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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2020)
BOOKMONGER Revisiting vintage Northwest literature MADDOX D ance S tudio Home of North Coast Dance Center little ballet theatre 503-861-1971 389 South Main Avenue Warrenton, OR www.maddoxdancers.com maddoxdancers@opusnet.com 22 // COASTWEEKEND.COM Hammond Kennels THE ONLY DRIVE THRU COFFEE SHOP ON THE SOUTH SLOPE OF ASTORIA We provide a comfortable and caring environment for your pets! Boarding • Grooming Training • Pet Supplies 503-861-1601 • 1050 Pacific Drive Hammond, OR www.hammondkennels.net 632 W. Marine Drive, Astoria at Smith Point Peter Donahue of Winthrop, Washing- ton, is not only a novelist, he’s a literary historian. From 2005 to 2018, Donahue researched and wrote 55 columns on early authors of the Pacifi c Northwest. These “Retrospective Reviews” were published by Columbia Magazine, a quarterly publi- cation of the Washington State Historical Society. The bulk of the columns have been brought together and published in the new paperback “Salmon Eaters to Sagebrushers.” The book’s evocative title derives from the late Nard Jones’ brash declaration of identity in the middle of the last century. Born in Washington state, Jones spent nearly a decade of his youth in Oregon, then worked as a news correspondent in Walla Walla, Washington, and later as an editorial writer in Seattle. “I remain unregenerate, a Salmon Eater, an Apple Knocker, a Rain Wor- shipper, a Sagebrusher, and a Whistle Punk from the Big Woods. In brief, a Pacifi c Northwesterner,” he declared. Jones was also a prolifi c writer of fi c- tion. Over his career he saw a dozen of his novels published, along with hundreds of short stories. Jones wrote in exacting detail about wheat farmers and steamboat pilots, loggers and old-style gumshoes. He painted vivid word-pictures of the Colum- bia River before it was dammed and the city of Seattle before it had the Space Needle. And yet — how many people are aware of Jones’ impressive legacy today? This is where Donahue comes in — refreshing the memory of vintage works of Northwest literature. Not all of them are high-brow, but they are nonetheless potent conveyors of earlier times and man- ners, and industries that gradually ceded to other ways of life. In these pieces, Donahue focuses exclu- sively on works that have gone out of print. For every author Donahue profi les, he supplies a substantial passage from This Week’s Book “Salmon Eaters to Sagebrushers” By Peter Donahue Washington State University Press — 268 pp — $26.95 one of their works. And despite the fact that these story fragments are at least half a century old, they vibrate with pent-up energy. We’re drawn back into a world where suffragists fi ght for women’s rights. Fire lookouts scan the horizon for smoke. Orchardists and wheat growers fret about their crops. Lightship crew members han- ker for shore leave while tending to their repetitive chores on a ship that remains anchored just off the coast. Lest we think we are the fi rst genera- tion to consider the diversity of the soci- ety we live in, Donahue can point you to the empathetic works of Patricia Camp- bell, Christine Quintasket (Mourning Dove), and Alan Hart, who was a medical researcher-turned-novelist and a transgen- der male. Even Zola Ross, known for her histor- ical romances, did not whitewash reali- ties such as the region’s racist mobs who forcefully expelled Chinese residents. Labor issues, industrialization, encroaching development — all of these were dealt with by earlier generations of writers and consumed by earlier genera- tions of readers. Now offered as a compilation, these essays reveal a sameness of format that probably wasn’t obvious when read as originally intended. That’s a minor quibble easily dealt with — take your time in read- ing them. The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who writes this weekly col- umn focusing on the books, authors and publishers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Con- tact her at bkmonger@nwlink.com.
