A Brand New Collection at our Library!
These books—and some magazines and ephemera, of which more later—were purchased from local collector, Dody Yaccarino, with a donation from Laura Hauser in name of her friend, author Mary B. Buford, and some added funds. The prize of the group is the last one, Fifty Years in Oregon. According to local expert David Weaver, it has the first photo ever in Wallowa Country, a photo of Wallowa Lake taken in 1875—before the Nez Perce left! David points out that in Geer’s narrative he fails to even mention the Indians, when we know that in 1875 there were some serious troubles brewing!
I will also mention In the Wallowas, the first book on the list. It is a novel—a romantic novel written by a woman raised in Wallowa County, I believe in Divide Country, who was married to a professor at Rochester University. She wrote several children’s plays, and at least one other novel, Youth of Color, described thus: “A novel about a French girl of unsuspected black ancestry at Oberlin College who rejects the attentions of a young black music professor because of his color… A very uncommon novel on an interracial subject.” That book was published in 1951, and a rare copy of it can be had for $150 now! In the Wallowas first editions in good condition are about $50. (Ours is not in good condition, but it is all here.) I think Thomason was someone who promoted civil rights and felt horrible about the Indian history of her own home, so wrote a novel more along the lines she would have liked that history to be. There are accurate accounts of some events—e.g., Joseph’s last visit—but her Nez Perce protagonist goes to college at Whitman, comes back to the Wallowas to marry and set up shop, translates for Joseph, etc.
Will just note a couple of other things about the collection, The Pollack book is kind of an odd duck with its psychological theories, but is based on letters home from the Nez Perce War. The geology book is a rare one, and the book for children is based on the Spaldings in Idaho—first missionaries among the Nez Perce, who had the first printing press in the NW, and published the first book in the country.
In the Wallowas, Caroline Wasson Thomason, Exposition Press, 1954, First, but library used
Chief Looking Glass, John W. Evans, an essay published as a pamphlet in 1983.
Oregon: Her History; Her Great Men; Her Literature, John B, Horner, War edition, 1919
Northwest Nature Trails: A Natural History of Oregon and Washington, Herbert Sheldon Lampman, Ilustrated by Quincy Scott, Sponsored by the Oregon State Game Commission, Metropolitan Press, Portland, 1933
The Geology of Part of the Wallowa Mountains, C.P. Ross, State of Oregon, Dept of Geology and Mineral Industries w US Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 3. 1938
Wilderness Tales and Trails, Wayne Negus, Maverick, 1990
Bits of Wallowa County Lore, Claudia Killough, Wallowa County Chieftain, 1971.
The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman, Little Brown, 1904
The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman, Introduction by Mark Van Doren, Illustrated by James Daugherty, Farrar and Rinehart, 1931
Historic Oregon, Philip H. Parrish, Macmillan Co., 1938
Fellers and Things: A Collection of Crude, Rough and Rude Rhymes of a Past and a Fast Passing Generation, Ben Weathers, Wallowa County Chieftain, 1960 (author’s inscription).
Road South, W.S. Caverhill, The College Press, College Place, Wash (Sponsored by Oregon Fibre Products, Inc., and Pilot Rock Lumber Co., 1955. (A promo book for wood fiber used on cover; contents from Pilot Rock News articles by author.)
Stories of Oregon, Eva Anderson, Dean Collins, Illus by Paul Keller, University Publishing Company, 1949, 1943 (stories for young readers)
Black Rock: A Tale of the Selkirks, Ralph Conner, Grosset and Dulap, no date
Black Rock: A Tale of the Selkirks, Ralph Conner, The Federal Book Company, no date
Grandfather, Chief Joseph and Psychodynamics, Robert W. Pollock, M.D., Caxton Printers, 1964, based on letters from Pollock’s grandfather, Captain Robert Pollock, from the Nez Perce War to his family at Fort Vancouver.
The Story of Wallowa Lake, Grace Bartlett, 1967
Cultural Resource Management Field Survey Planning and Procedures Manual, with Abbreviated Check List: North zone, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Prepared by Cultural Resource Management, HCNRA, 1990
The Secret of the Wallowa Cave, T.S. Easton, Metropolitan Press, Portland 1934 (this is a Xerox copy of the rare original. Easton was one-time superintendent of Flora school.)
Thunder Hill, by Gendolen Hayden and Pearl Gishler, Intro by Clifford Drury, Binford and Mort, Portland, 1947 (fictionalized account of Henry and Eliza Spalding for young readers.)
Wagons West: 1843-Old Oregon Trail Centennial-1943, State of Oregon, Executive
Dept.
A History of the Joseph Methodist Church 1889-1959, Marjorie E. Truchon, Printed at WC Chieftain, 1957
Fifty Years in Oregon: Experiences, Observations and Commentaries upon Men, Measures, and Customs of Pioneer Days and Later Times, T.T. Geer (Formerly Governor of Oregon, and one of her native sons), Neale Publishing Company, New York, 1012. Inscription: “J.H. Horner Presented to me by Mrs. Mbel E. McClain of the History Department of the University of Oregon, Eugene.” [signed] J.H. Horner. This is a first edition, and it contains the first known photograph of the Wallowa Country, 1875 photo of Wallowa Lake. David Weaver (Wallowa History Center, authority for the photo history. He also points out that the travelers came into the country even as there was great unrest among Indians and white settlers, but that no mention is made of the affairs in the book, which chronicles a serene camping trip.