Reading Portland is a literary exploration of the citys past and present. In over eighty selections, Portland is revealed through histories, memoirs, autobiographies, short stories, novels, and news reports. This single volume gives voice to women and men; the colonizers and the colonized; white, Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Indian storytellers; and lower, middle, and upper classes.
In his introduction, John Trombold considers the history of writing about a place that has nourished a provocative and errant literary tradition for over 150 years. In the preface, Peter Donahue considers the influence of region--particularly Portlands urbanity and its hybrid population--on literature.
Included here are the voices of Carl Abbott, Kathryn Hall Bogle, Beverly Cleary, Robin Cody, Lawson Fusao Inada, Rudyard Kipling, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joaquin Miller, Sandy Polishuk, Gary Snyder, Kim Stafford, Elizabeth Woody, and many more.
The Pull of the Rivers: A Preface, by Peter Donahue / xvAcknowledgments / xxiReading Portland: An Introduction, by John Trombold / xxiii
Early Portland: Muddy Streets and DestinyMATTHEW DEADY / 3Portland-on-Wallamet
