Book Notices

The Wordfrom Weber County: A Centennial Anthology of Our Best Writers.

Edited by BOB SAWATZKI (Ogden: Friends of the Weber County Library, 1996. xxiv + 468 pp Cloth, $30.00; paper, $15.00.)

With the recent publication of Great & Peculiar Beauty: A Utah Reader, a centennial anthology of more than 1,000 pages, the state's literary heritage appeared to be well covered Those familiar with the depth of that heritage, however, will not be surprised to learn that Weber County has come up with an anthology of its own that fills almost 500 pages.

Ogden boasts two Pulitzer Prize winners to date: Bernard DeVoto and Phyllis McGinley, but the Junction City and Weber County can also claim an impressive group of other writers of history, fiction, poetry, and essays.

Former and current Weber State University faculty, including Brad L Roghaar, LaVon B. Carroll, Levi S. Peterson, Robert S Mikkelsen, Neila C Seshachari, Richard W. Sadler, Gordon T. Allred, Wayne Carver, Russell Burrows, Mikel Vause, and Richard C Roberts, provide some of the most muscular writing in the volume For example, a chapter from Allred's Kamikaze, a biographical work on the World War II experiences of Japanese suicide pilotYasuo Kuwahara, is breathtaking.

Margaret Rostkowski, Ogden High School teacher and author of acclaimed novels for young people, is represented by a chapter from one of her novels She also selected for publication a group of poems by Ogden High students dating from 1942 to 1995, a small indication of the school's long and impressive writing program. In addition to excerpts from their work, novelist Richard Scowcroft and poet Sister M. Madeleva Wolff each merit lengthy biographical notes by Glen Wiese and John Sillito, respectively, that add to our appreciation of these bright but undervalued stars in the literary firmament.

Much more could be said about this impressive anthology pulled together by Bob Sawatzki, but readers will enjoy discovering its delights for themselves. Sawatzki is the editor of rough draft, a literary magazine published by the Weber County Library that is nearing the end of its second decade. That in itself says something important about the arts in Weber County.

Daughter of the Regiment: Memoirs of a Childhood in the Frontier Army, 1878-1898.

By MARY LAURENCE Edited (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 xxx + 208 pp $35.00.)

Mary Leefe Laurence's memoir adds to a growing body of information about childhood on the American Frontier. It reaffirms some of the conclusions reached by Elliott West in Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier (1989) For example, the wide open spaces of the plains often instilled feelings of foreboding in children. Mary remembered a "nameless dread lurking unseen in their vast solitude." West found an almost inborn fear of Indians in pioneer children. Mary expressed fear and even hatred of Indians because of "the death and torture of our loved ones," but she recognized later, as an adult, that she and other whites had "failed perhaps to appreciate the flagrant injustices perpetrated on the Indians by our own government." Despite the hardships of the frontier, many children, including Mary, recalled with nostalgia a lot of positive, happy childhood experiences woven into the fabric of their lives.

Mary's life was different, though, from that of a settler's child She felt that she was part of her father's military unit and shared pride in it. She developed affectionate relationships with many of the enlisted men who treated her with avuncular interest, and she admired their sense of humor in the face of "all kinds of drab and arduous duty." Finally, the army provided both structure and variety in her life as her family moved from post to post.

Cyrus E. His Small Bronzes and Plasters.

By KENT AHRENS (Corning, N.Y.: Rockwell Museum, 1995 Ill pp. Paper, $22.50.)

This handsome production offers a rich descriptive narrative of Utah's most famous sculptor and many of his works, including (despite limits suggested by the title) some of his monumental figures. Most of the forty-four high-quality halftones are of Dallin's creations, reflecting the range of his interest while revealing the extent of his special predilection for Native American subjects The author does not see Dallin as the equal of August Saint-Gaudens or Daniel Chester French but acknowledges him as "an artist of talent and sensitivity toward his subjects."

A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of Western American Literature.

Edited by RICHARD HOWARD 2d ed (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. xii + 471 pp. $39.95.)

This updated reference work includes most of the items listed in the 1982 edition plus critical essays and books published through 1994 It reflects both increasing interest in the field and changing trends in western American literature, such as ethnic and women writers and the environment. Despite new trends, though, the bibliographic listings are still dominated by the likes of Willa Cather, Samuel Clemens,James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London, and John Steinbeck. Fewer recent scholars have been attracted to such authors as Hamlin Garland, Bret Harte, Robinson Jeffers, and William Stafford, the editors note.

In addition to entries on more than 300 writers, the bibliography has special sections on the Beats, local color, dime novels, western films, Indians, Mexican-American literature, the environment, women and families, and western Canadian literature This volume is the place to begin for anyone interested in western American literature.

Wind Energy in America: A History.

By ROBERT W RIGHTER (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. xxi +361 pp. $34.95.)

Righter, a professor of history at the University of Texas, El Paso, has written a fascinating account of historical and contemporary efforts to utilize wind as a source of electricity. Included in his narrative are the first European windmills, the nineteenth-century electric experiments that empowered rural America, and the immense, acres-wide wind farms that feed the power grid in late twentieth-century California and elsewhere.

This is a lively story of eccentric inventors, technical innovation, and power industry politics To date, individuals and small businesses have contributed the most to wind energy development; and for rural Americans, according to Righter, individual, decentralized power systems provide a reasonable alternative to service from giant utility companies.

San Bernardino: The Rise and Fall of a California Community.

By EDWARD LEO LYMAN (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996. xiii + 469 pp. $24.95.)

Among accounts of the Mormon settlement of numerous towns, none is more fascinating than that of San Bernardino in southern California. For one thing, Brigham Young was never enthusiastic about it, yet he allowed two of the church's apostles—Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich—to begin organizing the venture in 1850 The following spring when Young saw the number of people with their cattle and equipage ready to leave from Peteetneet (Payson), he was dismayed.

As San Bernardino began to prosper as one of the largest settlements in southern California, it attracted a diverse mix that was not pleasing to church leaders in Utah: ex-slave holders, interracial polygamists, gamblers, distillery operators, former mountain men, prospectors, mercenaries, and disgruntled and/or disaffected Mormons. Moreover, Apostle Lyman dabbled in spiritualism.

By the time of the Utah War, 185758, San Bernardino had grown to a city of 3,000 When Young recalled Mormons from all the satellite settlements about two-thirds of the townspeople felt obliged to leave the fruit of their hard work behind and return to Zion.

Leo Lyman has crafted a powerful narrative from a wealth of original sources, including contemporary journals It is sure to be the definitive history of the San Bernardino colony for years to come.

The Colorado River through Glen Canyon before Lake Powell: Historic Photo Journal, 1872 to 1964.

By ELEANOR INSKIP. (Moab, Ut.: Inskip Ink, 1995. 95 pp. Paper, $25.00.)

Historic Glen Canyon of the Colorado River, now mostly submerged beneath Lake Powell, lives again in this haunting photographic and literary evocation Although drawn from a variety of sources, most of the historic photographs come from river runners Gus Scott and Katie Lee and National Geographic photographer Walter Maeyers Edwards, and most are published here for the first time They are interpreted by carefully chosen quotations from contemporary documents and later interpretive works, and their location is identified by modern mileage buoys on Lake Powell.