Spying on the South

[L Verge]

While not directly related to a particular segment of Lincoln history, I highly recommend the book Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz, his last book released just at the time of his suddent death this past spring. As I mentioned in a trivia thread, the book serves a dual purpose -- first to chronicle Frederick Law Olmsted's travels through the South in the 1850s as a journalist for The New York Times to comment on the way of life under a "slavocracy" (as the abolitionists were prone to say); and then to make the trek himself to comment on the way of life in the same areas today (bulk of it written in 2016).

I learned so much history on a variety of states, cultural heritage, social interactions, and more from Maryland across the North-South Divide to Texas and even into Mexico. And in typical Horwitz style (did you read Confederates in the Attic), the book makes you laugh, cry, be shocked, and instantly remember folks that you have met in life that match the characters encountered by both Olmsted in the 1850s and Horwitz in our generation.

There is one chapter that Wild Bill just has to read, because if I remember correctly, he met his wife while both were working at the Grand Canyon -- and I think Bill was a trail guide who rode a mule. Horwitz's experience with a mule trip in Texas that lasted for days is absolutely hilarious, and the head honcho leading him was as mean and nasty as any slave driver of Olmsted's day. Olmsted and his brother, who accompanied him, stuck to horses.

Again, if you really want a good piece of "non-traditional" history, head to Amazon, a bookstore, or the library and expect to spend a good part of a week reading this book.

[Wild Bill]

My wife and I did meet at North Rim of the Grand Canyon. She worked for the concessioner, Utah Parks then, and I worked for the US government repairing the mule trails, not guiding the dude strings. We rode down with tools and spare mules with wooden paniers on the mules that opened up in their bottoms (they functioned like four-legged miniature dump trucks) and kept the trails open so the dude mules could negotiate the trails safely. No one moved until we had done our work so we were very busy, especially after rain storms (summer is the monsoon season in Arizona--as a matter of fact it just stopped raining as I write). The things I could tell you that we encountered as we rode down to repair wash-outs! We had to pass by the damage and work from the bottom up to repair it. Great job and I loved it! I made enough money in 3 months to finance two semesters of state college. I could not do that today with tuition so high nowadays. I got a PhD from LSU and owed $500 to my sister for my dissertation research trip to the National Archives, which I paid off by writing a series of history sections for a history dictionary sponsored by Reader's Digest.

[Tom Bogar]

I just finished Spying on the South, and Laurie, I couldn't agree with you more. Very highly recommended, and now, since Tony Horwitz's recent death, even more poignant. The book is by turns informative, inspirational, hilarious, painful, reflective, thought-provoking, and enlightening. The anecdotes, both Horwitz's and Olmsted's are priceless, and the descriptive passages, again on the part of both, are wonderfully evocative. The last page alone is worth the price of the book, but only after you have read all that preceded it. It moves quickly (although I cop to skimming a few passages of Olmsted's), and really draws you in. You look forward to getting back to it each evening (or whenever). Best of all, I think, is the book's contents and insights remaining nonjudgmental, giving the reader credit for his/her (I just can't say "their" yet, Mirriam-Webster be d------d) own conclusions and intelligence. Again, just a wonderful book, highly recommended. Tony, we will miss you greatly.

[Eva Elisabeth]

My wife and I did meet at North Rim of the Grand Canyon. She worked for the concessioner, Utah Parks then, and I worked for the US government repairing the mule trails, not guiding the dude strings. We rode down with tools and spare mules with wooden paniers on the mules that opened up in their bottoms (they functioned like four-legged miniature dump trucks) and kept the trails open so the dude mules could negotiate the trails safely. No one moved until we had done our work so we were very busy, especially after rain storms (summer is the monsoon season in Arizona--as a matter of fact it just stopped raining as I write). The things I could tell you that we encountered as we rode down to repair wash-outs! We had to pass by the damage and work from the bottom up to repair it. Great job and I loved it! I made enough money in 3 months to finance two semesters of state college. I could not do that today with tuition so high nowadays. I got a PhD from LSU and owed $500 to my sister for my dissertation research trip to the National Archives, which I paid off by writing a series of history sections for a history dictionary sponsored by Reader's Digest.

Would have been my kind of adventure...

[Dennis Urban]

I finished the book a couple of weeks ago. What I found fascinating was Horwitz ability to locate many of the actual areas, sites, and some structures about which Olmsted wrote. What an enormous amount of research went into that effort; of course it took years. I, too, found several Olmsted descriptions to be tedious and laborious; sometimes skipping finishing them. The book is a wonderful read; hard to put down. I completely agree with Tom Bogar's comment regarding the last page of the book; it only makes sense if one reads all that comes before. The writing of Tony Horwitz will be greatly missed.