Talking on Paper

by Shannon Applegate

The letters and diaries in this book reveal a personal side of the State's literature. Many of these documents, rescued from the archives and attics of Oregon, are published here for the first time.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

324 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terence O'Donnell (whose fine short history of Oregon, That Balance So Rare, I recommend) also a.generation ago, with pioneer descendent Shannon Applegate, combined to scour archives, seek out local "characters," and in her case, travel about with a hundred-foot extension cord and a "portable" photocopy machine to gather the diaries, letters, and recollections (one "eccentric" recorded his odd routines of Ovaltine and perusing Tolstoy, on paper one-and-a-half by three-odd inches) of those on both the "Westside" of the more populated, fertile, and familiar Cascades and its dry, vast "Eastside."

The editors merit commendation for their months of dogged effort. Their project reminded men of that in my family's lore, when the Irish government sent out scholars to cull legends, oral testimonies and "just-so" stories from schoolchildren and elders alike in hamlets across the countryside in 1930s.

Or the WPA endeavors during the Depression. Applegate and O'Donnell unearth the stolid and the scurillious, rhe expected recitals of contact with the natives, the settlers and soldiers, farmers and merchants. Closer attention shows nuance. The Chinese hired hands, who call their employers and enemy "barbarians." A teacher who laments her having to poison rabbits infesting her ranch. A nun suffering spiritual dryness, a Mexican girl facing terminal cancer, a C.O. in a WWII-era fire-trail camp. Greek and Basque immigrants, a Portland "bluestocking" yearning for meaning gleaned from George Eliot's journals. trappers weary of chow, teens eager for play, brides surprised by rural tedium.

A small lapse: while each entry gets a biographical blurb and context, there's no annotations. So when an old codger complains about a '68 influx of hippies into his remote outpost, he also notes the return of "face flies." Is this slang for tourists? Or a sudden plague of insects, which never buzzed before there? Some terminology also escapes the grasp of at least this citified critic, yours truly, admittedly...

[Kathleen (itpdx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful and interesting collection of excerpts from diaries and letters from visitors and residents of Oregon. The editors, Shannon Applegate and Terence O’Donnell, have selected wonderful pieces of our history and written succinct bios of the authors. I enjoyed very much.