American Mountain Series

    For readers interested in mountains, this series will be attractive. It was identified in the very useful bibliography produced by Carol Fitzgerald and published by Oak Knoll: Series Americana: Post Depression-era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: a Descriptive Bibliography Including Biographies of the Authors, Illustrators, and Editors, ed. by Jean Fitzgerald. 2v. Oak Knoll/Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, 2009. 
   None of the books listed are in the public domain, but they can all be found on AbeBooks and elsewhere. The Western University catalogue was searched and five of the books found - the two bolded titles are in the Western Libraries (a search of the Western catalogue now includes the holding of some other Ontario university libraries and they are provided below.)The search was done in early 2025.
   In some cases, the contents are listed and a few reviews and other sources are noted. 

         "American Mountain Series" (Vanguard Publishing) ‒ Roderick Peattie,
          Editor,1942-1952.

"The Mountain series, edited by geologist Roderick Peattie and written by scientists and local experts of the day, includes nine volumes published between 1942 and 1952 . The books provide detailed, scholarly portraits of the major mountain ranges in the United States." 

   For more information about the editor, Roderick Peattie, see: “Roderick Peattie, Geographer and Romanticist, 1891-1955,’ by Guy-Harold Smith, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1957-03, Vol.47, (1), pg.97.
  Roderick Peattie's brother has already been profiled in Mulcahy's Miscellany: See: 
 Donald Culross Peattie (1898 -1964). Some samples of his writing are found in No.7, The Pacific Coast Ranges. 

1.The Berkshires: The Purple Hills, W.P. Eaton, et al, - Guelph, Ottawa.

   Contents, [iii-v]; CONTENTS: What are the Berkshire hills? By W.P. Eaton.-With what the hills are clothed, by A.K. Simpson.-Four seasons of Berkshire bird lore, by G.J. Wallace.-Byways to pleasure, by Bartlett Hendricks.-Streams and casting, by Theodore Giddings.-Man changes the landscape through gardening, by A.K. Simpson.-Winter sports among the hills, by Bartlett Hendricks.-Indian legends, by Haydn Mason.-Two hundred and fifty years of history, by W.P. Eaton.-Berkshire folks and folkways, by W.S. Annin.-The invaders and what they have meant, by Margaret Cresson.-The Berkshire Festival, by Margaret Cresson.- Illustrations, p. [vii-ix]; Index, p. 401-414. - [Map] "Berkshire County", on front and back lining papers."

2. The Black Hills, Roderick Peattie, - Western - storage - F657.B6P4.
   Contents, [iii-iv]; CONTENTS: [1.] The Black Hills / by Badger Clark - [2.] Where B.C. means Before Custer / by Leland D. Case - [3.] History catches up / by Leland D. Case - [4.] Crazy Horse -the greatest among them / by Elmo Scott Watson - [5.] Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane / by Clarence S. Paine - [6.] "Don't fence me in!" / by Paul Friggens - [7.] The tourists come / by Badger Clark - [8.] The mountain that had its face lifted / by Badger Clark - [9.] The Black Hills -a storehouse of mineral treasure / by R.V. Hunkins - [10.] America's greatest gold mine -the Homestake / by R.V. Hunkins.Illustrations, p. [v-vi]; Index, p. 311-320]"

3.The Cascades: Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. N/A

4. The Friendly Mountains: Green, White, and Adirondacks, Roderick Peattie,- Guelph, Ottawa.  

5. The Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge: The Story of the Southern Appalachians, Roderick Peattie, Western - storage - F443.G7P4 

6. The Inverted Mountains: Canyons of the West, N/A
   Contents, p. v-viii; CONTENTS: Canyon review - by Weldon F. Heald; Features of the canyon country - by Edwin D. McKee; Fossil life of the canyon country - Edwin D. McKee; Three hundred years of Spain - By Weldon F. Heald; Indian life - past and present - by Harold S. Colton; The Americans come - by Weldon F. Heald; The Colorado River - by Weldon F. Heald; Riding Grand Canyon rapids - by Weldon F. Heald; The canyon wilderness - by Weldon F. Heald; On foot and in the saddle - by Edwin D. McKee; The canyon trails - by Edwin D. McKee; Environment controls life - by Edwin d. McKee; Illustrations, p. ix-x; Index, p. 379-390]"

7. The Pacific Coast Ranges, Roderick Peattie, - McMaster, York.
    Contents, p. v-ix; CONTENTS: "Father Serra's rosary" / by Donald Culross Peattie -The first inhabitants of the coast ranges / by John Walton Caughey - Footsteps of spring -a wild flower trail / by Donald Culross Peattie - Glimpses of wild life / by Aubrey Drury - Foothills / by Judy Van der Veer - Farm, rock, and vine folk / by Idwal Jones - Headlands in California writing / by John Walton Caughey - The wilderness mountains / by Lois Crisler - Timber / by Thomas Emerson Ripley - People of the Oregon Coast Range / by Archie Binns - People of the Washington Coast Range / by Archie Binns - The geologic story / by Daniel E. Willard - Climatic transitions and contrasts / by Richard Joel Russell.Illustrations, p. xi-xii; Maps of the Pacific coast ranges [by Guy-Harold Smith], p. [384-386]; Index, p. 387-402 

8. The Rocky Mountains, Wallace W. Atwood. N/A 

9. The Sierra Nevada: The Range of Light, N/A.
   For a positive review see: Ruth E. Baugh, Pacific Historical Review, Vol.- 17, No.2, p.223.

Periodical Ramblings (12)

 The Saturday Evening Post

   At the beginning of this year I took a look at Look magazine and now in my dozenth post about periodicals, I will point you to The Saturday Evening Post. You will be surprised to learn that it still exists. Look ceased publication in the early 1970s. 

   The Saturday Evening Post was popular in the early 1960s, but it briefly stopped publication in 1969. It now has a colourful website and if you go to it you can subscribe and gain access and also receive by mail six print copies per year. As well, you can read over 200 years of archival issues. You should have a look. 

Norman Rockwell

   Even if you were born in this century you are likely to be familiar with The Saturday Evening Post because you are probably aware of Rockwell who produced over 300 covers for the magazine. There is a museum dedicated to Rockwell in Stockbridge, Mass. and it is worth visiting. We went to the Berkshires a few years ago and toured the museum and you should as well.  This will help you make the decision: Norman Rockwell Museum: The Home For American Illustration. 

   You may think his illustrations are "corny", but they can be costly.

In case you can't read the above, the painting sold for $46 million.

   I just finished reading the memoir of the Canadian writer and artist, Bruce McCall, and here is what he has to say about Rockwell. 

    "Norman Rockwell painted 322 Saturday Evening Post covers between 1916 and 1963. For much of that time he ruled as America's most famous artist, most beloved artist, and finest artist. He was sui generis, so confoundingly skilled that no artist ever tried to copy him. Rockwell was tall and skinny, his face arguably better known than that of many movie stars. He wasn't handsome, but he conveyed an inimitable decency. 

   I adored Rockwell's work. Any Rockwell cover stimulated a fond inch-by-inch examination. The "corny" charge, the jeering criticism of his work as trafficking exclusively in mythical America, the world Rockwell populated with cliched characters -- the lovable kid making harmless mischief, the benevolent small town cop, the gawky young GI, the bashful couple getting their wedding license from a grandfatherly clerk, ad infinitum --- all of it was provably true, upsetting to neither the Post readers, nor to me. These were incidental elements.

   His characters couldn't exist in the real world, but Rockwell documented the places, things and rituals of everyday American life with absolute stunning fidelity. He had no identifiable "style." His scenes looked found, natural. Tricks of composition were ingeniously buried. Rockwell studied every detail he placed in his pictures; should you find an error anywhere -- even a tiny prop of zero importance to the picture -- the entire illusion of reality he slaved to create would collapse. So he never erred." (How Did I Get Here, p.20)

   Rockwell did leave The Saturday Evening Post later in his career when he decided to portray more controversial images which he did, in Look. 

 "But it is less well known that he [Rockwell] decisively turned a corner just a few decades later, choosing to reject the airbrushed image of a nation implicitly populated with only happy, White, middle-class families.

Rockwell did this by abandoning his employer of nearly 50 years, the Saturday Evening Post, in large part because the magazine would let him portray Blacks only in subservient positions. After including two Black children in his 1961 illustration “Golden Rule,” Rockwell began receiving hate mail from segregationists, and the Post told him he should paint portraits only of statesmen or celebrities. Those instructions clashed with his conscience. Severing his ties with the magazine in 1963, Rockwell told his longtime editors that he had “come to the conviction that the work I now want to do no longer fits into the Post scheme.”

He joined Look magazine, and it was there that he painted some of the hardest-hitting, most widely seen visual attacks on racism in the nation’s history."

Sources:

   The quotation directly above is from: "Why Norman Rockwell Left Thanksgiving Americana Behind," Andrew Yarrow, Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2021. 

    Visit the Norman Rockwell Museum for details and for a link to his useful article: "Stockbridge, A Small Berkshires Town With a Big Artistic Reputation, " Alexandra Pecci, Washington Post, May 3, 2019. 

    For the rationale behind these "Ramblings" see: "Periodical Ramblings: The Series."