American Signs

American Signs: Form &; Meaning on Route 66 (Lisa Mahar); The Monacelli Press, 2002. Not a social history, this work is a fascinating analysis of motel signs on the famous route. Replete with analytic illustrations, this exploration of the signs reveals a seemingly incidental set of artifacts to be distinctly evolved and sophisticated.

Eye magazine, the international review of graphic design, calls the text and design of the book "a model of clarity" in their reserved but insightful review.

Rick Poynor refers to American Signs with enthusiastic respect in this article  Rick Poynor on American Signs

American Guides

The American Guide Series of books was produced by the Federal Writers Project between 1935 and 1943. The Federal Writers Project was one of the many programs under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era government program that assisted the millions of unemployed. The series is said to have originated from a casual cocktail party conversation between writer Katharine Kellock and WPA administrator Arthur Goldsmith. These wonderful travel guides cover the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states) and the District of Columbia and employed over 6,000 writers. Each volume covers a state’s history, geography, and culture, and includes photographs, maps, and drawings.

The American Guide Series is a highly collectible set of books; many people search the shelves of antiquarian book shops in an attempt to bring together the entire series. The Guide Series’ value continues to increase, with some titles now worth several hundred dollars. Two of the more desirable titles include the first edition Idaho volume, most of which were destroyed in a warehouse fire, and the Dakota volumes, which had very limited printings. The recent popularity of the series has also prompted publishing houses to reissue selected titles in attractive and affordable paperback editions.

In addition to the popular state series, the Writers Project also produced over 1,200 books and pamphlets, including guides to major cities and interstate roadways, folklore collections, oral histories, and even song recordings. The project enlisted the talents of such well-known writers as John Cheever, Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison.

Text copied from www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/WPAStateGuides.pdf 

American River Series

- from James Findlay's introduction to the exhibition of Carol Fitgerald's reknowned collection at the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts in Ft. Lauderdale.
 

The sixty-five books in the series were published from 1937-1974, by Farrar and Rinehart (1937-1946) and its successors: Rinehart & Company (1946-1960); Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1960-1974). Constance Lindsay Skinner [1877-1939] was the general editor from 1937-1939. The series editors who succeeded her were Stephen Vincent Benét [1898-1943], Carl Carmer [1893-1976], and Hervey Allen [1889-1949]. During the life of the series, there were also two associate editors: Elizabeth L. Gilman and Jean Crawford; and four art editors: Ruth E. Anderson, Faith Ball, Benjamin Feder, and Philip Fiorello.
Assembled over the past eleven years and gleaned from Carol Fitzgerald's large and encyclopedic collection, the exhibition highlights 103 books, drawings, and other printed materials. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Everglades: river of grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the display showcases it, along with three other Florida rivers: Suwannee River and The St. Johns, and a later title about the Hillsborough,River of the Golden Ibis.

Constance Lindsay Skinner originated the idea for the series, and in a bid to make it special, recommended that the authors be "novelists and poets" and the illustrators be "professional artists". She and her heirs achieved their goal with great success with such titles as: The Everglades: river of grass, by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, illustrated by Robert Fink; The Brandywine, by Henry Seidel Canby, illustrated by Andrew Wyeth; and The Sangamon, by Edgar Lee Masters, illustrated by Lynd Ward. The sixty-five original titles were published by Farrar and Rinehart and its successors from 1937-1974, but the collection also contains almost all known variant, special, commemorative, foreign, and Armed Services editions.

In her quest to gather the materials of the series, Carol Fitzgerald has demonstrated an extraordinary degree of perseverance and determination. For her, it has been an exhausting yet richly satisfying venture. Her interest in collecting the titles began casually in 1986, but soon developed into a near-obsession. Quickly she discovered a small network of book dealers with a special interest in the series, cultivated contacts with publishers, and wrote numerous letters to authors, illustrators, and editors. In the end, her efforts to document for posterity the making of the 65-volume series have been herculean.
Shortly, the results of Carol Fitzgerald's carefully detailed and scholarly research will be presented in the publication of a bibliography and history of the series. We will all be enriched by her endeavor.

- Carol Fitzgerald's American Rivers, A Descriptive Bibliography was released in 2001.

Blog title links to publisher's blog post on the author. Comprehensive title roster can be found here

 

John Graves' Goodbye To A River

In the late 1950's John Graves revisited a 175 mile stretch of the Brazos River before proposed dam construction forever submerged his childhood stomping grounds. Undertaken in a canoe with his dachshund companion Goodbye To A River is an engrossing commentary on the river, nature, and Texas history and culture. Today it is cherished as a uniquely voiced history of the state and lauded as a conservation-minded work ahead of its time

It appeals to me for the rugged outfit he embarks with, i.e. no hi-tech synthetics, no ultralight gear, no GPS, etc, but only the waxed cotton canvas and woolens of the day, wood paddles, metal cookware - and daunted not a bit!

More recently Graves teamed up with photographer Wyman Meinzer to document Texas landscape features in Texas Hill Country and Texas Rivers. Texas Sky is Meinzer's solo effort. All published by the ever-interesting U. T. Austin Press, one of the best resources for American Southwest culture and home of the Perry-Casteneda Library Map Collection, a comprehensive and very useful archive.

2/5/14 Post Script: sadly, I recently learned that John Graves passed away last summer. NPR posted this tribute: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/31/207309842/texas-author-john-graves-dies-at-92-wrote-goodbye-to-a-river