Seeking St. Louis: Voices from a River City, 1670-2000

by Lee Ann Sandweiss (Editor)

Complementing the new permanent exhibition at the Missouri Historical Society, this anthology gathers over three centuries of writings on St. Louis by 100 individuals who have been inspired to describe the physical and cultural essence of this region. The volume contains excerpted selections from all genres—travel diaries, poetry, fiction, journalism, drama, and rare out-of-print and previously unpublished archival material—including poems by Angus Umphraville, from the first volume of verse published west of the Mississippi, and newspaper articles by Theodore Dreiser when he was a beat reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Other compelling excerpts were authored by such notables as Auguste Chouteau, Charles Dickens, William Wells Brown, William T. Sherman, Sara Teasdale, T. S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, Fanny Hurst, William S. Burroughs, Miles Davis, Nzotake Shange, John Lutz, Carl Phillips, and Quincy Troupe. A biographical introduction precedes each entry to place the author and the excerpt in the proper historical context. The content of Seeking St. Louis was enriched by the involvement of several of the St. Louis area's foremost literary experts—Robert Boyd, Jan Garden Castro, Gerald Early, Wayne Fields, and Karen Goering—who served as contributing editors.

Genres: History

1088 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Suzanne Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Lee Ann Sandweiss. Ms Sandweiss has compiled a comprehensive overview of material spanning the entire history of St Louis (well, until the year 2000). There are essays, short stories and novel excerpts. There are republished newspaper features and even a few poems. It is an interesting way to learn St. Louis history, from first hand accounts of the people who were there.