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LETTERS
To the Editor:
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In my continuing quest for information on Edward Bellamy and the interest in his work in the Pacific Northwest (see "Looking Backward at Edward Bellamy's Impact in Oregon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 10 4:1 Spring 2003), I was pleased to discover that The Bookman: A Literary Journal, published monthly by Dodd, Mead & Company in New York, regularly printed listing of sales of books during the month for several U.S. and Canadian cities. The report for new books sold between August 1, 1897, and September 1, 1897, published in the October 1897 issue (vol. 6, no. 2) includes Portland, Oregon, as one of the thirty-one locations with sales data (p. 173). The number one book in sales as reported by "leading booksellers" in Portland for that month was Bellamy's recently published Equality, the sequel to his utopian novel, Looking Backward 2000–1887 (1888). Several other locations, including Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Louisville, Providence, Toledo, and Toronto, have Equality in the top six titles sold that month, but Portland was the only location with the novel being the number one seller. This is reflective in some way of a continuing interest in Bellamy's work in the region. |
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It is also interesting to note what other titles were best sellers in Portland at this time. The other five books on the list during August 1897 in order of sales were The Martian, by George Du Maurier, From the Land of the Snow Pearls: Tales from Puget Sound, by Ella Higginson, The Choir Invisible, by James Lane Allen, Soldiers of Fortune, by Richard H. Davis, Jerome, A Poor Man: A Novel, by Mary Eleanor Wilkins, and Wolfville, by Alfred H. Lewis (Dan Quin). The next month's listing for Portland (September 1897) shows Equality at the number four position in sales with Quo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz, taking over the number one position while the works by Wilkins, Allen, Higginson, and Davis remained in the top six. By the October 1897 listing for Portland, Equality is no longer in the top six; Quo Vadis retains the number one position and two works by Rudyard Kipling had moved into the top sales — Captains Courageous at number two and The Seven Seas at number five. |
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This is only a small measure of interest in Bellamy's work, but it is an intriguing glimpse into the reading interests of Portland near the end of the nineteenth century.
James J. Kopp
Aurora, Oregon |
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CORRECTIONS
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"Making 'Good Music': The Oregon Symphony and Music Director Jaques Singer, 1962–1971," published in the Spring 2008 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly (10 9:1), contained errors on pages 68 and 72. The Oregon Symphony played at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and John Trudeau started the symphony's Portland Pops series in 1961.
The editor regrets the errors. |
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To the Editor:
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Knowing how important historians regard getting the facts straight, I feel compelled to point out an omission in the Spring 2008 Quarterly. |
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The article states that Norman Leyden was the founder of the Portland Pops series in 1968, but I was actually the founder of the Portland Pops in 1961. My appointment as Associate Conductor of the Portland Symphony (now the Oregon Symphony) carried with it the express assignment to create this extension of symphony activities. I was a former Bostonian, and the Symphony Society was aware that I had been promoting this idea for some time and that my association with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler provided me with the background needed to bring the program to fruition. |
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Once approved, the symphony's board of directors appointed several people to work with me, and I was encouraged to augment this "Pops Committee" with an equal number of friends in the community who I knew had expressed enthusiasm for the development of such an extension of the symphony season. My departure at the end of the third season resulted from my already invested interest in the founding of the Britt Music Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon. Sam McKinney, who had been involved in the Pops Committee, played a very important role in this enterprise as well. |
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In retrospect, I regard the Portland Pops as a very important event in my professional life and one that I will always take pride and satisfaction in having accomplished. And, I'm very pleased that Norm Leyden was my successor and carried it forward for so many years. My wife and I have known and been friends with Norm and Alice for many years and, I'm pleased to say, that friendship continues.
John Trudeau
Portland, Oregon |
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