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.