The recommended books sound wonderful. Thanks. I will start with the Stegner.
I recommend taking a look at "West Coast Journeys 1865-1879" by Caroline Leighton. It was originally published as "Life at Puget Sound" in 1883. I am fortunate enough to have an original copy. Leighton was a well-educated woman from Boston, traveling with her husband who was the first federal collector of customs in the Washington and Oregon Territories. Initially, she does not have children and is free to travel, observe, and journal. Her tone is compassionate and nonjudgmental. It was a rare enough perspective in those times as she is simply interested in all that she sees and experiences and is not there to take something or convert anyone. She meets and comments on people we now know of through historical references. You'll find that the places that she travels may not have the same names as they do today. Have a map at the ready! Eventually her husband is transferred to San Francisco where they live for some time. Her descriptions of the lives of the Chinese people working in the community are insightful and tender.
I'd recommend anything by Saskatchewan writer Trevor Herriot.
Thanks. I'll look into his writing.
This book has stayed with me for decades. “This Place on Earth; Home and the Practice of Permanence”
Thx.
Fun post. Basso’s book opened for me a new way of thinking about relation to place and our stories in those places.
Fiction - Mink River by the late great Brian Doyle. Western Oregon fishing/logging town.
Yes, Mink River is one of my favorites, too.
Grateful for your suggestion of Stegner, I'd recommend "How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom From a Life Lived in Nature" by Marc Hamer.
Thx.
The recommended books sound wonderful. Thanks. I will start with the Stegner.
I recommend taking a look at "West Coast Journeys 1865-1879" by Caroline Leighton. It was originally published as "Life at Puget Sound" in 1883. I am fortunate enough to have an original copy. Leighton was a well-educated woman from Boston, traveling with her husband who was the first federal collector of customs in the Washington and Oregon Territories. Initially, she does not have children and is free to travel, observe, and journal. Her tone is compassionate and nonjudgmental. It was a rare enough perspective in those times as she is simply interested in all that she sees and experiences and is not there to take something or convert anyone. She meets and comments on people we now know of through historical references. You'll find that the places that she travels may not have the same names as they do today. Have a map at the ready! Eventually her husband is transferred to San Francisco where they live for some time. Her descriptions of the lives of the Chinese people working in the community are insightful and tender.
Sorry for a late response, but: Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals; Harry Beston, The Outermost House; Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain
I adored Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, one of the first place-based books I read. Thanks for your suggestion of Keith Basso.