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About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1947)
15 a trading post to be called Astoria. There is plenty of adventure and ex citement before the story is done. The voyage of the Tonquin to Hawaii and the Sandwich Islands, its return to the U. S. in storm and fear of a mad cap tain, and attacks by the Indians make good reading. Through it all tuns the romance of' Mark Denny and India de Chambard, the woman without a country. The trek over the Qregon Trail in the 18 5 0’s is the theme of Archie Binns’ The Land Is Bright. It is a colorful dra matic account of the never-ending search for a newer and better land in which the reader identifies himself with the girl from Iowa and the boy from The Bridge of the Gods by F- H . Kentucky. The hardships seem endless, Balch, was w ritten in 1890 and was but there are also scenes of gaiety to'be one of the first novels about the Ore remembered. Perhaps symbolic of a gon Indians. Mt. Balch visited the In bright future is the little apple tree diansin their homes, heard their legends ; which survived the long journey. and watched their games. From them These are but a few of the many he learned that there was once a great books about Oregon. The Oregon State natural bridge which spanned the Co Library has compiled a list "Read About lombia. According to tradition it was Oregon” which is<-free to the citizens destroyed by ah eârthquakè. Around o fth is s ta te and may be obtained from this tradition he bhij^his romance. Mr. the State "Library in Salem. Balch worked on the manuscript for Books mentioned in this article-?— two years before j 'he thought it good Balch, F.‘ H., Bridge of the. Gods, Mc enough to submit to a publisher. The Clurg 1902, $2,BO; Binns, A., The Land book made many trips to publishers and Is Bright,: Scribner 1939, $2.50.; Jones, was steadily rejected. A t last, and con N., Swift Flows the River, Dodd 1940, siderably to the author’s surprise, it was $2.50; McKay, A., They Came tq ,a accepted by A. C. McClurg. The first River, Macmillan 1941, $2.75; Sperry, edition off® 0(b copies gained favorable A., N o Brighter G l o r y , Macmillan attention. Ten years later the publish 1942, $2.75. ers spoke w ith satisfaction of its steady sale. Bridge of the Gods has now reached DEDICATION: its tw enty-ninth edition and is still a TO SUMMER VACATIONS '‘steady’’ in reading and sale. My work just worried me today "This is not a historical novel. It is So that' I couldn’t do my best,, , a novel which uses certain events of U ntil I liafd this lovely thought— history to serve the ends of the charac The world càn stand it, if I rest! ters who are, for the most part, entirely —Borrowed itçra. Salem Y W C A imaginary.” Thus reads the introduc M onthly Bulletin. tion to Armstrong Sperry’s, N o Brighter Glory. Mark Denny, M.D., was sum You can get out of life only what moned to John Jacob Astor’s office in Manhattan one day in 1810. He was you put into it. So now you know the difference between life' and the laundry. invited to join an expedition to the — Dublin Opinion. wilderness of thé Columbia R iver, and country of the Washington side of the Columbia. The tinte is 1900-1920. The historical is subordinated to thè char acters!. Chris, daughter of a minister, who was also postmaster and ferryman, grew up loving the Columbia and the country. She married a young rancher, brought up her family and became or-' chard manager after her husband’s death. The book closes wijth Chris’s sec ond marriage. While she is the main character, there are many others whose lives intertwined with hers. The spot light finds each in turn. Their fortunes intermingle until they become thé val-, ley people who- have staked their lives upon success , in virgin territory.
