THE FIRST BOOK OF LUMBERING

by Louise Dickinson Rich ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 5, 1967

This is not another introduction, aggregate or survey; it is a brief, individualistic history of lumbering in the United States generously endowed with detail, incident and anecdote. Colonial lumbering, every-man's activity, leads off; then into the Maine woods with the post-Revolutionary, newly-professional logger for a long winter of silent meals (at the insistence of the cook) and dangerous log drives (each log branded for later sorting); westward to the Great Lakes area of the 1840's with lumberjacks from Maine, Canada, Scandinavia and necessary innovations (logging in summer, mills running all winter, better camps for better living); way west to the slopes of the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades--different climate, different terrain, different methods (all explained). Mrs. Rich concludes with unexceptionable but unexceptional chapters on lumbering today and forest conservation; the core is the ""notional and fanciful""--as per the lumberjacks--and informed historical narrative, complete to the merchant who sold the newly-moneyed men a vest at the price of the suit he gave away. Solidly technical (cum Tunis) also, this will depend on the librarian to get out of the log jam.

Pub Date: July 5, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Watts

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION