The Rivers of America Series is a landmark series of books on American rivers, for the most part written by literary figures rather than historians. The series spanned three publishers and thirty-seven years.
The Rivers of America Series started in 1937 with the publication of Kennebec: Cradle of Americans by Robert P. Tristram Coffin, and ended in 1974 with the publication of The American: River of El Dorado by Margaret Sanborn.
Constance Lindsay Skinner initially conceived the series. She was also the first series editor. Skinner wrote an essay that was included in early volumes of the series in which she describes it as follows:
"This is to be a literary and not a historical series. The authors of these books will be novelists and poets. On them, now in America, as in all lands and times, rests the real responsibility of interpretation. If the average American is less informed about his country than any other national, knows and cares less about its past and about its present in all sections but the one where he resides, it is because books prepared for his instruction were not written by artists." [1]
Skinner's unique vision extended to twenty-four volumes, but the series proved so popular that sixty-five volumes were eventually published over a 37-year period. [2]
The publisher, Farrar & Rinehart, shepherded the project through four editors, and the publisher's evolution to Rinehart & Company and later Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The editors of the series were Constance Lindsay Skinner, who died at her desk editing the sixth volume in the series, Carl Carmer, who wrote the sixth volume in the series, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Hervey Allen. [2] Associate editors were Elizabeth L. Gilman and Jean Crawford. The art editors were Ruth E. Anderson, Faith Ball, Benjamin Feder, Philip Fiorello and Lawrence S. Kamp. [2]
The sixty-five books included in the series represent a wide cross section of writers and illustrators. The series' editors sought out poets, novelists, historians, and illustrators to produce a product that would be a literary sketch rather than a historical tome. For the most part, the editors were successful in bringing the folk life of America alive through the lens of the flowing of America's rivers.
The series includes the first book illustrated by Andrew Wyeth, The Brandywine; Marjory Stoneman Douglas' The Everglades: River of Grass which successfully focused public attention on the plight of the Everglades; Paul Horgan's Great River: The Rio Grande in America History, considered the definitive study of the early Southwest; and poet Edgar Lee Masters' The Sangamon.
The series represents one of the finest long-term efforts by a publisher to blend the talents of both writers and artists to present a tribute to the rivers that played such a vital role in the development of America. A testament to the editors' outstanding work is the fact that many of these volumes continue to be reprinted and the original editions are now considered highly collectible.
On April 9 and 10, 1997, a group of Rivers of America authors and illustrators were brought together by the Library of Congress to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the series. The Library of Congress published an Information Bulletin highlighting the celebration on June 7, 1997. [3]
The first edition, first printings of the series were denoted by a colophon on the copyright page until 1960. The colophon consisted of either FR (1937–1946) or R (1946–1959) in a circle or diamond. After 1960, "First Edition" was printed on the copyright page.
Special signed and numbered limited editions were also produced, though not for every volume in the series, and sometimes in very limited print runs. The signed and numbered editions of the series generally included only the author's signature, though sometimes the illustrator's signature was included as well. Where known, these limited editions are included in the list below.
A set of War Editions was published between 1942 and 1945. These editions used a lesser quality of paper and a smaller font size to meet wartime restrictions.
There were also a series of Armed Services editions, denoted: "Overseas edition for the Armed Forces. Distributed by the Special Services Division, A.S.F., for the Army, and by the Bureau of Naval Personnel for the Navy. U.S. Government property. Not for sale. Published by Editions for the Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime" (Note: This example is from the cover of the St Lawrence)
Several books in the series were revised and/or expanded either in the work itself, or in the illustrations. Where known, these revised editions are included in the list below.
1. The Kennebec: Cradle of the Americans, Robert P. Tristram Coffin, 1937; illustrated by Maitland de Gogorza
2. The Upper Mississippi, Walter Havighurst, 1937 (revised 1944); illustrated by David Granahan and Lolita Granahan
3. The Suwannee: Strange Green Land, Cecile Hulse Matschat, 1938; illustrated by Alexander Key
4. The Powder: Let 'er Buck, Maxwell Struthers Burt, 1938; illustrated by Ross Santee
5. The James, Blair Niles, 1939; illustrated by Edward Shenton
6. The Hudson, Carl Carmer, 1939; illustrated by Stow Wengenroth
7. The Sacramento: River of Gold, Julian Dana, 1939; illustrated by J. O'Hara Cosgrave, II
8. The Wabash, William E. Wilson, 1940; illustrated by John de Martelly
9. The Arkansas, Clyde Brion Davis, 1940; illustrated by Donald McKay
10. The Delaware, Harry Emerson Wildes, 1940; illustrated by Irwin D. Hoffman
11. The Illinois, James Gray, 1940; illustrated by Aaron Bohrod
12. The Kaw: Heart of a Nation, Floyd Benjamin Streeter, 1941; illustrated by Isabel Bate and Harold Black
13. The Brandywine, Henry Seidel Canby, 1941; illustrated by Andrew Wyeth
14. The Charles, Arthur Benson Tourtellot, 1941; illustrated by Ernest J. Donnelly
15. The Kentucky, Thomas D. Clark, 1941; illustrated by John A. Spelman, III
16. The Sangamon, Edgar Lee Masters, 1942; illustrated by Lynd Ward
17. The Allegheny, Frederick Way, Jr., 1942; illustrated by Henry Pitz
18. The Wisconsin, August Derleth, 1942; illustrated by John Steuart Curry
19. The Lower Mississippi, Hodding Carter, 1942; illustrated by John McCrady
20. The St. Lawrence, Henry Beston, 1942; illustrated by A.Y. Jackson
21. The Chicago, Harry Hansen, 1942; illustrated by Harry Timmins
---. Songs of the Rivers of America, Carl Carmer, 1942 (not given a series number)
22. The Twin Rivers: Raritan & Passaic, Harry Emerson Wildes, 1943
23. The Humboldt, Dale L. Morgan, 1943; illustrated by Arnold Blanch
24. The St. Johns, Branch Cabell, 1943; illustrated by Doris Lee
25. Rivers of the Eastern Shore: Seventeen Maryland Rivers, Hulbert Footner, 1944; illustrated by Aaron Sopher
26. The Missouri, Stanley Vestal, 1945; illustrated by Getlar Smith
27. The Salinas, Anne B. Fisher, 1945
28. The Shenandoah, Julia Davis, 1945; illustrated by Frederic Taubes
---. The James: from Iron Gate to Sea, Blair Niles, 1945; (Expansion of the 1939 edition, which focused on the Tidewater area of the James River basin only.)
29. The Housatonic: Puritan River, Chard Powers Smith, 1946
30. The Colorado, Frank Waters, 1946
31. The Tennessee: The Old River, Donald Davidson, 1946; illustrated by Theresa Sherrer Davidson
32. The Connecticut, Walter Hard, 1946
33. The Everglades: River of Grass , Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 1947
34. The Tennessee: The New River, Donald Davidson, 1948; illustrated by Theresa Sherrer Davidson
35. The Chagres: River of Westward Passage, John Easter Minter, 1948
36. The Mohawk, Codman Hislop, 1948; illustrated by Letterio Calapai
37. The MacKenzie, Leslie Roberts, 1949
38. The Winooski: Heartway of Vermont, Ralph Nading Hill, 1949; illustrated by George Daly
39. The Ohio, R. E. Banta, 1949; illustrated by Edward Shenton
40. The Potomac, Frederick Gutheim, 1949; illustrated by Mitchel Jamieson
41. The Saskatchewan, Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, 1950
42. The Fraser, Bruce Hutchison, 1950
43. The Savannah, Thomas L. Stokes, 1951; illustrated by Lamar Dodd
44. The Gila, Edwin Corle, 1951
45. Salt Rivers of the Massachusetts Shore, Henry Howe, 1951
46. The Monongahela, Richard Bissell, 1952
47. The Yazoo, Frank E. Smith, 1954
48. Great River: the Rio Grande, Paul Horgan, 1954
49. The Susquehanna, Carl Carmer, 1955
50. The French Broad, Wilma Dykeman, 1955; illustrated by Douglas Gorsline
51. The Columbia, Stewart H. Holbrook, 1956
52. River of the Carolinas: The Santee, Henry Savage, Jr., 1956; illustrated by Lamar Dodd
53. The Merrimack, Raymond P. Holden, 1958; illustrated by Aaron Kessler
54. The Minnesota, Evan Jones, 1962
55. The Genesee, Henry W. Clune, 1963
56. The Cape Fear, Malcolm H. Ross, 1965
57. The St. Croix, James Taylor Dunn, 1965; illustrated by Gerald Hazzard
58. The Cuyahoga, William Donohue Ellis, 1966; illustrated by Kinley T. Shogren
59. The Yukon, Richard Matthews, 1968; illustrated by Bryan Forsyth
60. The Allagash, Lew Dietz, 1968
61. The Niagara, Donald Braider, 1972; illustrations credited to Buffalo History Museum and the New York Power Authority
62. The Cumberland, James McCague, 1973; illustrated by Charles Walker
63. The Hillsborough: River of the Golden Ibis, Gloria Jahoda, 1973; illustrated by Ben F. Stahl, Jr.
64. The American: River of El Dorado, Margaret Sanborn, 1974; illustrated by Jerry Helmrich
---. The St. Lawrence, Henry Beston, 1951; illustrated by A. Y. Jackson
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
Andrew Newell Wyeth was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He believed he was also an abstractionist, portraying subjects in a new, meaningful way. The son of N. C. Wyeth and father of Jamie Wyeth, he was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. James H. Duff explores the art and lives of the three men in An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art. Raised with an appreciation of nature, Wyeth took walks that fired his imagination. Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost, and King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925) inspired him intellectually and artistically. Wyeth featured in a documentary The Metaphor in which he discussed Vidor's influence on the creation of his works of art, like Winter 1946 and Portrait of Ralph Kline. Wyeth was also inspired by Winslow Homer and Renaissance artists.
Newell Convers Wyeth, known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was a student of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books — 25 of them for Scribner's, the Scribner Classics, which is the body of work for which he is best known. The first of these, Treasure Island, was one of his masterpieces and the proceeds paid for his studio. Wyeth was a realist painter at a time when the camera and photography began to compete with his craft. Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly. Wyeth, who was both a painter and an illustrator, understood the difference, and said in 1908, "Painting and illustration cannot be mixed—one cannot merge from one into the other."
William Hervey Allen Jr. was an American educator, poet, and writer. He is best known for his work Anthony Adverse, regarded by many critics "as the model and precursor of the contemporary American historical novel."
Felix Octavius Carr Darley, often credited as F. O. C. Darley, was an American illustrator, known for his illustrations in works by well-known 19th-century authors, including James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Mary Mapes Dodge, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, George Lippard, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Donald Grant Mitchell, Clement Clarke Moore, Francis Parkman, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Parker Willis.
Robert Peter Tristram Coffin was an American poet, educator, writer, editor and literary critic. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936, he was the poetry editor for Yankee magazine.
Carl Lamson Carmer was an American writer of nonfiction books, memoirs, and novels, many of which focused on American myths, folklore, and tales. His most famous book, Stars Fell on Alabama, was an autobiographical story of the time he spent living in Alabama. He was considered one of America's most popular writers during the 1940s and 1950s.
Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
Dorothy Pulis Lathrop was an American writer and illustrator of children's books.
The Brandywine School was a style of illustration—as well as an artists colony in Wilmington, Delaware and in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, near the Brandywine River—both founded by artist Howard Pyle (1853–1911) at the end of the 19th century. The works produced there were widely published in adventure novels, magazines, and romances in the early 20th century. Pyle’s teachings would influence such notable illustrators as N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Harvey Dunn, and Norman Rockwell. Pyle himself would come to be known as the "Father of American Illustration." Many works related to the Brandywine School may be seen at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, in Chadds Ford.
Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both non-fiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero Wolfe corpus of Rex Stout. In 1943 the company was recognized with the first Carey-Thomas Award for creative publishing presented by Publishers Weekly.
Rinehart & Company was an American publishing company founded in 1946. Renamed Rinehart & Company in 1946, the publishing company merged with Henry Holt and Company and the John C. Winston Company in 1960, to form Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW).
Thornton Oakley was an American artist and illustrator.
The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and remains an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida. It was used as recently as 2007 by The New York Times.
A national push for expansion and progress toward the latter part of the 19th century stimulated interest in draining the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, for agricultural use. According to historians, "From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, the United States went through a period in which wetland removal was not questioned. Indeed, it was considered the proper thing to do."
John Archibald Austen was a British book illustrator.
Eric Walter Blom was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954).
Ernest Francis Coe, also "Tom Coe" was an American landscape designer who envisioned a national park dedicated to the preservation of the Everglades, culminating in the establishment of Everglades National Park. Coe was born and spent most of his life in Connecticut as a professional gardener, moving to Miami at age 60. He was enormously impressed with the Everglades and became one of several South Florida-based naturalists who grew concerned for the wanton destruction of plants, animals, and natural water flow in the name of progress and prosperity. Coe worked for more than 20 years to get Everglades National Park established, but he viewed the effort as mostly a failure. However, Oscar L. Chapman, former Secretary of the Interior, stated "Ernest Coe's many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement."
The Kuerner Farm, also known as Ring Farm, is an historic farm which is located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It is notable for its association with artist Andrew Wyeth, who created about one-third of his work, more than 1,000 paintings and drawings, on subjects he found there during a span of seventy-seven years.
Joe Bartles Browder was an American environmental activist who spearheaded ongoing efforts to save the Florida Everglades. He was considered to be a global environmental advocate. He was an advisor on energy, climate change, environmental policy to public-interest groups, foundations, auto and energy companies, other businesses, Native American tribes and government agencies. He started out his career as a television news reporter, an active volunteer and later a paid representative for Audubon.
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