1955.

Land Where Our Fathers Died: The Settling of the Eastern-Shores: 1607-1735, Starkey, Marion L.

The Lonesome Road: The Story of the Negro’s Part in America, Redding, J. Saunders
This is available in the Internet Archive.

Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West -1840-1900, Stone, Irving.

This is available in the Internet Archive.

The Men Who Made the Nation: Architects of the Young Republic ‒1782-1802, Dos Passos, John.

“For this history, Dos Passos returns to the American colonial period and early nationhood, exploring the personalities who won the nation’s independence from England: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, and George Washington."Originally called The World Turned Upside Down, The Men Who Made the Nation covers the period from 1781 to Hamilton’s death in 1804. The work crystallizes the author’s fascination with the psychology of the colonial freedom fighter and presents lessons for current American policymakers."

Mr. Wilson’s War, Dos Passos, John
“Mr. Dos Passos is well known for his ability, in fiction, to maintain at once a clear panoramic sweep of an entire era and an intimate understanding of his individual characters; this ability is a salient feature of his handling of fact in the present volume. The politics, the warfare, the social questions, the doubts and dreams and distinctive flavor of the times, everything is treated with a thrillingly readable ""you-are-there"" feeling which, however, does not detract in the least from the tolerant and knowledgeable perspective maintained from start to finish. This should stand with the finest works of Mr. Dos Passos' long and highly distinguished literary career, and is certainly a valuable contribution to the distinguished Mainstream of America Series. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine a better single-volume survey of this multifarious epoch. From Kirkus Reviews.

New Found World: How North America Was Discovered and Explored , Lamb, Harold.
“Fifth in an excellent series, this is chronologically first as it sets the stage for the subsequent volumes. The pageant of discovery Journeys to the New World with Columbus, Verrazano, Vespucci, DeSoto, Cabot, Champlain, and carries as ballast the personal dreams and natural aims which inspired all these and their fellow adventurers. Then continuing on into the 16th century, when discoverers replaced explorers flashing back to pre-history and the dawn-age hunter- ranging from the Inca civilization to the French in Canada, the book has a welcome expansiveness. It probes skillfully the economical and political causes of conquest, particularly in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and England. It explores the development of primitive astrolabes and sextants; principles of Mercator projection and improved cartography; Hakluyt's chronicles and the published accounts of returning explorers; the intellectual forces of every type that helped shape the course of empire. The pageant of discovery is brought down to its crudest motives. Senseless warfare with the natives stemmed out of senseless quests for El Dorado. Explorers turned into ghouls and slave traders, they burned a village because a silver cup was missing, they used the seductive manners of the court to connive to get the pearls off the neck of a princess. The narrative, rich with incident, detail and quotation from primary sources deliberately individualizes history and puts it on its most instructive level. Adult readers will relish what adolescents newly awakened to their heritage will cherish.” Kirkus Reviews.

The Shackles of Power: Three Jeffersonian Decades, Dos Passos, John

"Shackles of Power completes Dos Passos’s lengthy inquiry into early American political thought with a final tribute to Thomas Jefferson, full of the lyrical passages that typify the author’s fast-paced histories. Rounding out his portrait of America’s “golden age” are treatments of James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams.”

This Hallowed Ground: The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War , Catton, Bruce.
This is in the Internet Archive.
“...his history of the American Civil War chronicles the entire war to preserve the Union - from the Northern point of view, but in terms of the men from both sides who lived and died in glory on the fields.”

The Time Between the Wars: Armistice to Pearl Harbor, Daniels, Jonathan.
This is available on the Internet Archive.

Source:

  For more details about the "Mainstream of America" book series see:

Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: A Descriptive Bibliography: Including Biographies of the Authors, Illustrators, and Editors, by Carol Fitzgerald.

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.