THE BATTLE OF THE SIERRAS

by Richard Aldrich Summers ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1943

Adult books and movies have already made familiar the drama of driving that gold spike which linked our first transcontinental railroad. But boys and girls will still enjoy reading about the building of the western section of the line. Mark Hopkins, Huntington, Stanford and Crocker, ""The big four""; early use of Nobel's invention, nitroglycerin; the problems of Chinese and immigrant Irish labor; and the effect of the Civil War -- all these become part of an engrossing story of a young Connecticut farmer's adventures as a foreman who helped to achieve the ""impossible"" feat of laying tracks over the Sierra mountains. The illustrations are all in the last signature and end-papers -- eight black and white drawings full of action. An interesting experiment, this. They make a good ""come on"" perhaps, but personally I believe young readers would prefer to have the pages broken by pictures scattered through the volume.

Pub Date: April 15, 1943

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1943

Categories: FICTION