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.

SEAPORT Book Series

    You will have noticed in MM posts that are about "Book Series" and here is another one. Those of you who like to read books about certain subjects, or collect all of the titles as an investment, should look at the "Seaport Series." The twelve volumes were published by Doubleday, Doran during the 1940s. 
   As well, you may simply find a book which provides a diversion during our divisive times and those interested in Canada will see three titles which relate to this country. That two of them apply to ports that are not really on the sea does not bother me.
   None of these books are yet in the public domain, with the exception of Leacock's Montreal which is available digitally from several providers and can be read from wherever you are. The others can be acquired via AbeBooks or a local bookseller.
   Along with some of the titles you will find brief notes to assist you with your decision making. Also provided are some of the university libraries in Ontario which have the books. (If you have access to the Western Libraries you will know that a search yields results from other participating libraries, from which the book may be borrowed.) Nine of the books are available and Western has seven of the titles. The ones about Gloucester, San Francisco and Honolulu don't seem to be in any of the libraries searched, but you should check with a Western Librarian. 

                                            The Seaport Series

1. Baltimore on the Chesapeake, Hamilton Owens.
(Guelph, Laurentian)

2. Boston: Cradle of Liberty, John Jennings.
(Western, Laurentian)

3. Harbor of the Sun: The Story of the Port of San Diego, Max Miller. 
Review by: Franklin Walker, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Sep., 1941), p. 383

4. Montreal: Seaport and City, Stephen Leacock.

(Western, King’s, other libraries, Digital versions on Canadiana, Project Gutenberg and Faded Page.)

5. Northwest Gateway: The Story of the Port of Seattle, Archie Binns.

(Western, Queen’s,York) See the review by Louis Gaffney in America, Vol.65, 1941.

"FOR one with a love of the cutting salt spray, the romance of the sea, the dash and color of the rugged west, Indian wars and the rush for gold—for such a

one Northwest Gateway will afford keen delight. This is the third book of the Seaport Series, preceded by Max Miller's story of San Diego, Harbor of the Sun.

It is not fiction, but history, and into the narrative is breathed a lightness and warmth of style that vivifies the cold historical facts."

6. Philadelphia: Holy Experiment, Burt Struthers.
(Western(2), Brock, Guelph, York)

7. The Port of Gloucester, James B. Connolly.  For a review see: America, Oct. 19, 1940. W.J. McGarry notes, "The Port of Gloucester is a book not to miss."   8. The Port of New Orleans, Harold Sinclair (Western) See: "Romantic Town Flayed," by John J. O'Connor, in America, Vol.67, No.18, 1940. "THIS latest addition to the Seaport Series is a hyper-critical chronicle of one of America's most romantic and exotic cities. In an introductory chapter, Mr. Sinclair describes New Orleans as "a Marseilles or a Shanghai, American style, shot through with overtones of Christy Minstrels, the code duello, white steamboats on a chocolate-colored river, coffee and cotton, wine in cobwebbed bottles, vine-festooned patios, and Basin Street jazz." But when Mr. Sinclair really warms to his work, the moonlight and clarinets vanish and we are introduced to a city which permitted its garbage to pile up in the streets and allowed its harbor to go to the dogs."

9. The Ports of British Columbia, Agnes Rothery. (Western, Algoma, Carleton, Brock) For a review see: The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 403-404, by W. Kaye Lamb.  "It is essentially a character study of the cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Anyone who has ever visited them will remember that the contrasts between the two are many and varied....All this and much else Agnes Rothery has observed shrewdly, with humor, and with considerable penetration. Of the two studies, that of Victoria is the more successful, for the obvious reason that Victoria is in many respects more individual than its sister city on the mainland. But Vancouver is developing a personality of its own, and the British, American, and Canadian At the same time it is apparent that something of that character escaped her. Notably, she failed to sense the indelible impression left upon Vancouver, physically and spiritually, both by the hectic boom that preceded the first World War, and the depression of the nineteen thirties."10. Quebec: Historic Seaport, Mazo De la Roche

(Western Archives, Huron, other libraries)

11. San Francisco: Port of Gold, William Martin Camp.
(York)

12. Tropic Landfall: The Port of Honolulu, Clifford Gessler. 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.

   For another "Book Series" post in MM see, for example: "American Customs."

Beyond the Palewall (13)

 That Sinking Feeling
   If you are heading to the capital of Indonesia, don't go to Jakarta which is rapidly sinking. The new capital is Nusantara which is located in the jungle on another island. There are around 30 million people in the Jakarta metropolitan area, so it is pretty heavy. Although the Dutch left in the last century, they will likely be blamed."Why Indonesia Moved Its Capital to a Jungle Hundreds of Miles Away: The New City Nusantara, Comes as Jakarta Continues to Sink at a Record Pace," Bryan Pietsch, Washington Post, Aug. 17, 2024.
  It is not the only city that is sinking and if you plan to move to Miami, pick one of the higher floors in the condo.
"Venice is Sinking. So are Rotterdam, Bangkok and New York: But no place compares to Jakarta, the fastest-sinking megacity on the planet. Over the past 25 years, the hardest-hit areas of Indonesia’s capital have subsided more than 16 feet. The city has until 2030 to figure out a solution, experts say, or it will be too late to hold back the Java Sea."
 "The World’s Fastest-Sinking Megacity Has One Last Chance to Save Itself: Parts of Jakarta are subsiding at unprecedented speed,"  By Sheryl Tian Tong Lee and Grace Sihombing, Bloomberg.com. Dec. 6, 2023.

These stories just arrived: Last week, another house just collapsed in Rodanthe in the Outer Banks, "See the Latest House in This Outer Banks Town to Fall Into the Ocean," The Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2024.
People are still buying condos on the Texas coast, but, "since 2010, Galveston has experienced a burst of sea level rise, which has added a staggering 8 inches to the ocean's height here, according to federal data analyzed by The Post," The Washington Post, Sept. 23, 2024.

The Rich Are Different From Me
   The rich are buying some items that would not be very valuable to me. Apparently others agree since in this article it is mentioned that "there was zero rationality to the valuations" for "celebrity-adjacent objects." Freddie Mercury's mustache comb went for almost $200,000 at Sotheby's, no less, and “In 2015, the cardigan that Kurt [Cobain] wore during Nirvana’s appearance on “MTV Unplugged” sold for $137,000; four years later it went for more than twice than that” (even though it “had a small amount of something brown and crusty, possibly dried vomit, in a pocket.)”
See: "The Place to Buy Kurt Cobain’s Sweater and Truman Capote’s Ashes: As the art market cools, Julien’s Auctions earns millions selling celebrity ephemera—and used its connections to help Kim Kardashian borrow Marilyn Monroe’s J.F.K.-birthday dress," Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, March 18, 2024.

Current Fiction and "The Piety Problem"
   I don't read much current fiction, but from the reviews of some of the novels, one gathers that there is considerable pedagogy buried in the prose and that the category in which the author falls is as important as the fiction written. The following is from this interesting piece in the NYT: "An Acerbic Young Writer Takes Aim at the Identity Era: Tony Tulathimutte is a Master Comedian Whose Original and Highly Disturbing New Book Skewers Liberal Pieties," Giles Harvey, Sept. 13, 2024.
   “The years since Donald Trump announced his first presidential bid have hardly been a heyday for American fiction. “Literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty,” Lionel Trilling wrote in “The Liberal Imagination” (1950), but 75 years later, amid the rise of a homegrown authoritarianism, these qualities can start to look expendable, like mere literary trinkets. At least that’s the sense you get from a recent tranche of worthy social novels, books that may as well come with colorful stickers proclaiming, In these pages we believe Black lives matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal and so on. Such commitments, however well-intentioned, can sometimes come at the expense of a nuanced moral vision and tend to lead to writing that’s effective neither as politics nor art. “There is definitely a piety problem,” Tulathimutte told me, summing up the state of today's publishing business.”
[If now you are interested, Tulathimutte's new book is Rejection.]

DETECTIVE FICTION - CANCON

   We often learn about Canadian things from American sources. I learned recently, for example, that a new TV mystery series is soon to launch on an American network. It is based on the work done by Laurali Wright who was born in Saskatchewan and lived and died (2001) in B.C. where the settings often involve the "Sunshine Coast." Canadian lovers of the mystery genre may wish to tune-in and they will likely already know about Ms. Wright and the "Alberg & Cassandra" mystery series. I did not, but found from these sources that more needs to be known about Laurali Wright and it is better to learn from them than me.

Sources:
   Start with the official web site of L.R. Wright. You will find there a trailer for the new series, "Murder in a Small Town which starts on Sept. 24.
   The Wikipedia entry is interesting and provides other sources: L.R.Wright
   The Canadian Press did write about the series at the end of last year. See: "Fox Picks Up B.C.-shot Crime Drama: "Murder in a Small Town, For Upcoming Fall Lineup," CBC News, Dec.14, 2023.
   I read about Ms. Wright here:
“Murder in a Small Town” debuts Sept. 24 on Fox (trailer). The mystery series is based on “The Suspect,” an Edgar Award-winning novel by the late Canadian writer Laurali Wright (1939-2001). Rossif Sutherland plays police chief Karl Alberg, and Kristin Kreuk is Cassandra, the town librarian who becomes an integral part of his investigation. If the show catches on, it could run for years; Wright published nine Alberg & Cassandra mysteries." From: "The Book Club Newsletter," Ron Charles, The Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2024.
   The images of the books above are all from Felony & Mayhem, which was started by a woman and deserves a post of its own. 

Post Script:
   If you wish to borrow rather than buy the books by Ms. Wright, I don't think you will have any luck at the London Public Libraries since I didn't find any, using various search strategies. 
  Oddly enough, the libraries up at Western do have some Wright books, but they are either in storage or in ARCC where they seem to have been acquired as part of the "William French Collection of Canadian Literature."
  I don't think I can be accused of shameless self promotion, since this is buried at the bottom of this post and I have rarely mentioned it before, but a couple of years ago I wrote a book about another Canadian mystery writer who is generally unknown in Canada. Like Ms. Wright, Hulbert Footner, wrote more than detective fiction and should be better known. For about a buck you can read the ebook and for about ten of them you can have the book printed near you and delivered in a few days. Or if you just click on this link, you can read a good summary for free.
Hulbert Footner: Author of Adventure Novels, Detective Novels and Historical Nonfiction...  Or you could borrow a copy from either the London Public Libraries or Western.
Or you could stop by and see me and I will give you one.

THE PAPER CANOE

 A Paper Canoe?
   Here is some rainy day writing for those who might require some rainy day reading. I will begin at "The Paper Canoe" which is located on the Currituck Sound in Duck, N.C. We were fortunate to recently have dinner there, but it was a busy night and I wasn't able to inquire about the name, "The Paper Canoe." 
   I was reminded of some notes I had about the book, The Voyage of the Paper Canoe: A Geographical Journey of 2500 Miles From Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, During the Years 1874-5, by Nathaniel Holmes Bishop. I do not know if the name of the restaurant relates to the title of the book, but I do know that you will enjoy reading it.
   You will find The Voyage... for varying prices on Amazon where someone has printed it for you and you will find more on AbeBooks. The very expensive ones will be copies of the original, not knockoffs. Or, you can simply read the e-version quickly found on Gutenberg or the Internet Archive, which has a fine copy that is easily read and searched. But, if you prefer paper, live in London and have access to the Western Libraries, one will be found for you in storage.

The Paper Part
   Bishop began his voyage from Quebec in a very heavy wooden boat, but swapped it for a paper one on the upper Hudson River. You can learn more about it in Chapter V., "The American Paper Boat and English Canoes." This description is from the Introduction: Having proceeded about four hundred miles upon his voyage, the author reached Troy, on the Hudson River, New York state, where for several years E. Waters & Sons had been perfecting the construction of paper boats.  The advantages in using a boat of only fifty-eight pounds weight, the strength and durability of which had been well and satisfactorily tested, could not be questioned, and the author dismissed his assistant, and " paddled his own canoe " about two thousand miles to the end of the journey…..

An additional bit from the Introduction will help you determine if you want to search for the book or even buy it: 
   To an unknown wanderer among the creeks, rivers, and sounds of the coast, the courteous treatment of the Southern people was most gratifying. The author can only add to this expression an extract from his reply to the address of the Mayor of St. Mary's, Georgia, which city honored him with an ovation and presentation of flags after the completion of his voyage :
" Since my little paper canoe entered southern waters upon her geographical errand, — from the capes of the Delaware to your beautiful St. Mary's, — I have been deeply sensible of the value of Southern hospitality. The oystermen and fishermen living along the lonely beaches of the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia ; the surfmen and lighthouse keepers of Albemarle, Pamplico, and Core sounds, in North Carolina ; the ground-nut planters who inhabit the uplands that skirt the network of creeks, marshes, ponds, and sounds from Bogue Inlet to Cape Fear ; the piny- woods people, lumbermen, and turpentine distillers on the little bluffs that jut into the fastnesses of the great swamps of the crooked Waccamaw River ; the representatives of the once powerful rice-planting aristocracy of the Santee and Peedee rivers ; the colored men of the beautiful sea-islands along the coast of Georgia ; the Floridians living between the St. Mary's River and the Suwanee — the wild river of song ; the islanders on the Gulf of Mexico where I terminated my long journey ; — all have contributed to make the * Voyage of the Paper Canoe' a success."

Chasing the Paper Canoe
   From the description above one notices that the 'Paper Canoe" travelled in the area of the restaurant, so there may be a connection. There is mention of the crooked Waccamaw River also found in the introduction and that was noticed by someone at Coastal Carolina University. ln 2012 faculty and students at Coastal Carolina traced the wake left by Bishop and identified places he mentioned. The result is the book, Chasing the Paper Canoe, which was published by Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina. To learn more about the project see, Chasing the Paper Canoe. If you look under "Bishop" you will learn more about him and the voyage of the "Paper Canoe." If you would rather just look at beautiful photos from the coastal Carolina area, click on "Gallery." The book can be purchased on Amazon, from which this description is taken:
  This inaugural publication from The Athenaeum Press reimagines Nathaniel Bishop’s journey down the Waccamaw River in a paper canoe more than a century ago. The book is the culmination of a year’s collaboration between students and faculty at Coastal Carolina University. Chasing the Paper Canoe portrays the culture, desolation and stoic beauty of the Waccamaw River. Within its pages, readers find the historic rice fields contrasted to bankside home construction; the weathered waterfront of Georgetown and portraits of modern fisherman. It is a true portrait of what Bishop described as that “most crooked waterway.” The project takes readers on a journey across history and form. Throughout the printed book, readers can see the stunning photographs come to life as streaming video through a feature called augmented reality. Both photographs and multimedia components were designed and produced by students in Coastal Carolina University’s pre-professional studio.

The Bonus:

    Nathaniel Bishop is an interesting fellow and was a very active one. Two more of his books are found in storage in the Western Libraries (for now, at least) and they can also be read online or purchased in print. 
Four Months in a Sneak-box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico, 1879:

"A 2,600 mile voyage in 1875 from Pittsburgh to Florida down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a 12 foot duck hunting boat called a "Barnegat Bay Sneak Box."This curious and staunch little craft, though only 12 feet in length, proved a most comfortable and serviceable home while the author rowed it more than 2,600 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, until he reached the mouth of the wild Suwanee River."

If you prefer works about walking: 

The Pampas and Andes: A Thousand Miles' Walk Across South America, 1855:
"Bishop was a mere lad of 17 in 1855 when, with $45 in his pocket, he left Massachusetts bound for South America. Pursuing a love of natural history, he arrived in Buenos Aires, ascended the Plata and Parana Rivers, walked across the pampas and the Saline Desert, hiked over the Andes into Chile, and at Valparaiso caught a boat for home. Barely able to speak the language, he slips quietly through South America, eyes open. The ultimate boy's adventure."

For more from MM about long walks, see John Muir who took a Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf  from Ontario.  To read more about things From Far Away and Long Ago, in South America see: "W.H. Hudson and the Hail Storm."
  If you are now feeling enthused and considering your own trek, see "The Trans Canada Trail." 

AMERICAN FOLKWAYS & ERSKINE CALDWELL

   
   For readers or book collectors here is another series to start before summer begins. "American Folkways" books were published between 1940 and 1958 and like the "American Customs Series", about which I have posted, the books will be of interest to those curious about regional histories and local folkways and customs.
   The volumes dealing with areas near our border are likely to be most appealing to Canadians. The review of Niagara Country, is found under this headline, "A Worthy Addition to Americana," and the reviewer notes:
   "There are three sets of books I would not be without: The River Series (Rinehart), The Lake Series (Boobs-Merrill) and The Folkways Series Duell, Sloan & Pearce). All three share an important secret -- the secret of making American regional history readable and fascinating." (Sterling North, The Washington Post, July 3, 1949.) The first two have already been covered in MM.

  The kind of wisdom to be found in such books is evident in the title of a review of Smoky Mountain Country, which is, "Blow Smoke in the Ears." That is how one cures a headache. Humour is also found in the mountains when a witness is asked what he knew about a recent killing:

  "All I know is this," the witness drawled. "We was all up thar at the big dance celebratin' Robert E. Lee's birthday. The fiddles was playin' and we were swinging corners, and the boys got to slappin' each other on the back as they swung. Finally one of them slapped too hard and the other knocked him down. His brother shot that feller, and that feller's brother cut t'other fellers throat, and the feller that was knocked down drawed his knife and cut that fellow's liver out; the old man of the house got mad and run to the bed, turned up the tick and grabbed his shotgun and turned both barrels loose on the crowd, and I saw there was goin' to be trouble and I left."

Good thing he left before the trouble started. (From the review by John N. Popham, New York Times, July 6, 1952.) 

  Twenty-eight volumes were produced for this series and most will be easily found on AbeBooks or elsewhere. Those who live in London and have access to the Western Libraries will only find eleven and a few of those are in other Ontario university libraries. The ones bolded below are the ones available.

                                             AMERICAN FOLKWAYS

Adirondack Country, William Chapman White

Big Country: Texas, Donald Day 

Blue Ridge Country, Jean Thomas 

Corn Country, Homer Croy

Deep Delta Country, Harnett Kane  

Desert Country, Edwin Corle 

Far North Country, Thames Williamson

Golden Gate Country, Gertrude Atherton  

Gulf Coast Country, Hodding Carter

High Border Country, Eric Thane 

High Sierra Country, Oscar Lewis 

The Other Illinois, Baker Brownell  

Old Kentucky Country, Clark McMeekin 

Lower Piedmont Country, H.C. Nixon   Contents Annals of the hills -- Civil War and after -- Worship of industry and business -- Small farms and country stores -- Cities and towns -- Sam Jones and the ol' time religion -- Songs of the hills -- Rustic wit and laughing stock -- Ol' corn liquor -- These are our lives -- Ups and downs between world wars -- Possum trot in wartime -- Labor stirs -- Piedmont politics -- The mind of the hills.

Mormon Country, Wallace Stegner  

Niagara Country, Lloyd Graham 

North Star Country, Meridel Le Sueur 

Ozark Country, Ernest Rayburn 

Palmetto Country, Stetson Kennedy 

Piñon Country, Haniel Long 

Pittsylvania Country, George Swetnam 

Redwood Country: The Lava Regions and the Redwoods, Alfred Powers

Rocky Mountain Country, Albert N. Williams 

Short Grass Country, Stanley Vestal  

Smoky Mountain Country, North Callahan  

Southern California Country: An Island on the Land, Carey McWilliams 

Town Meeting Country, Clarence Mertoun Webster Wheat Country, William B. Bracke

There is even a YouTube video devoted to the American Folkway Series.

The Bonus: Erskine Caldwell

The series was edited by the southern author, Erskine Caldwell. I associated him only with Tobacco Road and magazines such as Gent or Swank, but I was wrong and he is worth a look if you need more reading material. Some of his books were given lurid covers when they were published in paperback to make them sell better. Here are the books authored by Caldwell that are in the Western Libraries and there are more about him. See the Wiki entry for him and this biographical piece at the "Georgia Writers Hall of Fame." He was also married (for a while) to Margaret Bourke-White, with whom he published, You Have Seen Their Faces.

Selected Books by Erskine Caldwell

Afternoons in Mid-America : Observations and Impressions

All Night Long; A Novel of Guerrilla Warfare in Russia.

All-out on the Road to Smolensk.

American Earth.

Around About America.

The Caldwell Caravan : Novels and Stories

Call it Experience, The Years of Learning How to Write.

Certain Women.

Claudelle Inglish

Close to Home.

Complete Stories.

Conversations with Erskine Caldwell

The Courting of Susie Brown.

A Day's Wooing and Other Stories.

Deep South; Memory and Observation.

Episode in Palmetto.

Georgia Boy.

God's Little Acre.

Gulf Coast Stories.

In Search of Bisco.

Jackpot, the Short Stories of Erskine Caldwell.

Jenny by Nature.

Journeyman

Kneel to the Rising Sun, and Other Stories.

A Lamp for Nightfall.

The Last Night of Summer.

Men and Women; Twenty-two stories

Place called Estherville.

Poor Fool

Some American People.

The Sure Hand of God

This Very Earth.

Three by Caldwell: Tobacco Road; Georgia Boy: The Sure Hand of God

Tobacco Road

Tobacco Road : A Facsimile of the Final Chapter

Tragic ground.

Trouble in July.

We Are the Living

When You Think of Me

With All My Might: An Autobiography

You Have Seen Their Faces, (with Margaret Bourke-White)

BIRD ILLUSTRATORS

LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES

   I used to work in the Western Libraries back when there were more of them and the collections they held were impressive. As I have indicated in several posts, the area devoted to books and other resources has shrunk, while space for the students has grown. Many books are in storage, where they cannot be browsed and I think that is unfortunate. 

   It is the case, however, that the argument for keeping books and other scholarly resources has been lost. And, admittedly, the losing of that argument is not as unfortunate as one might think - unless you prefer printed books and journals.

   The material in storage is easily retrieved for you, if you know it is there. As well, much of it can be accessed electronically and from afar and at anytime. About the only rationale one can offer for keeping all those old books and journals around is an aesthetic one which does not hold much appeal for many. 

    That gets me to Fuertes, who produced books about birds and provided the illustrations for many others. Seeing such books and works like, The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America, is more appealing to me than viewing them electronically (that book is in storage.)

   A couple of years ago, I did a post about "Bird Art" and in it wrote about the works of John Gould and provided a list of his beautifully illustrated books that were held by the Western Libraries, but were in storage. There also are books by Fuertes in storage and I will provide just a couple of examples. If you want to see some of his images from afar you can visit the L.A. Fuertes Image Database at Cornell in Ithaca, where Fuertes was born. You will find 2500 and they are searchable by type (e.g. drawings, water colour, gouaches). You might argue that providing space for such things is no longer necessary, but I still disagree.

 

 Here are a few Fuerte's works in storage at the Western Libraries. He has been described as "the nation's most notable ornithological painter since Audubon."

A Natural History of American Birds of Eastern and Central America;

Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States;

The Bird Life of Texas;

To a Young Bird Artist: Selected Letters From Louis Agassiz Fuertes to George Miksch Sutton.

The Bonus:

   I am pleased that, at least for now, there are other bird-related items to be found in storage. If you want to listen to them for example, here are a few recordings:

Voices of African Birds; Songs and Calls of 42 Species Found in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanganyika, Rhodesia, South Africa, the Congo, and Nigeria;

Mexican Bird Songs; The Voices of 74 of the Most Representative Birds of Mexico

   One can also hear the sounds made by other species:

The Songs of Insects; Calls of the Common Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Cicadas of the eastern United States;

Voices of the Night; The Calls of 34 Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada.

   Apart from sound recordings there  are even some games to be found in storage. For example, Professor Noggin's Birds of North America Card Game is located there.

   It is likely that many of these items will ultimately end up in storage facility near Toronto for a variety of reasons, some of which are noted above. If items can be retrieved from storage, it doesn't matter much where the facility is located. 

   There is now another reason for withdrawing the books relating to birds, in that those books contain bird names which are no longer acceptable and were written by authors such as Audubon who have been 'cancelled'. This is yet another argument with which I do not agree and I would hope the dwindling collections in the Western Libraries are not further 'weeded' because they contain ideas and names now deemed unacceptable.

Post Script:

   Most of the books related to ornithology were held in the "sciences" library, which is now known as the "Allyn & Betty Taylor Library" (there also was once a separate "Engineering Library." and another one for Medicine.) There continues to be a reason for collecting ornithological research in that the campus now contains the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (see my post, "For The Birds." )

    Professor Noggin's card game would have been collected for aspiring teachers and housed in the Education Library, which also no longer exists and is now the "Wampum Learning Lodge." There is a sizeable collection of children's books in storage, many of them collected for fledgling librarians and held in the library of the Graduate School of Library Science, which also no longer exists (see my earlier posts, "Landmark Books" and "100 Years of Newbery Medals.")

   Perhaps at some point in the future someone writing a history of UWO and Western might be interested in knowing about the richness of the collections held in libraries that have since disappeared. 

    As for the "NAMES" problem, I touched upon it in a post, the title of which hints at my position on the subject - "No More Name Changing". The American Ornithological  Society does not agree. See the "English Bird Names Project" where you will learn that, among other things, "The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people (eponyms), along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada."

   If you are just interested in birds, go back to Cornell and enjoy "All About Birds."

   If you are interested in eagles, such as the one above painted by Fuertes, see:

"Eagle Attacks Child", and "Eagle Update" or read about the Canadian "Eagle Man", Charles Broley. As well, the eagle and some insects are discussed more recently in, "Birds and Bugs." 

The Bonus:

  Someone, who perhaps knew my position regarding the re-naming of everything, sent me this 'bird-day card', which, I admit, weakens it a bit.

W. H. Hudson and the Hail Storm

   We have just had a slight ice storm so I have been inside reading Far Away and Long Ago. In it, there is a description of a devastating hail storm. Hundreds of birds were killed, as were many sheep and even large animals, as well as a child. 

  The passage (provided below) reminded me of a post I did back in May, 2021 (see: Hail Storms.)  From it you will learn that it is predicted that we may begin to experience more, and more damaging, hail storms as a result of climate change. The storm below was witnessed by Hudson as a child, while living on the pampas in Argentina.

It was in sultry summer weather, and towards evening all of us boys

and girls went out for a ramble on the plain, and were about a quarter

of a mile from home when a blackness appeared in the south-west, and

began to cover the sky in that quarter so rapidly that, taking alarm,

we started homewards as fast as we could run. But the stupendous

slaty-black darkness, mixed with yellow clouds of dust, gained on us,

and before we got to the gate the terrified screams of wild birds

reached our ears, and glancing back we saw multitudes of gulls and

plover flying madly before the storm, trying to keep ahead of it. Then

a swarm of big dragon-flies came like a cloud over us, and was gone in

an instant, and just as we reached the gate the first big drops

splashed down in the form of liquid mud. We had hardly got indoors

before the tempest broke in its full fury, a blackness as of night, a

blended uproar of thunder and wind, blinding flashes of lightning, and

torrents of rain. Then as the first thick darkness began to pass away,

we saw that the air was white with falling hailstones of an

extraordinary size and appearance. They were big as fowls' eggs, but

not egg-shaped: they were flat, and about half-an-inch thick, and

being white, looked like little blocks or bricklets made of compressed

snow. The hail continued falling until the earth was white with them,

and in spite of their great size they were driven by the furious wind

into drifts two or three feet deep against the walls of the buildings.

It was evening and growing dark when the storm ended, but the light

next morning revealed the damage we had suffered. Pumpkins, gourds,

and water-melons were cut to pieces, and most of the vegetables,

including the Indian corn, were destroyed. The fruit trees, too, had

suffered greatly. Forty or fifty sheep had been killed outright, and

hundreds more were so much hurt that for days they went limping about

or appeared stupefied from blows on the head. Three of our heifers

were dead, and one horse--an old loved riding-horse with a history,

old Zango--the whole house was in grief at his death! ...

To return to the hailstones. The greatest destruction had fallen on

the wild birds. Before the storm immense numbers of golden plover had

appeared and were in large flocks on the plain. One of our native boys

rode in and offered to get a sackful of plover for the table, and

getting the sack he took me up on his horse behind him. A mile or so

from home we came upon scores of dead plover lying together where they

had been in close flocks, but my companion would not pick up a dead

bird. There were others running about with one wing broken, and these

he went after, leaving me to hold his horse, and catching them would

wring their necks and drop them in the sack. When he had collected two

or three dozen he remounted and we rode back.

Later that morning we heard of one human being, a boy of six, in one

of our poor neighbours' houses, who had lost his life in a curious

way. He was standing in the middle of the room, gazing out at the

falling hail, when a hailstone, cutting through the thatched roof, struck him on the head and killed him instantly.

(From: Far Away and Long Ago, (Eland Books), pp.73-76)

W.H. Hudson & The Western Libraries

The copy of Long Ago and Far Away I am reading is borrowed from the collections in the Western Libraries. Listed below are the books by Hudson found in those libraries in early 2023. There are almost fifty of them and there are some multiple copies of different editions held in various locations and the affiliated libraries. Given that the Western Libraries is getting rid of many books, I thought it worth providing a snapshot of what was a rather rich collection of printed books. I doubt if Hudson was taught about in many courses, but it is fitting that a university library has a surplus of them. Soon, these printed volumes are likely to be scarce on campus, but admittedly the students can read them in electronic form. As well, many of the copies were already in storage so it was unlikely that a curious student would ever have discovered them by browsing.

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. J.M. Dent, 1922. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. Methuen, 1926. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1921. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. E. P. Dutton, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. J.M. Dent, 1951. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons, 1939. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Duckworth, 1927. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. Duckworth, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. AMS Press, 1968.(Storage) 

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1919. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a Childhood in Argentina. Eland Books, 1982. (Weldon)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. 1941. (King’s)

Hudson, W. H., et al. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. Printed by G. Kraft Ltda., 1943. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1945 (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Modern Library, 1916. (Brescia)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. La Tierra purpuréa. Ministerio De Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social, 1965. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Nature in Downland. Longmans, Green, 1906. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1924. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Land's End : a Naturalist's Impressions in West Cornwall. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. Creative Arts Book Co., 1979. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1951. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1944. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1945. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Edward Grey Grey of Fallodon. Dead Man's Plack, An Old Thorn,

& Miscellanea. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Frank E. Beddard. British Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. A Hind in Richmond Park. E.P. Dutton, 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park.1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park. 1922 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. Men, Books and Birds. J. Cape, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H., and R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Birds of La Plata. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

H Spenser, Edmund, and William Henry Hudson. Spenser's Faery Queene. Book I. Dent. (Storage)