| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the WHQ online. About 215 words from this article are provided below; about 313 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to the Western Historical Quarterly, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Western Historical Quarterly, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Western Historical Quarterly (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Western Historical Quarterly.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.1 | The History Cooperative

*Asa Shinn Mercer: Western Promoter and Newspaperman, 1839–1917.* By Lawrence M. Woods. (Spokane: Arthur H. Clark, 2003. 238 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $32.50.)
Lawrence Woods has written a meticulous biography of Asa Shinn Mercer, pioneer promoter and journalist of the Pacific Northwest. Mercer's story is one of repeated failure and longstanding debt, and very early in this biography the reader learns that the subject is not to be trusted. Mercer claimed to have been in Lafayette College at the time of the Civil War and that the whole college volunteered as a regiment with its president as their colonel. Lawrence Woods finds no evidence that Asa ever attended Lafayette College.	1
Asa Mercer is best known for his two expeditions to import marriageable women to Washington Territory, one in 1863, when he brought eleven and again in 1865, when he brought back forty-six single women from the East to attempt to correct the 9 to 1 imbalance of men to women. The women were known as "Mercer's Belles." They made scant impression on the women shortage, but the publicity was impressive. Certainly Asa was guilty of hyperbole when he talked of how many Belles he transported from the East, but without him there would not have been any.	. . .

There are about 313 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.