Oregon Books

The incredible history of the Oregon legislature emerges from this book. Readers learn of the early legislative bodies during Oregon's territorial days and the bitter partisan battles over issues such as slavery and citizenship to racial minorities. We learn of some of the important and often amusing political characters through Oregon's legislative history as well as the effects of such measures as the poll tax and other taxes designed to harm members of racial minorities.
19th century political power in Oregon rested with business leaders representing railroads, utilities, and banks. Readers learn the interesting historical fact that Republican legislative votes were for $4,000 per legislator while Democratic legislative votes went for $3,000 per legislator. As Republicans occupied a higher scale of living, they cost more to bribe.
Still, legislative action was not a given. One entire legislative session ended without a single bill passed.
Some more recent Oregon legislative tales will amuse readers, such as the time an Oregon legislator dropped a bottle of liquid from a railroad effluent line and let the smell fill the House chambers. In another instance, a sleeping legislator had his shoe laces tied to his desk and then was called upon by the Speaker to arise from his desk.
People wishing to learn about life in a state legislature will enjoy this book. It is good to see some people capturing these pieces of history. If we can't learn from the past, we can at least enjoy it, as readers will from this book.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT MY GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER

Lewis & Clark: From The Rockies To The Pacific is a gorgeously illustrated, in-depth account of the famous explorers' journey through the American West. The stunningly beautiful, full-color photography by Robert M. Reynolds of natural landscapes that Lewis and Clark traveled through, are presented side-by-side with a detailed reconstruction by Stephen Dow Beckham of the Lewis & Clark expeditionary journey that often quotes the travelers' journals. Lewis & Clark is an attractive, highly recommended coffee-table book for home, school, and community library American History collections.

While short and sweet, it's a pity this little pamphlet is not more widely available, especially to students, writers, and researchers of anything involving L&C.

This fantastic little booklet reprints the letter that the Captains had left on the coast, and the eventual amazing history of one copy of it! Maybe they weren't 100% sure they'd ever make the trip back?! This is the kind of wonderful "nugget trivia" that had passed by me in reading the Journal itself.

This little pamphlet is focused, of course, on the stay at the coast. Excellent maps are shown, both original and modern. I had not realized, nor ever heard before, what the historical society had actually found in that area, and when. Totally fascinating!

This is the ONLY source I've ever seen that gives the names of numerous rivers and other features, as L&C named them, as the Indians named them, and as they are currently named today!

Highly recommended and very, very valuable!

This is an amazing work, several times larger and more complete than the 1975 edition. The text can be appreciated at many levels, from the amateur to professional. Keys to the major groups, but also descriptions of life histories and behavior. Many beautiful line drawings and some photographs. Worth much more than the price.

I've written a dozen Arcadia books and reviewed dozens more. Arcadia offers the best of both worlds, a simple format that forces the writer to be concise and efficient, but, unfortunately, it also tends to lead the unwitting author down a path away from narrative storytelling. Some authors get stuck moving from picture and caption to picture and caption, never creating a cohesive and readable book from end to end.

David Pinyerd completed his master's thesis on the architecture of the early Coast Guard stations in Oregon, dating back to the days of the United States Life-Saving Service; as such, I can't think of anyone more qualified to write this book. His depth of knowledge on the topic of Oregon's ligthouses and life-saving stations and their architectural styles is unparalleled.

Life-saving stations, as a class, are among the most endangered buildings in America. As they disappear, books like this one will be important as research tools for future historians wanting to know more about the construction techniques used in building the stations, and even the shipwrecks to which the men who served in them responded.

Most importantly, this book does tell a story, of the coast the Life-Saving Service almost forgot, and how the mariners sailing into and out of its ports finally did receive at least some help that could save their lives when storms arose.

+++++

This is a centenary biography that commemorates the hundredth birthday of Dr. Linus Carl Pauling (February 1901 to August 1994). He was the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes.

This book has a number of good features:

(1) THE EDITORS' HONESTY. This slim book, as the editors state in the preface, does not do "complete justice to Linus Pauling's enormous life work" but is intended to give readers an "intriguing taste of his interests and accomplishments."

(2) THE GOOD AND BAD. Be aware that this book not only has contributions from Pauling's friends, colleagues, and former students but also has contributions from his detractors and those who thought he was over-stepping his scientific boundaries.

(3) ARTICLES. This is not your typical narrative biography! It is divided into four parts and the first three parts is a series of articles. (I use the word "article" loosely to mean an essay, a chronology, diary excerpts, interview transcript, public speech transcript, letter, Nobel lecture transcript, book excerpt, journal excerpt, or television transcript.)

Articles are written in the first person by Pauling himself or in the third person by others. Before each article is a small italicized paragraph written by the editors. The purpose of this is to put each article into proper context with respect to time, place, and importance.

(4) THE BOOK'S STRUCTURE. This book has four parts titled as follows:

(i) "The Man." It presents the personal side and overall personality of Pauling. It consists of nine articles, five of which were written by Pauling at various times in his life. Note that Pauling had a wife named Ava Helen and four children.

(ii) "The Science." It details the scientific genius of Pauling. It consists of twelve articles, six written by Pauling. These science articles are not difficult to follow. Pauling won the 1954 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Specifically he won it "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances."

(iii) "The Peace Work." It discusses Pauling's anti-nuclear peace work. It consists of six articles, all of them written by Pauling. Pauling won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to end open-air testing of nuclear weapons."

(iv) "Facets." It gives us various brief snippets of Pauling in the form of historical reminiscences or short anecdotes not only written by Pauling but by others (such as family members, friends, and colleagues). There are over forty of these that were written or said during his lifetime or after his death.

(5) PICTURES. Over eighty are peppered throughout the book. When I say pictures, I mean black-and-white photographs; sketches; and reproduced, readable notes, manuscripts, letters, and textbook covers. There's even a reproduction of the Paulings' famous and controversial nuclear weapon's petition!

(6) MARGINALIA. In the margins of the book, there are short anecdotes (shorter than those mentioned in the "Facets" section above). These are based on taped interviews with colleagues and contemporaries. There are over thirty of these scattered throughout the book.

(7) BIBLIOGRAPHY. Finally there is a useful selected bibliography. It consists of a significant list of articles written by Pauling and important books written by him. (My favorite book written by him is entitled "How to Live Longer and Feel Better" (1986).) There is also a list of books and articles written about Pauling.

One of my favorite articles was in the science part. This article details the race to find the structure of DNA. According to Pauling, Dr. Rosalind Franklin's scientific work and X-ray photographs (which he never had access too) were the key that unlocked DNA's double helix structure.

In conclusion, if you want a multi-dimensional portrait of a two-time Nobel Prize winner who was the recipient of numerous awards and medals and, as well, for those who want a unique reading experience where you can form your OWN picture of this brilliant man, then peruse this fascinating book.

+++++

My mother checked this book out from our library when I was recovering from surgery at age 5. It was so good I remembered it all the years but unfortunately it was out of print when my son was young. Caxton Printers recently reissued it !! Good for them - the books they reissued in this series are great.

Another book I purchased as my professor wouldn't let this book leave the laboratory. Any book with Bruce McCune listed as author is an investment. This quality book is great for the field; not heavy and just the right size for a backpack. The photographs are very representative of in-field specimens in the NW - making it nice to ID a lichen without having to take it back to the lab. Having a degree in plant ID is not required for this book. The book also has a great glossary complete with illustratons.

I received this book after attending Rick Schafer's workshop a few years back and have learned so much from it. The illustrations are so beautiful and really show how wonderful the Oregon Coast is. I have returned many times to photograph it myself since the book is inspiring. Rick has a trained eye that matches no other. If you want to see Oregon's beauty or just want a coffee table book that takes you away this is the one to buy!