What do you think?
Rate this book
Once Upon a Time: The Way America Was
"This book is about once-upon-a-time in America." — Eric Sloane. Writer and artist Eric Sloane had an abiding love for America and worked throughout a long and productive life to capture the American spirit in word and picture.
The America Sloane loved was rooted in the simple virtues of our native soil: love of freedom, respect for the individual, sensible frugality, and determined self-reliance — all of which went to make up what Sloane perceived as our true American heritage.
Nowhere is this heritage more amply portrayed than in the work and ways of the early Americans in our pioneer days. In this book you will listen to Sloane's talk of home and hearth, farm and field, and see all manner of tooks, utensils, buildings and rural scenes rendered in his finely detailed and lively drawings.
A visit to America of "once-upon-a-time" brings us home to a land whose pioneer spirit endures, even amid the rapid and radical changes of our times
The America Sloane loved was rooted in the simple virtues of our native soil: love of freedom, respect for the individual, sensible frugality, and determined self-reliance — all of which went to make up what Sloane perceived as our true American heritage.
Nowhere is this heritage more amply portrayed than in the work and ways of the early Americans in our pioneer days. In this book you will listen to Sloane's talk of home and hearth, farm and field, and see all manner of tooks, utensils, buildings and rural scenes rendered in his finely detailed and lively drawings.
A visit to America of "once-upon-a-time" brings us home to a land whose pioneer spirit endures, even amid the rapid and radical changes of our times
64 pages, Paperback
Published August 23, 2005
244 people want to read
About the author
Eric Sloane
100 books58 followersEric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) was an American landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore. He is considered a member of the Hudson River School of painting.
Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.
In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.
Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.
Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.
Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.
Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.
In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.
Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.
Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.
Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.
Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 25, 2022
Our Term 2 Citizenship book. We all loved this one and it was excellent!! A definite must read.
February 7, 2018
Another amazing book with great illustrations/drawings by Eric Sloan. Very strong message for today’s generation! Love the values of godliness, hard work, frugality, home and family! Quick but enjoyable read! Highly recommended!
January 15, 2019
This book definitely takes you back to a different era in American history. One that was in many ways much simpler and personally rewarding. Eric Sloane combines his excellent drawings with historical details into a great coffee-table read.
September 20, 2021
Got this in the mail today, and it looked like a quick read, so I burned through a chapter every hour or so between chores and school work.
This book makes some good points.
There are moments that are a bit too conservative for my taste. The last chapter discusses religion in early America.
This is a book where the past is glorified. There were some great lessons we can learn from the past, and Sloan covers a few in this book. That’s what makes this work shine.
But then there are times where Sloane is just ranting based on limited anecdotal evidence, and it starts sounding like a romanticized version of America that quite possibly never existed.
It is still a very enjoyable book for people who have respect and admiration for simpler times, self-reliance, and history.
This book makes some good points.
There are moments that are a bit too conservative for my taste. The last chapter discusses religion in early America.
This is a book where the past is glorified. There were some great lessons we can learn from the past, and Sloan covers a few in this book. That’s what makes this work shine.
But then there are times where Sloane is just ranting based on limited anecdotal evidence, and it starts sounding like a romanticized version of America that quite possibly never existed.
It is still a very enjoyable book for people who have respect and admiration for simpler times, self-reliance, and history.
June 1, 2014
An interesting read from a historical perspective. The information was very intriguing. Learning about ways of living in colonial America was different that I expected. The one down side I find is that all the chapters (I think they were articles before, put into one book) are opinion based, and come off a little preachy about the things that we're missing out on. Worth the read though.
June 14, 2022
"The spirits and habits of yesterday become more difficult to apply to modern everyday life. You never could grow pumpkins on Main Street but the whole nation is becoming a vast Main Street. The American heritage, however, is a lot more than yesterday's pumpkins or romantic nostalgia, and if we can only mark time with our scientific progress long enough to let the old morals and spirits catch up, we shall be all the better for it. The heritage of godliness, the love of hard work, frugality, respect for home and all the other spirits of pioneer countrymen, are worth keeping forever. What we do today will soon become once upon a time for the Americans of tomorrow and their heritage is our present day responsibility."
Eric Sloane spent his life (1905-1985) writing about, drawing, and painting America's past. This brief book is one of his last, published a couple of years before his death. And within a few sentences, the voice of a disgruntled old man can distinctly be heard. That voice could be found from time to time in all his books, but he far more often wanted to describe the past for modern readers rather than grumble about the present.
He was an artist more so than a scholar or formal historian. He rarely thought about why life has changed. In the hands of an historian, a once-upon-a-time book would surely have offered deeper thoughts to the reader.
It's worth noting that Sloane married seven times. Once upon a time in America such behavior was unheard of. Indeed Sloane's own modern day life was worth a grumbled comment or two.
Eric Sloane spent his life (1905-1985) writing about, drawing, and painting America's past. This brief book is one of his last, published a couple of years before his death. And within a few sentences, the voice of a disgruntled old man can distinctly be heard. That voice could be found from time to time in all his books, but he far more often wanted to describe the past for modern readers rather than grumble about the present.
He was an artist more so than a scholar or formal historian. He rarely thought about why life has changed. In the hands of an historian, a once-upon-a-time book would surely have offered deeper thoughts to the reader.
It's worth noting that Sloane married seven times. Once upon a time in America such behavior was unheard of. Indeed Sloane's own modern day life was worth a grumbled comment or two.
September 30, 2025
Fantastic book! A great reminder about what life was like in the 1700 and 1800's and the incredible ingenuity that people had that allowed them to make things on their own and to reuse things without throwing them away. I will definitely be looking up other books by this author.
August 27, 2020
read it. apply it. be happy.
January 3, 2023
Good material but not much of it.
August 7, 2024
Quick read but a great one! Very inspiring. I look forward to applying some of these old techniques, traditions and nuggets of wisdom into my life.
January 1, 2025
This is a good book to start 2025, with a look back at America's past.
March 8, 2017
I feel grateful to have discovered this artist/author. In such a beautiful and simple way he teaches the reader what the American spirit is and how that heritage was preserved through the every day living of farmers and early American pioneers. Children will learn the true value of farming, a dying art, that they never before considered. This book inspires me and reignites the flame of desire to build a homestead.
May 19, 2016
This is basically a different version of The Diary of an Early American Boy, with a little less detail and a lot more preaching... literal preaching by the end.
I didn't care for this much, it's one thing to be nostalgic or to romanticize an era, it's another to do so in a such a naive and short sighted fashion.
I would definitely recommend "Diary" over this, it was more informational, this felt more like a short book intended to bludgeon you with the author's idea of the way things should be. I've got two more Sloane books sitting in my stack right now (possibly three). If they are like this one I'll never make it through.
I didn't care for this much, it's one thing to be nostalgic or to romanticize an era, it's another to do so in a such a naive and short sighted fashion.
I would definitely recommend "Diary" over this, it was more informational, this felt more like a short book intended to bludgeon you with the author's idea of the way things should be. I've got two more Sloane books sitting in my stack right now (possibly three). If they are like this one I'll never make it through.
June 17, 2019
Fairly short, with the usual excellent Sloane drawings and nostalgic commentary. Consider this an introduction to his work. It might make you want to explore more.
November 19, 2025
For those who love Americana, this book is a treasure.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews