What is Salmon River Books?
Why does it exist?
Who runs this blog?
First--short answers. Then--long discussions.
Salmon River Books is a project with two goals:
1) Compile a bibliography and write reviews of books pertaining to The Salmon River.
2) Showcase and promote public libraries in Stanley, Challis and Salmon.
Why does Salmon River Books exist?
1) To facilitate an understanding of and access to books pertaining to The Salmon River
2) To highlight Salmon River-related collections of libraries in Stanley, Challis & Salmon
Who runs this blog?
John Parsons, a lifelong library lover and book collector from Idaho Falls.
Now for the discussions. Let's start with the blog author, John Parsons. Parsons fell in love with books and libraries as a toddler. He was lucky to have a Mother who revered both books and libraries. His earliest memories are being read to by his Mother and being lead up the many flights of stone stairs into the imposing Carnegie Library in Lafayette, Indiana.
Parsons has served on two committees which organized successful support for bond issues that built new libraries in Flagstaff and Cottonwood, Arizona. His role on the Flagstaff Committee was to research and write the History of the Flagstaff Public Library dating back to the 1880's. On the Cottonwood Committee, he created the campaign motto, "Books Build Futures" and used his experience running for office in four elections to help the committee successfully get out the vote in the middle of a cold winter January.
Parsons believes a public library is a window to the soul of the community which it serves, much as the human eyes are often said to be the window to an individual's soul. People who care about themselves , their Families and their Futures will build, maintain, support and patronize a great library.
One of the reasons Parsons and his wife, Susun, moved to Idaho Falls is because of its wonderful library. Such a beautiful facility clearly shows the people of Idaho Falls care about their community.
Whenever John and Susun visit an unfamiliar city, the very first place they look at is the library.
Salmon River Country has three great libraries, each unique in its own way. One of the primary goals of Salmon River Books is to showcase and promote those three fine public libraries.
But first, let's get back to the first goal of Salmon River Books: "Compile a bibliography and write reviews of books pertaining to The Salmon River."
Isn't there already such a resource out there someplace? Well, the answer to that is both "yes" and "no" and that's really where this idea came from. We believe a bibliography specific to The Salmon River itself would be a very useful resource for both Custer & Lemhi County residents but also the far flung visitors who wash ashore here during the annual boating and fishing seasons.
The scope and context of this bibliography would be rather narrowly defined to non-fiction references relating to The Salmon River watershed, hydrology, geology, history, natural and cultural resources and other aspects of interest.
Although the coverage area of the "Salmon River Idaho" website extends only from Stanley to North Fork, the Salmon River Books project would eventually encompass the entire river and its tributaries.
Hand-in-hand with the bibliography would be the project's review function. We envision this as an ongoing, dynamic collaborative activity initially involving the Librarians in Stanley, Challis and Salmon. Eventually, we envision others becoming involved in the review aspect as well.
If possible, we hope to list each local library's on site collection of Salmon River-related books, as well as to list other places and resources where such books may be viewed, loaned or purchased for private ownership.
We do not view this project as a strictly scholarly endeavor. We would like to design and implement the project so that is is easy-going, user-friendly and proceeds at a pace that's enjoyable and comfortable for all involved. We foresee the project as taking months to begin and years to finish. Most of all, we foresee the project being quite fun for all.
Under the "why" of Salmon River Books, we stated we wish "To facilitate an understanding of and access to books pertaining to The Salmon River."
In our Age of The Internet and Social Media, there are many venues and more potential than ever before to accomplish the above objective. Once the rudiments of a Salmon River bibliography reach critical mass, we believe we will be able to bring about a wide awareness of its availability to local, state and national individuals who may have a curiosity or need to know about such resources.
Finally, from a practical standpoint, this is a very large undertaking that is largely beyond the abilities of a single individual to accomplish. Therefore, we are soliciting initial support from the Librarians and Staff of Stanley, Challis and Salmon to begin this ambitious project.
It is very important to realize there is no timeline or deadline for completion of this project. If it isn't fun, it shouldn't be done. Frankly, we envision this project as a wonderful winter pastime, especially on a snowy day in Idaho or a rainy day in Arizona (where we spend our winters).
We certainly hope this project sparks the imagination and participation of the three keepers of Salmon River Country's public libraries. We would love to work with you over the years to come putting the pieces of this educational and entertaining puzzle together.
Thank You for reading.
Sincerely,
John Parsons
Idaho Falls
john@salmonriveridaho.net
PS--We almost forgot to mention that we see this project as being a commercial and ad free enterprise. We do see the inclusion of promotional material related to the activities and programs of the 3 libraries. We also see that "donation buttons" for each library could be placed within the context of the project. However, we do not want this project to be colored by commercialism or advertising.
Monday, September 3, 2012
A Starting Point
(Editor's Note: We originally began the article below in late May 2012 and posted it as a "Page" on the Salmon River Idaho website. It didn't take long to realize that this was a much larger project than we envisioned. We then decided to begin to work on it during the fall and winter. What you see below is just "A Starting Point" and not necessarily a template for the future.)
Title, author, publisher, date of publication, various editions, LOC # & ISBN #, avg. used value, sources of used copies, review by blog author, review by others as rec'd, relevant excerpts, sources of audio versions and more--whatever more we can think of. Over the years we've read a lot of books relating totally or partly to The Salmon River. It's our hope to list as many of them as time and energy permits.
We WELCOME book reviews by those who have read any or all of the books we feature. Please email us. Our email is embedded on the cover photo of our blog. We don't plan on selling books but we might consider making this also a clearinghouse of Salmon River books people might want to sell, especially the hard-to-find titles and editions. All such ads would be forever free. If you have a rare Salmon book you'd like to see, let us know. Likewise, if you are looking for a particular book, you can put a free notice here. We won't be selling books via click through links to Amazon or any other vendor. Plenty of people already do that. We want this section to be untainted by any hint of commercialism.
Here's the books we recently checked out of the Idaho Falls Public Library. We will start adding their information as the days go by.
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This page will be a forever "work in progress." We decided to start it up today on Memorial day 2012 "just because." We don't have time today to do everything we want to do with these books. Here's what we would like to include:Title, author, publisher, date of publication, various editions, LOC # & ISBN #, avg. used value, sources of used copies, review by blog author, review by others as rec'd, relevant excerpts, sources of audio versions and more--whatever more we can think of. Over the years we've read a lot of books relating totally or partly to The Salmon River. It's our hope to list as many of them as time and energy permits.
We WELCOME book reviews by those who have read any or all of the books we feature. Please email us. Our email is embedded on the cover photo of our blog. We don't plan on selling books but we might consider making this also a clearinghouse of Salmon River books people might want to sell, especially the hard-to-find titles and editions. All such ads would be forever free. If you have a rare Salmon book you'd like to see, let us know. Likewise, if you are looking for a particular book, you can put a free notice here. We won't be selling books via click through links to Amazon or any other vendor. Plenty of people already do that. We want this section to be untainted by any hint of commercialism.
Here's the books we recently checked out of the Idaho Falls Public Library. We will start adding their information as the days go by.
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Title: IDAHO A Guide in Word and Picture
Publisher: Federal Writers' Projects & Oxford, NY, 1950
(NOTE: There is no LCCN or ISBN listed for this book.)
(NOTE: There is no LCCN or ISBN listed for this book.)
This book is a total hoot! It was originally published in 1937. The federal gov't hired hundreds of writers to fan out and describe the 48 states. Although it was a classic "make work" kind of thing back then, those writers left a legacy unparalleled in our country's modern history. We excerpted what the unknown author(s) said about a few portions of The Salmon River. You can read them by clicking here:
One of our favorite classic pieces of purple prose describes Clayton, Idaho, as the writer(s) saw it in the 1930's. (The publication date for the first edition of the book is 1937 but it's likely the field work was done as much as two years beforehand.) OK, here's the Clayton excerpt:
"Clayton...looks as if a flock of terrified buildings had been blown by a strong wind to settle here in the gorge and were still troubled by loneliness and indecision." (1950 edition, Page 191)
This classic book was reprinted in 1950. Apparently, Idaho leadersin the Post War Period felt they needed to update some of the statistics to reflect a progressive state. It's difficult to find first edition copies of any of the "American Guide Series," as they were called upon their completion.
However, it's possible to find copies of the 1950 Idaho edition and every serious Salmon Country aficionado really ought to have a copy of this book on their book shelf (or shelves, as the case may be).
Today, prior to adding this narrative here, we checked ABE Books and scored a copy for a mere $3.97, apparently including shipping. At least one copy is priced as high as $75! Buyer beware. YMMV.
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Title: Land of the Yankee Fork: The Story of the ...
Esther Yarber
Sage Books, Denver, 1963
LCCN: 63:19185
"Land of The Yankee Fork" is an endearing book. We've never actually owned a copy but we've checked it out too many times to remember. You can pick and choose your way through this book. You don't have to start at Page one and read it page-by-page. Open it to any chapter and it's a delightful read. Each of the chapters are stand-alone stories. One of our all-time favorites it entitled "The Lady and the Woodchopper." The entire story barely covers two pages in the 207 page book. The story supposedly takes place in January 1883 when a "working woman" in Custer's red light district was allegedly stealing cash from her intoxicated customers. Basically, the town leaders (such as they were) kicked her out of Custer in the middle of the winter. Since the road to Challis was closed, she offered $100 to any miner who would physically carry her over the snow to Challis. A Norwegian woodchopper came forward and said he would do it for $150. At first the working girl refused calling his price "Robbery!" Well, the big mam informed her the price actually covered two round trips--one for her and one for her trunk. She had no choice so she agreed. When she showed up at daybreak on the appointed day, she was greeted by man with an ordinary kitchen chair strapped to his back. Bystanders helped hoist the woman into the chair and off they went on skiis up the snow-choked road to Challis. They spent the night at the Twelve Mile House and made it to Challis by nightfall the next day. Afterwards, the Norwegian got back to Custer, strapped on her trunk and dutifully delivered it to Challis where he collected his $150. The next day he was back on the job at the General Custer Mine cutting wood for the furnaces there--tired but $150 richer!
As we were preparing to post this narrative we began reading various chapters of the book. We enjoyed the one about Clarence Eddy and noted he wrote "The Pinnacle of Parnassus." We will do a separate review on that book of poems. If you enjoy a good yarn well told, you will enjoy Land of The Yankee Fork. There's enough good yarn in that book to knit a real nice hat and scarf.
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