Book Review

Sound Wormy: Memoir of Andrew Gennett, Lumberman. Edited by Nicole Hayler. Athens: University of Georgia, 2002. xix + 218 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. Cloth $34.95.

These two books provide very different perspectives, from two different time periods, on the logging and timber trade industries in the Pacific Northwest and the southeastern United States.	1
Margaret Elley Felt's Gyppo Logger paints a picture of an American family in the 1940s and 1950s; however, this is not the middle-of-the-twentieth-century America we know so well from television. Felt's family captures the sweat, grit, and undying determination to realize the dream of surviving and succeeding as a small, independent business. Felt and her husband were equal partners in an independent contract outfit in the Pacific Northwest. Felt came reluctantly into the business but over the course of her tenure as equal business partner she reached a peace or truce with logging that so challenged her family physically, mentally, and fiscally.	2
The Felts's foray into independent contract work began in road building and land clearing in 1945. While both were thrilled to be in business for themselves, it was no easy go and times were tough. Felt points out the particular dangers involved in clearing stumps by the use of dynamite, as well as the toll it took on their equipment. They stayed with land clearing for about two years before switching to the logging business, but that proved to be even more challenging than land clearing. It required more equipment, which meant bigger loans and deeper debt, more manpower, greater skill, and more planning. The Felt family faced these challenges head-on.	. . .