BOOKS Grays Harbor, 1885-1913, by Robert A. Weinstein (New York, Penguin Books, 1978, 190 pp., illus., $7 .95). This book presents a spectacular collection of photographs taken between 1885 and 1913 in the rugged Grays Harbor region on the coast of Washington State. Most of the photographs, on plate glass negatives, were taken by Charles R. Pratsch of Aberdeen, Washington . A few were made by Colin S. McKenzie, whom Pratsch introduced to photography, and some were taken by Jesse 0 . Stearns. A few have not been identified, but all were collected in the Pratsch Art Gallery, in Aberdeen. After Pratsch died in 1937, the negatives passed to his youngest son, Fred V. Pratsch. In July 1971 they were purchased for the library of Washington State University by Earle Connette, then Chief of the Manuscript-Archives Division of the library. Robert A. Weinstein, former graphics editor of American West magazine and art director of the Quarterly of the California Historical Society, has used 266 of the photographs, organized into four chapters: ''The Harbor and the Rivers" "The Towns and the Life," "The Dark Woods," and "The Ships on the Harbor." We encounter first, in "Harbors and
Rivers,'' sturdy tugboats, log booms, some sternwheel steamers, and the tallmasted ships, lumber schooners that came to Grays Harbor to load at the mills. Describing the harbor Weinstein calls it "that wet, insect-ridden confluence of five rivers." One wonders whether he would have written with more feeling for the region, if he had grown up there, and attended one of its one-room log schools. Certainly most of the robust individuals in the photographs had come to the region from elsewhere. They frequently expressed the opinion that this was "the best damned country to be found anywhere," and if they hadn't thought so, self-reliant souls that they were, they would have rolled their blankets and moved on! In two photographs of "Towns And Town Life," we find the famous Captain Ralph (Matt) Peasley, who commanded the schooner Vigilant for many years and was the prototype of rugged Matt Peasley in the Cappy Ricks books by Peter B. Kyne. Shipping on the Northwest Coast was always closely allied to logging, because ships from all over the world came to the Northwest to load lumber. In the chapter headed "The Dark Woods" are some of the finest logging pictures to be found
anywhere. They cover the period of logging with ox-team, and extend through the era of the steam donkey engine. Here are the big trees and the men who felled them, the skidroads, log chutes, logging camps and humming lumber mills. Mr. Weinstein, however, is more at home among ship pictures than among logging pictures. He writes of choppers when he means fallers and once mentions mule skinners when the animals pictured are oxen. The drivers stand near the teams, leaning on the long sticks with which they prodded the oxen to keep them moving. The slang name for them, instead of mule skinners, was "bull stickers" or "bull whackers." These minor details will only bother readers who have grown up in logging country, however. They detract nothing from the excellence of the photographs and the artistry of the layout. The last 35 pages of the book, moreover, are devoted to shipbuilding, launchings, steam schooners, famous windjammers at the docks, loading operations, and towboats: here Mr. Weinstein's deep mastery of his subject shines. ROLAND CAREY Mr. Carey, historian of the Steamer Virginia V Foundation, has explored and written widely on the history of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up.
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"Imaginative in conception, handsome in design, and satisfying in range and depth of material ... " Publishers Weekly '' ... combines marine art and literature, matching eac!J. page of poetry or prose with an appropriate illuatration. '' Bay & Delta Yachtsman " ... there isn't a medio1cre piece in the anthology, nor a bad illustration .. .. " The Houston Post
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1979