Entirely on topic: A good book
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Patrick Moore
Jun 17, 2019, 3:13:48 AM6/17/19
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And one that fits right in with Rivendell, IMO.
Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana.
I'm re-reading this after many years. It's the account of a 19-year-old Boston college student who, in 1834, dropped out of college to sign up as an ordinary seaman (whence "before the mast:" the crew who were neither officers nor specialists lived together in the forwardmost part of the ship -- this was inferior real estate because it leaked and rolled more -- while officers and carpenters and stewards and such lived aft) on a merchant ship on the pre-Gold Rush California cowhide trade -- bringing in trade goods, picking up -- in this case -- 40,000 dried hides plus 30,000 horns plus tallow to bring back east. The trip required sailing around South America.
Among other interesting bits: the utter poverty and viciously hard and dangerous work required of the crew: sailing around the Horn in a violent winter gale, climbing to reef topsails on iced-over spars in inadequate clothing without gloves; -- at night. The 40,000 hides were processed and loaded by hand, of course.
The presence of many Kanakas (what Hawaiians, or Sandwich Islanders, called themselves) on ship and on beach; apparently there was a steady trade between coastal California and Hawaii.
And in particular: What is said to be the best description of pre-Gold rush, Mexico-territory coastal California and its Californio and Indian populations. What an almost paradisal primeval wilderness the California coast must have been then!
Dana's description of the Californio Hispanic people
is both sympathetic and amusing; typical was a very Spanish disdain for
manual labor combined with great desire for "honor" even at the expense
of bankrupting oneself to maintain appearances in extreme poverty. Frankly, I
find it more appealing than the Yankee obsession with "business."
Hana writes in a surprisingly "modern" way, that is, simply and free of ornament; though modern writing is certainly not guaranteed to be clear even if devoid of ornament. He is very clear and direct, and his direct style is even eloquent at times. Certainly his prose lacks the overwrought complexity and, especially, the sentimentality typical of the time (though there are different sorts of sentimentality). And, the author is a sympathetic character -- that's not an essential requirement for very readable travel prose; Paul Theroux writes entertainingly and with perception, but his books are diminished by his very obvious misanthropy and willful "quirkiness." OTOH, many travel books -- and bicycle travelogues sin often in this regard -- fail to interest simply because they are unimaginative and dull. Hana is neither misanthrope nor poser nor dullard.
Available for Kindle for free at Amazon (you can pay more and get chapters and nice cover, possibly illustrations):
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still 'round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
--- J.R.R. Tolkien
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Patrick Moore
Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique
Daniel D.
Jun 17, 2019, 1:40:58 PM6/17/19
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DL'ing thanks
George Cline
Jun 17, 2019, 9:51:36 PM6/17/19
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A great book. Downloaded on my Kindle a year or so ago and loved it. I understand it became a sort of guidebook/reference in the Gold Rush, it being practically the only reasonably accurate, albeit dated(by 1849), reference available!
Loved the description of the Mission in San Diego.
George in NoCal
Chris L
Jun 17, 2019, 11:44:43 PM6/17/19
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I downloaded this book last night (can't beat the price!) and will take a look at it tomorrow. I enjoy historical non-fiction books and the bonus to this one is that my great-great grandfather and his brother took a ship around South America to get to California after the gold rush (around 1860'ish). They ended up working in a mercury mine and then became sheep herders somewhere in the Bay area. My ancestor was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in San Francisco and then sold his half of the business to his brother and returned to Illinois (via land this time). The brother supposedly got in raising horses and growing grapes for wine and when he passed away, his will left everything to the Catholic Church.
About a century later, my dad ended up in San Francisco, via Uncle Sam, and I just missed being born in San Francisco.
Craig Montgomery
Jun 19, 2019, 2:03:30 AM6/19/19
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Read it in 6th grade (1963). Required reading in some California schools back then because of its classic descriptions of Hispanic California.The images still resonate over 50 years later.
Craig "no book has ever been diminished because of its misanthropy" in Tucson
On Monday, June 17, 2019 at 12:13:48 AM UTC-7, Patrick Moore wrote:
Brandyn
Jun 24, 2019, 11:25:45 AM6/24/19
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Second this recommendation, great book and I think folks on this list-serve would also appreciate the ethos.
On Monday, June 17, 2019 at 2:13:48 AM UTC-5, Patrick Moore wrote:
Mark Anderson
Jun 24, 2019, 11:25:46 AM6/24/19
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Thanks for the recommendation Patrick.
Patrick Moore
Jun 24, 2019, 3:54:06 PM6/24/19
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Happy to share.
If listers are interested in the American SW and, more particularly, in the Hispanic SW and its relationships and partial amalgamation with the SW Pueblo tribes, 3 other books might interest them:
1. Great River, Paul Horgan's massive classic on the history of the peoples who have lived along the Rio Grande, the Indians, then the 16th century Spanish colonists, then the Anglos. It's available in a 3-in-1 format for relatively cheap, used, on Amazon. Horgan was an academic and his style is more ponderous than Dana's, but it's still very readable.
2. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize winner. I don't find Cather scintillating, but she is eminently readable, and this book well describes in particular the NM Hispanic culture, very different from other Hispanic cultures, and this do to what the book also well describes, what one might depending on one's point of view call the desolate isolation of NM until the end of the 19th century.
3. Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford. This 1968 novel is what nowadays would be called a book for "young adults." My parents bought it for me in 1969 (I recall reading it in a stereotypical, old-fashioned provincial hotel in Chartres on home leave; perhaps it was given me to distract me from fighting with my younger brother), but I recalled it so fondly that I recently bought it again on Kindle. It was worth the $.
Rising HS senior moves with family to Corazon Sagrado, composite Northern Rio Grande Valley Hispanic town far from civilization (= Anglos and capitalism), for the duration when the father, owner of a Mobile, AL small boat shipyard, decides on middle-aged whim to sign up for WWII US Navy, leaving boy and aging southern belle mother isolated among the natives, who are an amusingly if hyperbolically depicted set of oddballs. The plot plays off the differences among the Anglo*, Hispanic, and Indian cultures.
But the point of the book is it's pretty accurate depiction of Northern RG Valley NM Hispano culture before paved roads, mass media, and chain stores (let alone internet). I like it.
* The differences are described in an early chapter. Suffice it to say that the HS's sole black student falls solidly into the "Anglo" class. I will add that the town is probably too far north to include a 4th and entirely distinct NM ethnic and cultural category,"Texan."
ascpgh
Jun 25, 2019, 10:21:34 AM6/25/19
to RBW Owners Bunch
But the point of the book is it's pretty accurate depiction of Northern RGValley NM Hispano culture before paved roads, mass media, and chain stores(let alone internet). I like it.
That's a great setting, I'll bite! On my childhood trips to my grandparents' in Arizona we made the travels to and from Phoenix the vacation for my parents and we went a lot of places in meandering paths and saw a lot of things. We drove hundreds of miles on dirt and ultimately went places most didn't. Our presence year after year seemed innocuous to us but was noticed by locals who asked. Twice in Gallup, once up at Second Mesa, AZ.
One that really stuck in my mind was the difference a year made when it was the one before and after cable arrived in Gallup, NM. One summer everyone looked like it could have been decades earlier if you didn't know the model years of pickup trucks, the next summer kids had haircuts like mine and I noted t-shirts with printing on them. Gallup, among others, globalized.
I spend lots of my time now seeking retreat from all of the uniformity and am excited to reach more parochial realms. Not the same to drive there.
Thanks, Patrick, I'll have to check that one out.
On Monday, June 24, 2019 at 3:54:06 PM UTC-4, Patrick Moore wrote:
Happy to share.If listers are interested in the American SW and, more particularly, in the Hispanic SW and its relationships and partial amalgamation with the SW Pueblo tribes, 3 other books might interest them:1. Great River, Paul Horgan's massive classic on the history of the peoples who have lived along the Rio Grande, the Indians, then the 16th century Spanish colonists, then the Anglos. It's available in a 3-in-1 format for relatively cheap, used, on Amazon. Horgan was an academic and his style is more ponderous than Dana's, but it's still very readable.2. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize winner. I don't find Cather scintillating, but she is eminently readable, and this book well describes in particular the NM Hispanic culture, very different from other Hispanic cultures, and this do to what the book also well describes, what one might depending on one's point of view call the desolate isolation of NM until the end of the 19th century.3. Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford. This 1968 novel is what nowadays would be called a book for "young adults." My parents bought it for me in 1969 (I recall reading it in a stereotypical, old-fashioned provincial hotel in Chartres on home leave; perhaps it was given me to distract me from fighting with my younger brother), but I recalled it so fondly that I recently bought it again on Kindle. It was worth the $.Rising HS senior moves with family to Corazon Sagrado, composite Northern Rio Grande Valley Hispanic town far from civilization (= Anglos and capitalism), for the duration when the father, owner of a Mobile, AL small boat shipyard, decides on middle-aged whim to sign up for WWII US Navy, leaving boy and aging southern belle mother isolated among the natives, who are an amusingly if hyperbolically depicted set of oddballs. The plot plays off the differences among the Anglo*, Hispanic, and Indian cultures.But the point of the book is it's pretty accurate depiction of Northern RG Valley NM Hispano culture before paved roads, mass media, and chain stores (let alone internet). I like it.* The differences are described in an early chapter. Suffice it to say that the HS's sole black student falls solidly into the "Anglo" class. I will add that the town is probably too far north to include a 4th and entirely distinct NM ethnic and cultural category,"Texan."
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