Junius Rochester, whose family has shaped the city for many generations, is an award-winning Northwest historian and author of numerous books about Seattle and other places.
When Seattle attorney and scholar Alfred J. Schweppe, age 93, died in April of 1988, his name was high in the legal firmament, and beyond. He had seemingly touched the lives of most Washington state residents.
Nard Jones once wrote: "It's a hick show that has nothing to do with Seattle's traditions." With tongue in cheek, Jones recommended that Greater Seattle leaders be strapped into the cockpits of old hydroplanes: "set the throttle wide and aim at the log boom. The crowd would love it."
At Seattle's Olympic Hotel, while laying out his program in free-swinging Missouri fashion, an excited member of the audience suddenly hollered: "Give 'em hell, Harry."Â Truman stopped, looked at the audience and said that he didn't give anyone hell, he just told the truth and his opponents thought it was hell.Â
As a job-factory, except for a few brief economic bumps, the Pacific Northwest has long provided employment opportunities, with economic saviors regularly coming to town.
Local growers, most with Italian antecedents, do whatever it takes to preserve the unique qualities originally inherited from the Island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea, the ancestral home of the Walla Walla Sweet.
Following Bering's discovery of sea otter riches, an almost endless train of adventurers and brigands struck out from Asia for North America with wild dreams of staggering wealth. Many crew members were hardened criminals.
Each of the chapbooks takes flight. The whimsy of the author is at the controls. However, the authors are - or were - distinguished literary personalities.