FAR CORNER: A Personal View of the Pacific Northwest

by Stewart Holbrook ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

There's tremendous zest and vitality to Stewart Holbrook's writing -- and it seems singularly suited to the Northwest which he has made so wholly his own. This is first rate regional reporting, though not a book for casual traveler. The focus is on the aspects of the Northwest that give it its arresting character, its persuasive frontier spirit, its tingling aliveness. Portland and Seattle have no greater share in this than remote and relatively unknown spots that tourists never visit. There's much of the industries that have built the Northwest -- with lumbering the greatest of them all. But almost nothing of the romance of the salmon or the lure of the rivers and lakes and streams. The grandeur of the scenery comes in for its due, but the particular fascination of the Rain Forests, the breath taking beauty of the Puget Sound, the sharp contrasts of which one is aware in flying through the Northwest are left for the traveler to find out for himself. The things he has no chance to learn are here to read:- the man-made myths and legends, the gamble of the railroads that made and broke cities and regions, the boom and bust of mining hopes, the cooperative community enterprises that had their brief glory, the violence of nature, as in the Heppner flood of 1903. Picturesque aspects, the exaggeration that is essentially American, the eccentricities that add to its flavor -- these are the things about the Northwest that he explores and shares. But through the pages, a richer sense of what is still an outpost region are given to the readers. While the bulk of the market will be in the Northwest, anyone interested in a very personal approach to regional writing will find this rewarding reading. Let's hope it comes in for some drastic editing before April to cut out the repetitions and the careless journalese.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1952

Categories: NONFICTION